Century Arms sues XTech Tactical over trade dress of US Palm

In the aftermath of US Palm going under, XTech Tactical has been working with the molders for US Palm's plastic parts.  The molders were told that they couldn't sell their thousands of excess US Palm magazines by what now appears to be Century Arms, so XTech Tactical and the molding company redesigned the magazines with improvements: a removable floorplate, improved texture, and metal reinforced feed lips (and had to destroy the old magazines in impressive fashion).  Today word came from social media accounts and Soldier Systems that Century Arms since they now own the rights to the US Palm brand is attempting a Glock style trade dress suit against XTech.  This isn't due to any patents or other intellectual property, just that the product has the same "distinctive" look to what is now their brand.

XTech Tactical is also about to release their US Palm style grips with storage doors (which the originals are often bringing $100+ prices).  Honestly, I was waiting for these grips to come out before I placed my order of Mag47 magazines since I have a decent number of original US Palm AK30s.  When word came of the suit, I ordered some magazines from XTech.  While I am somewhat worried about another small company having the same issues of US Palm, I still feel we need to support AK companies that support us with great products.  Century Arms certainly is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and can make the US Palm brand last if they really want to, but they have always had issues with customer service and overall quality, which was my first worry when I heard they officially had restarted the brand.   They are apparently still months from coming to market with their US Palm products.

Right now, XTech is actually on the market with their products and is very much customer focused.  I put a note of support and my Instagram account name (MattCFII) since they have been very active answering my questions in comments there.  Within minutes, I had a DM saying thanks for the order. The magazines themselves have been getting excellent reviews, like from RobSki at AKOU.  I can't wait to get mine!

Chiappa RAK-22 and Blackdog Machine WASR22 magazine mods update

Saw your comment and email Tony, making a new post to add pictures.  Again, problem is that they won't fully seat enough to let the mag latch to come forward.

When I ordered the RAK-22, I also ordered two Blackdog Machine magazines. I was going to order more but chickened out at the last mibute concerned about them fitting.  BDM is quite clear to call if you aren't sure about a magazine, but they answer my first call and since I'm always paranoid about getting things when in stock I figured I'd take the gamble on just 2.  I've since called and told them that they don't fit out of the box but it looks like they will after some file/Dremel work.  I used the first 2 magazines as the experiment, but now I'm confident enough they can be made to work, so I ordered 5 more (plus another extractor, even though I still have a TurboThis spare too).

I have tried changing the front lug and front top of the magazine, but it had feeding issues.  So the rear lug changes seem to be the best for feeding, but you have to remove a lot of material and you will be sacrificing lug strength, which is why I tried the other way too.  So far I have not been able to get either magazine to seat without pushing the magazine latch forward, but I think I will be able to when I do a little more work.  I'm still in the testing phase and have 5 more magazines to do, so I'll keep you posted.  If anybody out there has a RAK-22 and a factory metal or plastic 10 round magazines, please try them in the RAK-22 too.

Chiappa RAK-22

Since I also have my posts of the AKT-98 and M10-22 parts comparison, I'm making a post with the Chiappa RAK-22.  Overall, glad to see another AKT-98/WASR22/RPK22/M10-22 platform rifle.  It has nice wood.  On the downside, the gas block and the rear sight block are roughly cast metal, but this should be perfectly fine on a .22LR.  It is still better than a Mossberg Blaze 47, GSG AK-47, or Armscor AK-22 in my opinion.  Biggest downside right now is that Black Dog Machine magazines will not fully seat with the rear mag latch not going forward but this doesn't seem to be just due to the rear mag lug.  Exploratory Dremel surgery is happening on the mags! This post is mostly so I can post a link at forums for the pictures, but if please post even a simple comment if you are an old reader and would still read things here.