GForce’s American Jawbone PDW [REVIEW]

GForce Arms of Reno, Nevada, has certainly made a big splash by importing different firearms made in Turkey, but with tariff instabilities the importer from the Biggest Little City in the World is switching their sights to domestically produced firearms. This one is the Jawbone.

GForce famously uses Biblical nomenclature (see our article on the Rapture and the Exodus) but “Jawbone” sounds more like a Bluetooth earpiece offering. Yet if you turn to Judges 15:15, you’ll find Sampson:

“And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.”

GForce’s Jawbone is a blowback-operated AR-9-style pistol that uses a hybrid aluminum/polymer receiver. Chambered in 9mm, it takes Glock 17/19-style magazines and ships with a 32-rounder. An added feature is that the pistol grip can hold a spare mag and incorporates a magazine release within the grip (more on that later). An aluminum receiver extension allows for the mounting of a stabilizing brace.

The 4140 steel 5-inch barrel is threaded 1/2×28 TPI and is equipped with a blast diverter (which is easily removable so you can run a silencer). The upper and handguard are aluminum alloy but the lower is plastic.

As now expected, it ships with no sights, but it does have a full-length Picatinny rail across the upper. It uses a forward-mounted non-reciprocating charging handle that can be swapped to either side for left- or right-hand use. The magazine release and safety are both fully ambidextrous.

Weighing 5 pounds and just under 21 inches overall, this pistol is very handy and portable.

GETTING FAMILIAR

If you’re an AR shooter, most of the controls will all be very right there. If you’re looking at the Jawbone thinking you’ve seen it somewhere else before, you’re probably thinking of Foxtrot Mike.

The Jawbone is a collaboration, not a clone or copy. Foxtrot Mike makes the Jawbone uppers for GForce and licensed the hybrid lowers to them. If you like what you see here but want it more premium, get a Foxtrot Mike Mike-9.

Considering the very low price point, you might find it a surprise that the bolt locks on an empty magazine. This isn’t exactly all that common on carbine-style 9mm guns, especially paired with the ambi magazine release, ambi safety, and the non-reciprocating swappable charging handle. Advanced controls and features for bottom dollar.

The trigger is a flat-faced AR-type that breaks right around 4.5 pounds.

Braces are never really great, and this one broke just from light use. GForce says this one is from a company named Ace of Brace, but we couldn’t find a web presence at the time of writing. Either way, it shattered into three pieces just adjusting it. SB Tactical shipped us an SBA3  

OUTFITTING

We mounted a Lucid Optics E7 reflex sight in blue. It may seem unusual, but the idea is that blue is the fastest transmitted color in the visible spectrum and the wavelength is among the most easily refracted by the human eye. This particular optic has proven to be rugged and dependable, having been mounted on at least six different test guns.

For a silencer, a SilencerCo Osprey 2.0 was mounted. This is an eccentric style of can designed for use on a pistol with iron sights. You don’t need that here — it was picked because it’s quiet and tough.

ON THE RANGE

The Jawbone was tested with several different types of ammunition courtesy of our friends at Global Ordnance including Belom 124-grain FMJ and Igman 124-grain FMJ. 120 rounds of Winchester Ranger 147-grain JHP were used to test the silencer. GForce supplied some KCI Magazines, but thankfully we already had Glock OEM sticks and a Magpul drum to use. GForce said that they were going to be working with a new mag supplier in the future.

The Osprey kept the sound down on the subsonic 147-grains. Accuracy was good if not excellent, the Jawbone was lightweight yet easy to control. Paired with the Lucid E7 and the Osprey made this a fun one to shoot. A genuine stock instead of the brace and perhaps a binary or forced reset trigger would only enhance this one at the range, but as it is with an optic is really all you need for a good blasting session at the range.

The recoil is typical blowback 9mm. The trigger was easy to work, and there were no failures or malfunctions — of the gun itself.

No malfunctions of the gun, but maybe the user. Remember that spare magazine in the grip? The one that’s released like a normal pistol mag? If you run empty and drop the mag like a pistol (on your pistol?), the spare will go to the ground and not the empty. This happened twice, so the routine takes a little practice. Be mindful of this.

LOOSE ROUNDS

For a large-format pistol in a handgun cartridge (a pistol-caliber pistol?), it’s hard to beat the Jawbone for the price. Especially considering its reliability and accuracy. While you may get the same ballistics as a 5-inch handgun, the stability imparted by the brace and its ergonomic design will make your fired shots more accurate.

It may not be very concealable unless you’re wearing a huge coat and single-point sling, but it definitely meets the criteria for personal defense in the home — and is compact enough to securely store and maneuver in a vehicle, even with a silencer attached. GForce may have started with imported firearms, but their newer domestic offerings at low price points seem to be satisfying a growing segment of American shooters. It will be nice to see if this business model does well in the future.

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