I metaphorically stumbled on some pics of the GR-115 in use with some English police today, which is mostly ‘just another AR’, though I must admit I do find it interesting and personally I hope to get hands on one. Then when I went down the inevitable rabbit hole of looking at other images of the 115, I found these close-ups of the factory pistol grip, which were taken at the world famous Cody Firearms Museum – and then the airsoft nerd in me was also activated.
What’s happened here? This is my theory:
PTS had the Magpul replication license for airsoft for a few years, until some time in the early 10s. When that was withdrawn they went away and worked up their own accessories like stocks, mags and grips using the excellent plastic formula they already had, but with new aesthetics of course. The one product I’ll say that didn’t change much was where they went from the MOE pistol grip to the EPG, basically the same shape just a new texture and outer surface. Which makes sense in terms of grip design.
At the time (mid 10s by now), the Glock Gen 4 was pretty new and the frame of it had a grid pattern that had clearly evolved from the RTF2 frames sold for Gen 3 Glocks. That pattern wasn’t too rough or sandpaper-y, yet also worked very well when gripped firmly. That G4 texture clearly inspired the EPG. Which again is a pretty good decision from an ergonomic design perspective.
Separately, the 115 has obviously been in development for an unknown number of years, probably started during the Gen 5 Glock era, with those pistols having the same grid textured frames as Gen 4s. Then much like S&W with the M&P-15 grips or HK with MR556s, Glock naturally gave their own AR a grip that mimicked their handguns.
Just an interesting coincidence end of the day.
Anyway if you want see more of the actual GR-115 just search it up, there are a few decent quality images floating around these days.
Leave a Reply