Fresh off Darth Vader's weapons rack: JP's Competition Tactical Rifle has what it takes to compete or survive close encounters of the ballistic kind.

The barrel has an integral muzzlebrake, and, as with all muzzlebrakes, it makes shooting easier but makes spotting for the shooter, well, interesting. As long as you don't stand, sit or lie down in the backblast you'll be fine. If you are in the blast path you'll know it immediately. The brake works so well you can easily spot your own hits on steel plates from watching the puff of paint and lead created by the hit.

The gas block is a JP block with a gas-system adjustment nut. You can open or close the gas system to tune it with the ammo you've found to be most accurate and to help dampen recoil a bit. I found it accurate with a wide variety of ammo. The handguard has the JP short-range sight mounted forward and at about 2 o'clock relative to the line of sight. Rather than try to use the Acog on very close targets, just rotate the rifle slightly on your shoulder to bring the short-range irons in line, and you've got a super-fast sight to nail close targets. The handguard also has sling-swivel hardware that can be loosened and slid along the cooling slots to locate your sling (or other gear) wherever you want.

If you don't want to shoot with optics, the upper receiver and adjustable gas block have rails, and you can attach regular or folding sights. Those who shoot in USPSA Limited Division in three-gun matches, or enter tactical matches that require iron sights, can easily bolt on sights.

The upper has no dustcover in the ejection port, nor a forward assist. Keep it relatively clean, and it won't fail you. Neglect it, and it probably will.

The stock has yet another trick custom feature: a magazine holder. The holder clamps on the ribs of the magazine to hold it in place. I couldn't get the magazine to jar loose with any kind of running, jumping or inadvertent barricade bashing. It will stay put in a match. I'm not so sure it would survive a parachute drop, but since I don't do that, and this rifle is meant for matches and perhaps automobiles, I see the magazine staying securely attached. To reload, just get your fingers on the end of the magazine, tip the mag and holder out of the stock a bit (the whole rod the rail is attached to pivots), and then yank it free. The buttplate is adjustable for drop and cant. If you find that you can't get a standard buttstock comfortably on your shoulder, the JP unit can be adjusted to fit you. On the exposed buffer tube is a foam-rubber sleeve that works brilliantly as a cheekpiece.

The trigger John sent me in this rifle is a prototype of his new drop-in unit. On all other ARs you have to tune and adjust the trigger by making adjustments, assembling, checking, disassembling and making yet more adjustments. There are some triggers where you can make basic adjustments with the trigger assembled.

In the new JP unit, you can do all your adjustments with the entire fire-control unit out of the rifle yet still assembled. Once it is to your liking, press the assembled block down into the lower, push the cross pins through, and stick on their C-clips to prevent walking. If you want to take it out for cleaning, you take off the C-clips, press the pins out and remove the whole assembly. You can soak it to clean it and rest secure in the knowledge that you haven't made any changes to your settings. As the one John sent broke at a nice, crisp three pounds, I didn't have any desire to go fiddling with it just to see how the adjustments worked.

But enough of the drooling over looks; how does it shoot? To coin a phrase: like a house afire. I took it along on a class to see how it handled, and once I'd verified the zero, I shot it through a few drills. As you can imagine, using a rifle this sophisticated on a state qualification course is like slinging a Lamborghini through a patrol-car road course. It was almost like cheating; the rifle almost won't let you miss, and I shot a passing score.

SOURCES American Spirit Arms Brownells Inc. Dave Manson Precision DPMS EGW EoTech GG&G Gradient Lens Corp JP Enterprises Uncle Mikes Vltor

To give the JP a better workout, I then took it to the next range and shot the National Guard 300-meter popup course. There, you get hit-sensitive plastic targets that a computer stands up each in turn, from 50 to 300 meters. If you hit it, the computer hauls down the target and gives you credit. If you miss, it leaves each up until time expires, then hauls it down and gives you a zero on that target. From the concrete foxhole, I got 20 hits on 20 targets--too easy. So I switched to the left shoulder and shot the whole course again from the weak side--again, too easy as I went 20 for 20.

OK, let's see if I can show off. I shot the course standing and once again posted a 20-20. I figured 60 straight hits was enough, and I quit. A few others in the class also had a go with it and commented favorably on the looks, trigger, optics and performance.

Back at my home range, close drills showed the superiority of the iron sights on the handguard to the optics. With the 20-inch barrel, it is a bit long to fit some rifle racks, but JP will gladly make you one with a 16-inch barrel if that's what you need. For street or range, the JP delivers.