The BR55 Battle Rifle

“There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?“ I have loved Halo since first playing it on Christmas morning of 2001. Hundreds of hours spent at LANs with friends, thousands over Xbox LIVE, and a several midnight launches later, the magic of Halo CE-3 still holds true to this day. Nearly two decades after first experiencing what Combat Evolved was like, I am finally able to hold a piece of the franchise that shaped my childhood in my hands. It took countless hours and more money than I’d ever admit, but I can finally reveal to Youtube the world’s first BR55*. There is an asterisk there for a reason. Many over the years have modified existing rifles to resemble the weaponry from Halo, and I think those projects are absolutely awesome. The passion on display is obvious for everybody to see. That being said, I wanted to do something more purpose built -something more bespoke. This rifle is as close to a perfect replica as possible to what is shown in-game, down to the working ammo counter that interfaces with a ’smart’ magazine. So while this might not be the first video with the title on Youtube, I feel confident in saying this is the world’s first purpose built BR55 from the ground up. It is an accomplishment I am proud to show to you all, and I hope you enjoy the video. EDIT: I should mention that while I’m not an engineer, I do have quite an extensive collection of unique and bizarre firearms. I view them like a mechanical library of sorts and frequently take them apart to learn about new mechanisms and ways to do things. So while I might not be traditionally trained, I was not a ’new’ firearms owner or new to the mechanical nature of firearms when I started this project. I have nearly 15 years of experience tinkering with my own firearms. Also just to make it clear, no plans for a production run! That would require getting an FFL which is a LOT of paperwork and time as a manufacturer. This isn’t my job, it’s a passion project. I already run several businesses and have more (non-firearms) related projects in the works. I simply don’t have the time to make these to sell, even if Microsoft was okay with it. I do not intend to run afoul with the ATF by manufacturing with the intent to sell without a license. Speaking of staying legal, this rifle is NOT burst fire. It is not an NFA weapon. It has a surprisingly crisp and light semi-auto trigger that allows for very quick follow up shots. It makes it very easy to do semi-auto “bursts“. The EWS Bolt Carrier inside this rifle does not have a mechanism to trip an auto sear. A follow up video with more information (and a lot more shooting) is planned, so like and subscribe if you’d like to see more!