Is This the Best Ambi AR-15? | San Tan Tactical Patrol Review

Welcome back everybody, Clint here today. Excited to be talking about a manufacturer that was a pioneer, if not one of the first, if not the first, to offer ambidextrous lower receivers in the AR platform. Of course, I'm talking about Santan Tactical out of Texas, and I have here in front of me their 12.5-inch pistol, their AR Patrol pistol. Yes, this is an AR pistol. Notice the brace, got it, cool. And I want to talk a little bit about this gun before we head out to the range and start running and gunning with it. So right out of the box, you're getting what I think to be a fantastic value. This gun is coming in just shy of $2,000 MSRP. So let's go ahead and go over some of the features and specs to see if you guys think it's worth it. Comment down below. Of course, I want to hear from you. So right out of the box, it is going to come with an A2 birdcage on the 12.5-inch barrel. I think that's honestly completely fine. I take that off and throw on whatever muzzle device I want. In this case, this is the Huxworks QD flash hider for the Flow 556K silencer. It is a 12.5-inch Rosco barrel that they have actually integrated from Sage Dynamics, and they had their input on this barrel. So it's an intermediate gas system. It's a little bit longer than carbine length, a little bit shorter than mid-length. For a 12.5-inch barrel, I think that's going to be pretty awesome. You're going to have the reliability, but you're also going to have a little bit softer shooting gun because of that little bit longer gas system other than a carbine or a pistol length, which we know to be very short, a little bit more abusive on the parts. You're going to notice, too, that you've got pretty much a decent size rail, length rail for a 12.5-inch barrel. I've got the Magpul angled foregrip here. Sitting on top is Santan's iron sights. Yes, it ships with iron sights, which I think, again, is pretty awesome if you ask me. Coming back on the upper receiver, we do have 7075 T6 aluminum. So, again, we've got something that is quality. And if I show the opposite side here, and let me move my Tek-10 sling out of the way, you're going to notice that you've got these attractive-looking cuts and everything else. That's not just for looks. However, that's also for weight reduction and increased rigidity. So great work again by Santan. Santan, by the way, I first met these guys at SHOT Show this past year. Great group of dudes. Santan Tactical has also merged with CMC Triggers. So if you don't know who Santan is, you most likely have heard of CMC Triggers and their phenomenal triggers that they make. Speaking of which, getting a little ahead of myself, the trigger that comes in this as of right now is their Combat Curve trigger, which is a 3.5-pound trigger. However, they are actually upgrading to their LCT or their Loose Components trigger, which I have installed recently now in my Daniel Defense M4A1R3. You'll notice I've got the flat-face model here. Really excited to be showing that off to you guys later. Also, about a 3.5- to 4-pound trigger. And they're calling it their Loose Component trigger because, as you guys know, CMC Triggers for the longest time have been making cassette-style triggers, just those drop-ins. Well, now they've got the Loose Component trigger that you see in the Daniel Defense. All right, continuing on. I've already talked about the ambidextrous controls, or at least Santan being a pioneer in the ambi lower receivers. So, I can go ahead and show those controls off to you really quick. You're going to notice all the controls on this are extremely tactile and very ergonomic. So, every little thing from just the fill, the... What's the word I'm looking for? Almost like golf-ball-like texture on the mag release, on the forward assist, on the right-side bolt release, also on the left-side mag release. The only thing that's kind of basic on this gun is the standard bolt release bolt catch. That's the one thing that I kind of wish maybe that they would have put in something with a little bit larger surface area or something along those lines. But at the end of the day, it works. It's fine. It's not that big of a deal. And you can probably add your own aftermarket one if you wanted to anyway. So, everything else about it though, pretty freaking awesome. Ambi safety, of course, short throw, 45 degree, as you can see there. And just to show you guys also, I mean, this, not a lot of pressure to send that bolt home, which is great under stress, things like that. If you're like me and you want to pocket this mag, let's say you're empty, while I'm inserting fresh mag, I've got this one that I can take in the dump pouch, whatever it is, I can go ahead and send that bolt home, which of course I can show you guys a couple of drills like that at the range. Again, the trigger in this one, that combat curve, three and a half pound, I can go ahead and show you guys what that looks like really quick. So, move the sling again out of the way. So right here, I'm going to go ahead and start applying a little bit of pressure. Yeah, there's pretty much no travel there. And then the reset, super short. That's going to for some really quick, accurate follow-up shots that I am excited to be showing you guys here in just a moment. I do have sitting on top of the T-marked upper, that's engraved T markings there for your optic placement, just a basic aim point, red dot sight, this is their Duty RDS. Now coming back a little bit further, charging handle, obviously I don't have a magazine in there, so it's not going to lock to the rear by itself. The charging handle is from Griffin Armament. This is their snatch charging handle, which is designed to, well, help reduce some of those gases coming back into your face if you're shooting suppressed. I do have a flow-through silencer that I'm going to be mounting on here, so it's probably not that big of a deal, but it's nice to have those gases captured and retained within the upper or coming out the bolt carrier side of things, or at least out the muzzle and not coming back into the shooter's face, because that's just not comfortable. All right, cool. And let's see if I can find that bolt. There it is. Cool. Coming back a little bit further, you're also going to notice that internally we have BCM's Mark II buffer system. So this is an A5 buffer tube, which is a little bit longer than your standard. So you'll notice when I have the SV-A5 brace fully collapsed, it's going to have a little bit more room here than what you would typically see if it were to be flush mounted. That's, again, to help reduce a little bit of that felt recoil, so you have something a little bit smoother cycling and overall just feeling a little bit better. Now, if you did get the SBR model, this would come with the B5 system stock, does come with the B5 system's grip, which is fantastic. Great undercut underneath here. So if you're shooting