16″ .223 Wylde Sharps Bros GOLDEN HOG Rifle Black anodized with gold finished parts · right and left side · drag to pan, scroll to zoom

CONFIGURATION SHOWN: 16″ .223 Wylde Mercury Precision Golden Spike barrel, 1:8 twist, 416R stainless steel with a gold PVD finish and straight fluting, H-bar profile, carbine-length gas with a .750″ journal, and a Mercury Precision Nova slant-port compensator, in a 3rd Gen Tactical Humboldt billet upper receiver with a Guntec 12″ Mod Lite skeletonized M-LOK free-float handguard and monolithic top rail, an SOT big-latch charging handle, and Magpul MBUS® 3 folding back-up sights front and rear, paired with a Sharps Bros WARTHOG billet lower receiver — a Luth-AR titanium nitride trigger kit on standard mil-spec springs, a MAS Defense M16 Hybrid Gold TiN bolt carrier group, gold-accented controls and pins, and Magpul furniture. Right side shown.

CONFIGURATION SHOWN: 16″ .223 Wylde Mercury Precision Golden Spike barrel, 1:8 twist, 416R stainless steel with a gold PVD finish and straight fluting, H-bar profile, carbine-length gas with a .750″ journal, and a Mercury Precision Nova slant-port compensator, in a 3rd Gen Tactical Humboldt billet upper receiver with a Guntec 12″ Mod Lite skeletonized M-LOK free-float handguard and monolithic top rail, an SOT big-latch charging handle, and Magpul MBUS® 3 folding back-up sights front and rear, paired with a Sharps Bros WARTHOG billet lower receiver — a Luth-AR titanium nitride trigger kit on standard mil-spec springs, a MAS Defense M16 Hybrid Gold TiN bolt carrier group, gold-accented controls and pins, and Magpul furniture. Left side shown.

The gold trigger is a coating, not a different trigger. The Luth-AR Titanium Nitride (TiN) Trigger Kit is a conventional mil-spec-pattern group — trigger, hammer and disconnector, all three TiN coated — fitted here on standard mil-spec springs. TiN is a hard, low-friction surface treatment: it makes the engagement feel smoother and it resists wear. What it does not do is change the spring rate, so it does not change the pull weight. The gold you can see through the trigger guard is that coating.

Pull weight is the mil-spec band: 5.5 to 8.5 lb. Luth-AR publish no figure for the kit itself, and they do not need to — the springs set the weight, and this rifle runs standard mil-spec springs. 5.5 lb is the M4/M16 minimum specification and the band runs to about 8.5 lb. That is a specification rather than a gauged reading of this particular rifle; if you want the measured number, ask and we will put a gauge on it.

A heavier pull than a match trigger, on purpose. The mil-spec weight is where it is for safety under stress, and it is the weight the platform was designed around. This is a different arrangement from the SOT WARTHOG rifles, which run a two-stage LaRue MBT-2S with a published 4.5 lb break and a supplied 6 lb spring. Single stage against two stage, mil-spec against match — two answers to two different questions, and neither is the upgrade of the other.

Second of Ten does not modify engagement surfaces. The kit is fitted as supplied, on the springs it is designed to run. We do not stone, polish or alter sear engagement to lighten a break. A coated mil-spec group is a mil-spec group; if you want a lighter or two-stage pull, the answer is a different trigger, not a modified one.

The bolt carrier group is a hybrid, and MAS Defense say so themselves. On the M16 Hybrid Gold TiN group (MAS00103214) only the carrier is TiN gold coated; the bolt, cam pin and gas key are Melonite nitride. MAS also state they use a more cost-effective polishing treatment than their top-tier version. That is worth knowing before you open the rifle expecting a gold bolt — you will find a gold carrier and dark parts inside it, and that is what was bought.

What the carrier coating is actually for. TiN on the 8620 M16-profile carrier gives a 0.45 coefficient of friction, around 2600 Vickers hardness at 2–3 micron thickness, and holds to about 900 °F. Lower friction and less carbon adhesion mean a smoother action and easier cleanup. It is a surface treatment on a mil-spec carrier, not a different action.

