The M17 was initially designed by an Australian company, ArmsTech, in the early 1980's. They hoped to submit a assault rifle for the Australian weapons trials, going up against the Austrian Styer AUG. The AUG won and Armstech closed their doors. All right to the design was sold to Edenpine, who tried to further develop the weapon. Edenpine ultimately sold the rights to Bushmaster in the mid 1990's, just prior to the Assault Weapons Ban. The new weapon was designated the Bushmaster M17S. In 2005 the M17S was retired from production due to lack luster sales.

The M17S is a gas operated, short stroke piston bullpup, based on the AR18/AR180 operating system. The bolt rides on dual recoil guides and springs. The charging handle is located at the rear of the carrying handle, making it a little cumbersome. The bullpup suffers from poor fixed sights, also located atop the carrying handle. The very short sight radius makes for a poor sight picture and inherent inaccuracy. Optics, of some sort,  are a must. Also embedded in the charging handle is a picatinny rail, just for such optics. However, the line of sight is now so high, it difficult obtaining a good cheek weld and posture. The trigger linkage is also a weak point. With the trigger so far in-front of the bolt and chamber area, a wire linkage is used to transmit the trigger pull back to the hammer and disconnector. This makes for a "mushy" trigger pull.

With all its faults, the M17S is still one of my favorite weapons, and I take it out often. Below are images of the original M17S prior to mag well changes intended to more securely hold the magazine.

Below is a later, improved version, with extended mag well to eliminate magazine movement. Personally, I like the original design and I haven't had any feeding problems.

 Discontinuation Notice