MGI Hydra

Looking at one of these as a nice 9mm carbine alternative. Like how easily they break down. Not a huge fan of the interchangability (nice but who actually does it). Should be MD cash and carry (the 5.56 version should be as well).

Who has one? They have been around a long time.

Jimbob2.0 said:

Looking at one of these as a nice 9mm carbine alternative. Like how easily they break down. Not a huge fan of the interchangability (nice but who actually does it). Should be MD cash and carry (the 5.56 version should be as well).

Who has one? They have been around a long time.

Click to expand...

hopefully this will get a bump in the thread. i too am curious to know if anyone has had any experience with the rifle, if so, is it worth the price? thanks.

I have one with a grease gun magwell and a 5" barrel (SBR of course). I had a 7.62x39 magwell that worked just fine but sold it. Very easy to switch magwell and never misses a beat function wise. I think another manufacture is selling MGI under their brand name now, Windham maybe, can't remember. its a cool piece, I'm happy with it.

I have a Hydra. I have several calibers, several bolts, several magwells for it and I'm a fan! It works very well as a basic rifle, but the flexibility is really worth the few extra bucks. Part of the beauty of this system is that it can accept about any barrel that you can fit into an AR. In fact for most calibers, it's simply a matter of buying a barrel and gas system. Some calibers need a different bolt, but there are, if I'm not mistaken, only five possibilities for AR bolts. It also works really well with the UNIMAG, which handles several different calibers.

The main problem with this concept is that the barrel flange thickness spec for AR barrels in general is a little loose. I'm talking about the thickness of the rib on the barrel that goes between the front of the upper receiver and the barrel nut. In any other AR, it doesn't matter if it's a little thicker or thinner than the spec because you take up the difference with the barrel nut threads. In the Hydra design, however, the space between the cams operated by those locking levers and the front of the upper is not variable, so if your barrel flange is a little thick, they can be hard or impossible to close. Similarly, if your barrel flange is a little thinner than spec, there is some play between the barrel and receiver. It's not a safety issue because even if that connection is loose the bolt will still lock into the barrel extension and headspace correctly, but it can effect accuracy. I did have to shim a couple of the barrels I use to remove any free play.

I have a red dot sight on mine as well as a set of MBUS, and I would still say I'm getting about the expected accuracy out of 5.56, 7.62x39 and .300 BLK, but you should manage your expectations with this system. You can put a 6.5 Grendel barrel & bolt on a Hydra, but it probably won't be an 800-meter gun.

By the way, the Windham Weaponry MCS components are fully compatible with the Hydra, and are cheaper and more readily available.

There was some talk from MGI about offering other magwells for this, but for the most part they never appeared in the market. I'm doing some engineering, and will shortly produce some prototypes, that should enable options like 10mm/.45 Glock magazines, 7.62x51 (coupled to an AR-10 upper of course), and possibly dual-mag options like one magwell that could take either Colt or Glock mags for 9mm, or similarly, Glock or grease gun mags for .45 ACP. Unless I can interest Windham or MGI in partnering, I'm sure I couldn't offer them commercially without violating existing patents, but it will be interesting to see what I can turn out for my own use.

Anyway Jimbob, happy to answer any further questions if I can.

RazorV23, if you ever think of selling yours, do let me know!

That's Matt. Ive sort of moved on with the proliferation of low cost lowers and a general concensus that calibers other than 5.56 do not have "exchangeable parts" and don't trigger the pre FSA issues. So it makes sense to just get more lowers that result in more rifle builds as opposed to exchanging mag wells. I have plenty of pre and post FSA lowers to balance.

That said in a different situation where ownership of lowers was limited this could be a very good feature. It was very attractive back in the "ban" days.

I too also have the mgi which are also sbr'ed. I wish I was able to get more of of the different magwells, though. At one point they were to offer a m1a magwell however that never came to being.