The bolt is Carpenter No. 158. MAS publish the bolt as 9310 or C158 without committing per unit; the group fitted to this rifle is the C158 version — heat treated, shot peened and magnetic particle inspected. C158 is the steel specified for the military bolt. Gas key screws are Grade 8, properly staked; there is no hand-staking or OCKS-hardware claim on this group and we are not going to make one. Gas rings are stainless to mil-spec, firing pin stainless.

There is no dust cover, so you can check the carrier yourself. The upper is built without an ejection port cover, which leaves the gold carrier visible through the open port on the right-side view. Zoom in on it: the carrier reads gold and the parts around it read dark, which is the hybrid coating described above, visible rather than taken on trust. It also means the action is open to whatever the rifle is carried through, so keep that in mind if this one ever leaves a safe or a case.

.223 Wylde is a chamber, not a cartridge. It is a commercial chamber specification that safely accepts both .223 Remington and 5.56×45mm NATO, cut to give the accuracy of a .223 match chamber without the pressure margin problems of firing 5.56 in one. So the rifle feeds either round and the multi-caliber rollmark on the lower is, for once, describing something real.

The gold is a coating process, not paint, everywhere it appears. The barrel is gold PVD — physical vapour deposition, a hard, thin, well-adhered layer with high wear and corrosion resistance and a low coefficient of friction under pressure — and the straight fluting cuts weight while holding the H-bar profile’s stiffness. The bolt carrier, the trigger group and the rail fastening screws are titanium nitride, which is the same family of process. So the gold running through this rifle is four separate coated components rather than a finish sprayed over the top.

The rail screws are TiN too, and that one is cosmetic. The handguard fastening screws are gold TiN finished. On the carrier and the trigger group the coating is doing mechanical work; on a clamping screw it is there to match. We would rather say which is which than let one honest claim carry the decorative ones.

The charging handle is a Second of Ten part. An oversized billet latch on a 7075-T6 body, matte black hard coat anodized to MIL-A-8625 Type 3 Class 2. The point of the big latch is contact area: it can be worked with gloves on, or with a hand that has to come around a low-mounted optic, without the fingertip pinch a standard mil-spec latch asks for. It is made for us and carries our marking rather than a component maker’s.

The front sight cannot go on a railed gas block. Magpul specify it for the MBUS® 3: the front sight must sit on a railed forend on the same plane as the receiver rail, because of the heat a gas block sees. The Guntec handguard’s monolithic top rail is what makes that possible here, and it is where the sight is mounted.

The lower is rollmarked MDL WARTHOG · CAL MULTI, and it is serialised by Sharps Bros. The receiver carries SHARPS BROS. MFG. · LOGAN, UT and its serial on the left side. Sharps Bros design, manufacture, rollmark and serialise it as the model of record; Second of Ten claims none of that engineering. The serial value is blurred in these photographs. The address and model markings are not retouched.

Overall length is 33″, and the stock moves 3.3″. The Magpul CTR® runs a length of pull from about 10.3″ collapsed to 13.6″ extended, so the rifle’s overall length moves by that much too. 33″ is the figure of record for this build; check which position a measurement was taken at before comparing it against another rifle.

The stock is a friction-lock CTR, and that is the reason to fit one. Beyond the ambidextrous release latch, the CTR carries a supplemental friction lock that clamps the stock to the receiver extension and takes the wobble out of it. It also has an integral ambidextrous QD socket, two 1.25″ sling loops and a lanyard hole in the toe, with a removable 0.3″ rubber butt-pad. Mil-spec receiver extensions only — a CTR will not fit a commercial-diameter tube.

Photography © Second of Ten LLC. 3rd Gen Tactical, Guntec USA, Luth-AR, Magpul, MAS Defense, Mercury Precision and Sharps Bros marks are the property of their owners; their appearance indicates that Second of Ten incorporates the component, not sponsorship, affiliation or endorsement. Photography shows the item as built; shipped configuration may differ.