The Maple Ridge Armoury (MRA) Renegade is a Canadian-made, manually-actuated, straight pull rifle in 223 sized family. Although it looks like an AR15, the lower receiver, upper receiver, and BCG are all proprietary and you can’t swap in AR versions of any of those. Note: the Maple Ridge Maverick, the 308-sized version, is coming in March 2021.
What’s this thing for?
In short, AR15’s were banned in Canada because gun control is religion for the Liberal party. For those of us with AR15’s, there are few platforms that take AR parts, so companies like MRA and SBI made straight pulls that take many of the old AR compatible parts. While the WK180C and WS-MCR both take some AR parts, I had some issues with trigger compatibility, and they need a very specific type of barrel (18.5″+ with carbine length gas system if you want to stay non restricted) that most people will not have on their newly prohibited ARs.
You can buy the MRA Renegade as a receiver set+parts kit, or as a fully built rifle. In this article, I’ll mostly assume that you’re building one from a receiver set.
MRA Renegade specific features
- Extended side charging handle that swaps left or right side
- Uses your recoil spring & buffer to send the bolt forward once you let go
- QD push button sling cup in the rear of the receiver
Picking a barrel for your MRA Renegade
Because it’s a manual action and not semi auto, you can go shorter than the 18.5″ length you’d be limited to if it was a semi auto. That’s great news for those with AR-compatible barrels that were 14.5″, 16″, etc. Most people will opt for a 5.56 chambering, but you could also do a short 300 blackout build, or go 6.5 Grendel for deer. Stick your gas block on backwards to stop the gas from coming out the gas hole.
Other parts
The rest is really determined by what kind of build you’re doing. With no gas system in the way, you can use a very trim forend. Might as well go for a nice trigger pack (Triggertech or even the inexpensive Rise Armament Super Sporting Trigger are great), grip (beavertail style grips can be used on this rifle) and stock to taste, and any AR-height optic and mounting system that you desire. The crappiest buffer & recoil spring will be fine: no sense going gucci on those.
Shooting the MRA Renegade
The action on the MRA Renegade is smooth. You pull the bolt back, release and get back on target. Controls are all familiar, mags drop free, everything does what you expect it to.
Downsides of the MRA Renegade
- Getting the bolt out requires removing the castlenut & buffer tube.
- Some people would like a bolt stop/release
Conclusion
IMO, most buyers of the Renegade will be those who have a newly prohib AR and want to use the parts on a non-prohibited rifle. It would be great as a fairly fast firing coyote rifle, though pretty expensive compared with a standard bolt action. They’ll also be a touch heavier than a regular bolt action rifle. This rifle was 3.8kg (8.3lbs) with a 1-4 scope on top, compared with 3.2kg (7 lbs) for a Savage Axis with a 3-9 scope on top.
It may also be a decent competition rifle in competitions where accuracy is much more important than fast firing. ie: Service rifle, Mapleseed Known Distance matches, etc.
