Featured DIY Rifle Origami: Big Power that Fits in Small Packages David Lane October 22, 2026 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. Miniaturization is one of the unsung heroes of our age. The ENIAC computer of the 1940s was the size of a literal house and weighed 30 tons. An iPhone 17 is less than half a pound, and has, literally, five billion times the processing power. Making a thing is hard, but making it small is often times much harder. The U.S. Air Force needed a small rifle, one small enough to fit under an ejection seat. They used to use pistols—but why do that if you can do it with a rifle? Their answer was the GAU-5A, but instead of just getting one of those I decided to make an inspired-by version of my own. I love small rifles, but I like building them just as much. Easy to pack, easy to shoot, and small rifles tickle a part of my brain that nothing else can reach. Playing rifle origami to see exactly how small something can be and still be effective is a tricky game, but one that’s a lot of fun if you can pull it off. Any gun can be smaller, but making a gun smaller and flatter is a little harder. Small, flat, and doesn’t give up much in the way of optics is nearly impossible. But let’s try. Folded up and ready to be tucked anywhere it’s needed. THE BUILD Palmetto State Armory JAKL Barrel Length: 10.5 inches Caliber: 5.56 Capacity: 30 Weight (unloaded): 9 pounds, 1 ounce Height: 9 inches Width: 3 inches MSRP: $999 Blem PSA JAKL 5.56 Pistol, Black $999.99 Palmetto State Armory $999.99 Prices accurate at time of publishing. Affiliate disclosure. Accessories: SIG Sauer Romeo 4T-Pro: $550 Unity Tactical FAST Micro: $200 Unity Tactical FAST FTC 4X: $746 Jaguar Silencers Fatty Ti: $980 A3 Industries MTB: $250 Streamlight TLR-VIR II: $400 Gun Guardian: $70 Walker Defense Research NILE Rail Covers: $60 Lancer Systems 10-round Magazine: $25 Price as configured: $4,380 The USAF GAU-5A gets small and flat by using a 12.5-inch barrel with a takedown system that quick-detaches from the rest of the rifle along with a folding pistol grip to reduce size even more. We actually covered it in the last CONCEALMENT magazine. But with no optics, a takedown system like that is sort of annoying, leaving all of the working bits exposed to the dust and crud of life. Sure a GAU-5A clone is small, but not ideal if you don’t have the hard limits of an ejection seat footprint. So here the base is a Palmetto State Armory JAKL, a gun that does a lot with very little. The PSA JAKL is a bufferless AR cousin using a short-stroke piston and a very AR-18-ish bolt carrier. From the factory, these normally come with a folding stock or brace depending on the model. This makes for a compact package, but a thick one. Folding stocks are great, but doubling the width of your firearm doesn’t always make it compact; it just makes it shorter. Replace the factory folding brace with an A3 Industries Modular Telescoping Brace (MTB), and the JAKL remains flat. Telescoping stocks often get a bad rap because they can be uncomfortable to shoot. While this is absolutely true with some, especially when paired with higher-recoiling rifles, the A3 Industries MTB uses pretty beefy arms to keep the stock rock solid and minimize the discomfort. It’s not as comfortable as a B5 SOPMOD, but a SOPMOD can’t get this small. My face would regret this being on a larger caliber, but 5.56 NATO does just fine paired with the MTB. To really maximize how minimized this gun can be, a folding grip would be a nice touch. While the one used on the GAU-5A is an option, it’s really not high on our list of grips that are nice to shoot with. Another option is the Gun Guardian Multi-Functioning Grip. This combines a folding grip with a little added safety measure. In the folded position, the outer shell of the grip slides forward to completely protect the trigger area, much like a holster does on a pistol. Pinch the grip to release a safety catch, and the guardian slides down and the grip swings forward into position. Well-made, easy to use, and feels good to shoot with. The JAKL already has a standard AR-15 safety switch, but in a build designed to slide around in a bag, under a seat, or in the back of a truck, the Gun Guardian adds another layer of safety. Necessary? Maybe not, but it’s an interesting feature. Optics are a game changer and shouldn’t be overlooked. Even if you’re pretty handy with iron sights, optics are a major improvement. Personally, most of my ARs have some form of dot and/or magnifier combo. While this is great for getting the best of both worlds, a magnifier that flips to the side makes a gun thick again. But storing it with the magnifier up means a quick red dot shot at close range is made harder or slower. Answer: Unity Tactical FAST Flip-To-Center 4X. The FAST mount for the red dot gets the optic high enough for use with NVGs, and the FAST FTC 4X magnifier keeps the JAKL flat while providing storage options. Because the A3 Industries MTB can adjust for height on the back of the JAKL, getting it in the right place for the Unity Tactical is easy. Unity’s FAST FTC 4X is their popular FTC mount combined with an integrated Unity 4X magnifier. Overall, the magnifier is about what you should expect a good magnifier to be. Glass quality is solid for a 4x, but not insanely top-tier. Colors look good even at 600 yards, the chromatic aberration is pretty minimal, and the edge-to-edge clarity is great except for the final few percent at the far edges. Eye relief is longer than average and that’s a very good thing. Having tested just about every magnifier on the market, this one ranks in my top 5. One downside to the standard FAST FTC mount is that a normal magnifier ends up mounted upside down. This doesn’t make a huge difference since magnifiers are just magnifying, but it does make “zeroing” the dot inside the housing a little weird since the adjustments are backwards. This only means it takes an extra minute to do, but still. The Unity FAST FTC 4X solves this since it’s a dedicated, integrated magnifier and has the right/left, up/down adjustments in the correct place. Small, but nice. In front of the magnifier sits a SIG Sauer 4T Pro, one of the best dots to pair with a magnifier due to the ballistic marks in the reticle. A 10.5-inch barrel and telescoping brace is far from ideal for reaching out at distance, but this JAKL