gloved, again, enlarged trigger guard and all that, if you are shooting gloved, it's not going to be cumbersome to get to the controls, to the trigger or anything like that. Another really neat feature, it just goes to show that Santan has pretty much thought about everything when it comes to this gun is even somewhere for your trigger finger, as a righty at least, to rest. There's a little recessed area right back here on the mag well that just allows me to rest my finger here instead of on the mag release, instead of on the bolt release, instead of on the trigger, so it's just a comfortable thing. And then when I'm ready to engage, flipping that trigger or flipping that safety down and then hopping right onto the trigger is easy enough to do. Something else to the bolt and bolt carrier on here, it's just extremely well made. It's ultimately designed for short barrels and suppressor use, so hard use at the end of the day. You're going to notice that it does have a DLC coat to it, so it's extremely smooth, which is going to of course make a nice cycling gun. And then right up here at the bolt, you're going to notice you have a dual ejector system, so again you're going to have something that's reliable. It's just got that rigidity built into it that you're not going to have to worry about. So all in all, really impressed with the attention to detail about the entire inner workings and of course just the pistol and the firearm itself. Let's go to get this back together. So great job from Santan, overall looks and everything. The castle nut that it comes with is also staked and from what I can tell, one, two, three, four different areas, so if that ever backs out on you, you definitely did something wrong. QD end plate from Santan Tactical, also with the integrated QD on the lower receiver. Again, they just thought about everything, looks, fit, ergonomic. It's just a comfortable gun and I can't wait to take it to the range and show it in action. So without further ado, let's go shoot it. Very good, and the target's down. Good, very cool. Now before we continue on, I want to give a big shout out to my friends over at Manadnock Firearms who have been supporting the channel since day number one. They're practically family, they're available nationwide, and if you're not looking at your screen right now, you totally should, so you can take advantage of what's on screen down there at the bottom, all right? Do that, Manadnock Firearms. I know it's a funny name, but if you actually look up Mount Manadnock, it's like the number one most hiked mountain in the country. Second in the world, I think, so check it out. Also, if you're not a member of Gun Owners of America, become a member today. They are the only no-compromise gun lobby fighting for your Second Amendment in D.C., and they're not just fighting to defend the Second Amendment, they're fighting to restore the Second Amendment, so give them a follow and join us for our second annual Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit down in Knoxville, Tennessee in August, all right? See you guys there. Cool, now the Santan Patrol 12.5-inch AR pistol. Feels good. Controls are nice and ergonomic. Shooting it suppressed, even with the Huxworks Flow out at the end on the continuous tapered barrel, feels good and balanced. I don't feel like I'm easily fatigued or anything like that carrying this around, and yeah. Very good. Now, something I've noticed after a couple hundred rounds to this now is I've got my OK Industries metal mag here, which if you guys remember this magazine, in my recent video with John where I did Are You Training or Are You LARPing full kit, this mag caused a malfunction, and I'm noticing I don't think this gun likes this mag either. So, got a malfunction here. Failure to feed. I'm going to go ahead and lock it to the rear. There's that round. Drop that mag. You're going to see we're clear now. I think this magazine is done. I don't think this is a gun problem. Yeah, because out of everything else, see, this is the magazine I'm going to mark for me and only me. Well, I guess my friends might watch this video and be like, oh, that's the mag, but I'm going to go ahead and throw this mag into a pile of magazines for my friends, so that way when they're out here running drills, they get a malfunction, they're going to have to clear that malfunction, and I'm going to see which friends I can trust, because if they stop and they don't continue the drill, I can't trust those guys, all right? So, now what I'm going to do, put a polymer mag in it. Oh, that one's really good. Get out of there. There we go. See what I mean? Feels good. That intermediate gas length on here, I really like also. I'm not getting a whole lot of gas back to the face. Obviously, it's a flow-through silencer, so a lot of those gases are escaping out the front end anyway, but even still, you are going to have an increased back pressure when shooting a suppressed gun. Doesn't matter if it's flow-through or not, you're just going to still get a little bit of back pressure. That charging handle, the snatch from Griffin Armament is doing a good job at blocking those gases from getting back into my face. Like I said, controls. Easy enough to manipulate both left and right side. Again, they just did a good job on that, and you'll notice the texture on all the controls are very intuitive. It's very much so easy to identify, even if you're wearing gloves. Again, I've already gone over the specs of this gun back in the bunker, but I think Santan has done an excellent job with this short-barreled rifle, if you get it in that configuration, with this pistol. You guys tell me down in the comment section below, is it worth that $1,900, close to $2,000 price tag at MSRP of $1,967? Personally, when you think about a lot of guns on the market that are much more expensive than that, that don't offer nowhere near as much, yeah, I think it's actually pretty worth it. Now, the one thing, I've already talked about the bolt release, the standard bolt release, being kind of, you know, not that big of a deal, but it's like, yeah, I'm spending the money and everything else is upgraded. Wouldn't mind that, but just keep in mind, this on the right-hand side is strictly only a bolt release. This is not also a bolt catch, okay? I would prefer that being a bolt catch as well, but let's be real, I can rock that not being a bolt catch just fine, okay? It is just a nice thing to have. But everything else about this gun, love it. The CMC trigger is fantastic. Again, I think they just absolutely nailed it. So again, comment down below, what do you guys think? I'll leave it off there. Appreciate you all. And as always, God bless. Don't forget, at 100,000 subscribers, we're going to have something really special available to all of you. So tell your friends, all right? Tell your family. Like, comment, share, subscribe, really helps the channel. God bless you guys. We'll see you next time.