Just recently, a homemade bullpup rifle (not airsoft) that uses an AR-15 lower receiver is being discussed at gun forums and is generating much interest. Made by Germany-based Longziz, he has made a patent-pending design which is fully has a fully ambidextrous feature. The ejection port can be adjusted from left to right in a few seconds, without tools required, making it easer for left handed shooters just to pick up any one of these, if Longziz finds someone who can further invest on his innovation.

In the AR-15.com forums, Longziz said that the idea started in 2008, when he was still a Mechanical Engineering student in St. Louis, Missouri. He has been tinkering with firearms for years and has focused on the bullpup rifle and see if improvements can be done with it as he stated the cases in which lefties are forced to shoot right-handed when using bullpup rifles. Picking up an AR-15, the axial symmetric design of the AR gave him an idea --- if he can turn the bolt head 135 degrees, changing the direction of ejecting the shell can be achieved. And as there are many AR-15 parts available, why not work on it? Longziz also tells his story on why he moved to Germany, which is a very interesting read.

AR15.com forums prohibit any advertising threads by any individual or company about their products. However, since this is a pure design innovation made by someone who really doesn't have a firearms business background, and is doing it out of sheer curiousity, the members of the AR15.com forums pressed the mods to allow him to share even more. And suffice to say, he did engage and capture the interest of the members by his honesty and candor.

Longziz has indeed achieved turning the direction of the ejecting the shell, and the ease of such innovation in the Longziz #1 makes it a very compelling design that even arms designers should take a look at. Since Longziz has thought well enough to initiate patent application, he gets to own and license such design to interested manufacturers if the patent application gets approved.

The Longziz #1 almost looks like a bigger version of the Magpul PDR (Personal Defense Rifle), and even the fictional GS-221 Carbine Unit in Avatar movie.  It has a top rail the extends almost three fourths the length of the rifle and stops where the adjustable cheek piece starts as it also acts as a shield for the ejection port for either side depending if you are a left-handed or right-handed shooter.

There are some design changes with the bolt-carrier assembly, but I am not really an authority on it, but you'll notice it is a tringular looking design as shown in the photo below and compared beside the AR-15 one.

According to the Firearms blog, Longziz may not need to have a fully designed bullpup rifle to start doing business with this as they suggest that a kit can be sold minus the AR-15 lower without worrying about the BATFE license. If Longziz gets the patent approved, then he can start small and make the kits until he can muster enough resources to produce complete ones.

This is still a work in progress, but we do agree with the observations of the AR-15.com forum members that it is a promising thing. If Longziz wants to earn immediately, he can just license the external designs to airsoft manufacturers for them to make a Longziz #1 airsoft replica and use that cash to further his design. Airsoft replicas sometimes act as good marketing platforms for real steel guns.

Wishing him luck on this. As they say, some great ideas start from the garage, just read stories about the founders of Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computers and look where these companies are now.