can do more than you might expect. Having some BDC dots that are visible and usable in the magnifier helps to get rounds out to range. The JAKL bolt and BCG have a distinctly AR-18 lineage. The lower is a standard AR-15 lower with a special bolt release and endcap. Unsuppressed guns are uncivilized. More than that, while ear pro is always in my car, in my go-bags, and really just never that far out of reach for me, a rifle that needs to be used quickly probably doesn’t have time for ear pro. A K-sized suppressor won’t be entirely hearing safe, but it’s a big step in the right direction for you and anyone around you. My choice for this build is the Jaguar Fatty Ti. 4.5-inches long, 2-inches on the OD, this suppressor is short and fat for more gas displacement. Expanded pockets and an “intermittent flow” layout, the rearward gas is minimal while keeping the sound way down. Out of a list of K-cans in my safe, this is one of my absolute favorites. Plus, it’s green, and so is the JAKL it’s on. Seeing in all lighting conditions is never a bad thing to have, and since this micro-JAKL already has optics that work well with my NVGs, why not capitalize on that with some IR light? Streamlight’s TLR-VIR II is really intended for pistols, but adding it to a compact rifle works really well. Only 300 lumens of white light put the TLR-VIR II at the low-end of the horsepower range for white lights, but 300 lumens is good enough for up close and is definitely better than nothing. The IR setting is a bit more powerful, but still not going to blow your hair back. Extended and ready to be fired, the JAKL gets on target quick. Upsides: it’s small, it’s easy to mount to the top rail so it doesn’t make the rifle thicker, it’s white light and IR, and it has an “off” setting so that bumping the switches won’t drain your battery while the rifle is in storage. For now, it gets the job done. Short-stroke pistons get hoter than DI systems at the gas block, combined with the fact that bare M-LOK doesn’t give much grip, and some rail covers are useful to mitigate both issues. Walker Defense Research NILE Silicon Carbide covers are always my first choice. ON THE RANGE Micro-JAKL gets a micro magazine to fit the aesthetic. 10-round Lancer magazine barely extends past the magwell and doesn’t extend past the folded grip, so the footprint is maintained. Kept “cruiser ready” with a mag in but the chamber empty; this can be stored almost anywhere and goes from compact storage to round on target in about 2.75 seconds. Pull the A3 MTB, push the grip forward into place, yank the charging handle. With some dry fire, this becomes smooth and fast. Overall, it shoots like a JAKL since it is a JAKL. Short-stroke piston and a good suppressor mean there is zero gas in your face, even with such a short barrel. This still has the polished milspec trigger the JAKL came with, so it’s not bad, but nothing to write home about either. It’s reliable and good enough. A3 telescoping brace with an almost-chin weld for the Unity FAST mount and SIG 4T Pro is great out to 100 rounds on full-size targets. Getting more range with the Unity 4x magnifier isn’t hard, but it quickly becomes a matter of staying stable on the gun with what is not a tight fit between body and brace. Tighter on the brace arm isn’t super comfortable, but looser makes hits at range harder. But this isn’t built for long range marksmanship to start with, so that’s no surprise. What this build turns out to be is more than the sum of its parts. It’s handy, easy to store, and quick to get out. With only ten rounds on tap, it’s good to keep a spare magazine nearby, but 10 rounds can still do a lot. The folded JAKL fits perfectly in the 5.11 LVC Covert Carry Pack 45L without looking out of place. “Truck gun” has a stigma attached, but for a gun kept in a small case that can be thrown in the back of your truck, under a seat, in a UTV, or, like where this lives most of the time, in a go-bag, this build hits every note I was looking for. LOOSE ROUNDS Improvements on this build might include switching the Streamlight TLR-VIR II for something like a Holosun IRIS-4 and just accepting the rifle is an inch wider, but that’s a personal preference. To keep it as flat as possible, I wouldn’t change anything. It’s compact, fast, and has a lot more features than you might expect. Perfect? No, but all builds are built on compromise. It scratches that small rifle itch—at least until it comes again. Why you can trust RECOIL Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyer’s guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. Our reviewers are the backbone of our operation and come from diverse shooting backgrounds: Former law enforcement, military veterans, competitive shooters, seasoned hunters and plain old firearms enthusiasts. Furthermore, we’re not just gun experts, but dedicated journalists who adhere to the strictest standards of our profession. At RECOIL, editorial independence is the foundation of everything we publish and the cornerstone of reader trust. Our editors, writers and content creators make all editorial decisions independently, free from outside influence. That boils down to: advertisers don’t dictate our coverage, the outcomes of our reviews or what we recommend in our buyer’s guides. First and always, our commitment is to our audience—ensuring every review and article is accurate, unbiased, and driven by real-world experience. Whether you’re selecting your next firearm, upgrading your gear, or exploring the latest innovations in the shooting world, RECOIL provides the trusted insights you need to make informed decisions. Learn more about our Editorial Standards and how we review products. NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Target Pack from RECOILFor years, RECOIL magazine has treated its readers to a full-size (sometimes full color!) shooting target tucked into each big issue. Now we've compiled over 50 of our most popular targets into this one digital PDF download. From handgun drills to AR-15 practice, these 50+ targets have you covered. Print off as many as you like (ammo not included). Get your pack of 50 Print-at-Home targets when you subscribe to the RECOIL email newsletter. We'll send you weekly updates on guns, gear, industry news, and special offers from leading manufacturers - your guide to the firearms lifestyle.You want this. Trust Us.
