This pistol might be better than a unicorn flavored lollipop. Or at least, nearly that good. It is in fact one of the highest quality AR style pistols on the market today. It is incredibly light weight, easy to handle, and it’s packed with features that you simply can’t obtain on other rifles or pistols, at any price. Keep reading for my full review.
I purchased this firearm about three months ago, and it was on a short list of AR style pistols that I was considering purchasing for a new home defense setup. I considered the Sig MCX Rattler, Daniel Defense DDM4v7, and some Noveske offerings. I wanted something that was reliable, light weight, and 300 Blackout, as it has some significant ballistic advantages in shorter barreled applications.
After doing more research than I would care to disclose, I settled on the Patriot Ordinance Factory (POF) Renegade Plus. POF is known for making high quality piston guns, but I already have a few of those, and I wanted something a little lighter and easier to handle which pushed me towards this direct impingement gun. Here are a few of the key features that pushed me to select the POF Renegade Plus.
- Dictator Gas Block
- E2 Chamber
- Ambidextrous Controls
- Tight Upper/Lower Tolerances
- SBA3 Brace
- Bolt Hold Open
- Finned Barrel Nut
Admittedly, it can be hard to choose an AR style firearm due to the huge variety of features, so I tend to prioritize them in order of importance. A self defense weapon needs to be reliable above all else. This firearm has several features that increase reliability.
The main feature, that increases reliability, is the innovative chamber design. POF calls this their E squared chamber. Essentially, they leave small channels in the chamber of the firearm that allows gas to vent around the cartridge case, preventing it from sticking to the wall, thus becoming difficult to extract.
The Renegade also has a nine position gas block, which allows you to tune the amount of gas needed to operate the system, in any configuration. You can shoot supersonic, subsonic, and suppressed, or both with a turn of the gas block. This is one of the features I like on piston guns, and it’s very nice to have on a DI gun as well.
The Renegade Plus also has ambidextrous controls which are not strictly necessary, but they do make things easier, especially when clearing malfunctions, or running the firearm on your weak side.
I can also say that the machining tolerances are very high quality on this firearm. There is no play between the upper and lower receiver, and the magazine catch reliably holds the magazine without excessive force being applied to full magazines. Let me tell you that sounds trivial, but I’ve shot very expensive rifles that wouldn’t engage the magazine without jamming it into the mag well.
Lastly, this pistol has a few other nice to have features, like the finned barrel nut. This creates a large surface area where the barrel attaches to the upper receiver, and helps dissipate heat that builds up from long, rapid strings of fire.
It also has a bolt hold open feature which allows you to lock the action to the rear with a push up on a lever in the trigger guard. This obviates the need for something like a Magpul B.A.D lever. These features, along with the excellent SBA3 brace, made it a top contender.
If you like fitness, shooting, and tactical things, then put your email below and you will get the articles sent to you as soon as they are released!
Testing the POF Renegade Plus
As anyone who’s shot enough can tell you, just because something looks good on the interwebz doesn’t mean it will perform well for your specific use. Personally, I won’t trust a defensive firearm unless it will feed 500 rounds with no cleaning, in conditions that it’s likely to see.
Even with ammo shortages I managed to lay my hands on some good old 125 and 150 grain supersonic 300 blackout ammo and I headed to the range.
The first thing I noticed, when sighting in my Trijicon MRO, is that this rifle does have a bit more felt recoil than my piston 5.56 guns. Using my non calibrated shoulder, I would say it has something like 20% more recoil. Follow up shots were just as fast, but required a little more control to keep the dot from dancing off target.
All 500 rounds cycled flawlessly with multiple shooters having a go on the gun. You can see the photos of the bolt carrier group after 500 rounds, and you can see it’s dirty, but still functional, which is impressive considering I only cleaned the factory grease off and lubed it once. I did have the pistol grip loosen up at around 300 rounds, but that was quickly remedied with a little screw driver action.
So far I’ve only tested this weapon with supersonic ammo and it held 2 ish MOA groups which is plenty accurate for this pistol’s intended purpose. I’m sure if I cared to tinker around with different bullet weights and ammo types I could print some better groups, but I’m not that type of weirdo.
I found that the gun will heat up after 100 rounds or so. It wasn’t hot enough that I couldn’t hold it with bare hands, but any more than three magazines in less than 5 minutes caused it to get to the point where you’d want to wear gloves to shoot it more. This is one difference between my piston guns and this DI gun. Piston guns just shoot cooler.
I will also say that while the rail is good quality and useful, I wish it included MLOK slots on the 2,4,8, and 10 o’clock positions. Moreover, I don’t think the 6 o’clock picatinny rail section is that useful on a pistol this length. It’s really meant for mounting a bipod, and that isn’t likely on a 10.5 inch gun. Before we go any further, we should probably talk about the trigger.
The flat trigger is the perfect weight for a defensive or duty setup up. I’ve shot AR’s with 2 pound triggers and they are not suitable for anything other than competition or plinking, as an aggressive sneeze will cause a round to fire. This pistol has around a 4-5 pound pull that breaks very cleanly with no staging or take up.
I’ve also found the Tomahawk charging handle to be very easy to grip, and it, like the other controls, can be manipulated with one hand on either side. If you like the charging handle you can actually get it for any AR as POF sells it and other parts separately as well.
POF Renegade Plus Setup
You can see from the photos that I’ve opted to keep my setup for this rifle very clean and simple. I’ve only added an Arisaka picatinny finger stop, the Surefire Scoutlight Pro, and the Trijicon MRO. I might change a few things down the road but these are plenty to allow me to control the pistol, ID targets out to 100 yards day or night, and hit what I’m aiming at.
I’m considering adding a back up aiming solution, possibly a visible laser, as I think it can have an excellent deterrence effect in a self defense situation, but I’m not quite sold on that yet. Personally I don’t plan on adding any iron sights as I can’t really imagine an engagement where I couldn’t aim through the window of the optic and make acceptable hits in a self defense situation.
Now hold on there Gerald, I know it sounds like voodoo, but next time you’re at the range try shooting at targets, less than 15 yards distance, with your red dot turned off. You’ll find you can still hit very well if you have a solid index. Of course you should do this safely or not at all. You can’t trust internet people for advice after all.
The only other option for the Renegade might be a LAW tactical folder. This would allow me to carry the pistol in a more discrete bag, that doesn’t scream long gun case. Personally, I never feel comfortable leaving guns in cars, but if you have to it’s best to leave it in a container that is locked or at least doesn’t advertise what is inside.
Final Thoughts
This gun is perfect for my intended use. It meets my reliability requirements. It’s light weight, and very maneuverable. It can get a little hot after a lot of rounds, but that is less of a consideration for a defensive application. If I’m shooting hundreds of rounds in less than five minutes I’ve probably got bigger problems than warm hands.
I purchased the POF Renegade for right around $1800, which seems to be the going rate for this rifle. I strongly recommend this rifle to anyone looking for a similar application. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have any questions or comments leave them below.
Don’t forget to Join the Tier Three Team, and get all the latest article sent to you!
Any links to Brownells or Ranier Arms are affiliate links. This means if you purchase anything from them you are supporting us at no cost to yourself. They pay us for the referral. It helps keep the lights on here.
