Whether it’s writing or life in general, it’s nice to change things up every now and then. 

There’s a lot of firearms hitting the market lately, and most of them are very similar to one another. 

I recently came across something different that tugged at my prepper heart strings. There were also a few aspects about this particular gun that set it apart from most other guns hitting the market nowadays. I am talking about the Dark Mountain Arms Stowaway.

The Dark Mountain Arms Stowaway is an ultralight, single-shot, bolt-action take-down firearm available in either rifle or pistol configurations. Stowaways fire the 5.7x28mm cartridge, of FN Herstal fame. The gist of the Stowaway is its ability to be broken down into two parts for discreet storage and carriage in a pack or bag.

When it comes to its appearance, the Stowaway has a no-frills and very intentional look about it. The rifle version, which I received for review, comes with a slender, 16.65 inch barrel. Its muzzle is also threaded for a suppressor with ½ x 28 threads. The muzzle of the pistol version is also threaded for a suppressor, but the barrel is only 7.1 inches long for even easier stowability. 

Putting The Stowaway Together 

The Stowaway rifle breaks down into four components: the barrel, bolt, handguard and the receiver. Stowaway rifle was designed to be as light as possible, and it tips the scales at just 2.8 pounds. Dark Mountain Arms integrated a steel barrel and action into an aluminum receiver (and rail).The receiver includes a 13 inch aluminum rod that serves as a stock. Stoaways ship with a B5 Systems P-23 AR-15 pistol grip.

Assembling the components into a complete firearm is a snap. The end of the barrel that mates with the receiver has an indexing pin that fits into a slot on the receiver side. Once in position, you simply slide the handguard over and down the length of the barrel to where it can be screwed snugly into place to secure the barrel. Then you install the bolt and you’re ready to go. All told, with a bit of familiarity, I was able to get the Stowaway rifle assembled in less than 30 seconds.

Insights From Dark Mountain Arms

To gain some insights about the Dark Mountain Arms Stowaway, I spoke to Aaron Voight, the owner of Dark Mountain Arms. Voight’s sense of passion and creativity shone through our conversation. He is also one of the founders of Trailblazer Firearms. Voight doesn’t have the typical credentials you might expect of a firearms maker. His professional background is in real estate. His firearms-manufacturing acumen is self-taught.

Voight opined about the lack of innovation in the market. He emphasized how that drives his passion to make firearms that are different and that he would personally use. Voight told me how he often starts with just pencil drawings of the firearms he’s trying to conceptualize. From there, he works with 3-D modeling programs to render the final designs. He also spoke highly of his partner at Dark Mountain Arms, who happens to be an engineer and is the one that actually executes on the desired design.

The genesis of the Stowaway was the result of Voight’s past and his experience as a kid with a .22 LR Chipmunk rifle. Like the Stoaway, the Chipmunk is a single-shot rifle that he learned how to shoot with. Voight even taught his own son how to shoot with that same Chipmunk rifle. Voight’s vision for the Stowaway was for it to be a modern, adult-sized version of that little rimfire Chipmunk, but “cooler.” This is why it has a Picatinny scope base and take-down functionality. Most importantly, the Stowaway was to be simple to use and cost-effective.

Dark Mountain Stowaway x 5.7x28mm

Voight said he chose the 5.7x28mm cartridge for the Stowaway because he’s always liked it along with the classic FN-associated firearms chambered for it. He enjoys the edge in power the 5.7 round provides over .22 WMR for varmint, critter and predator control. He also prefers the increased reliability of the centerfire cartridge over the rimfire cartridges. Voight added that he started off with the 5.7 in the Stowaway’s design so that it would be overbuilt. This way, the design could be easily adapted to milder chamberings.

While I couldn’t enthusiastically argue these specific points, my particular issue is not with the power or effectiveness of 5.7x28mm. My reservation is about the cost of this ammunition. Premium .22 WMR ammo is only about half the price of 5.7x28mm. 

Well, Voight has come up with a solution to my particular quandary. Dark Mountain Arms has just released a 9mm version of the Stowaway. He’s also planning on doing something in the near future with .22 LR and .22 WMR as add-on conversion kits!

Converting the Stowaway to a different caliber is easy work and is done by popping out the bolt for a replacement and swapping the barrels. The Stowaway rifle featured in this review retails for $419. Currently Dark Mountain Arms has set the price for the conversion kits at $179 for the pistol and $199 for the rifle.

Testing the Stowaway

The Stowaway’s action, whose bolt opens up on the left side of the receiver, feels more like a striker-fired firearm in comparison to a traditional bolt-action rifle. The trigger has a flat face, helping with the trigger-pull geometry, and while there’s a bit of creep, it’s still a fairly smooth transition to the break. Its trigger pull break averaged to 4.40 pounds. The trigger has a flat face, helping with the trigger-pull geometry, and while there’s a bit of creep, it’s still a fairly smooth transition to the break. 

For this review, I mounted and zeroed an Aimpoint H2 over the Stowaway. I had no problem popping targets with a red-dot, and I wanted a better understanding of the Stowaway’s full accuracy potential. I swapped the Aimpoint for a Leupold 2-7x VXR with a Fire-Dot reticle. It was a bit tricky since the Picatinny rail on the Stowaway is a little short. Mounting the scope too far back over the Stoaway’s base meant it got in the way of the receiver.

After mounting the Leupold, I set up targets at 75 yards and proceeded to shoot with FN’s 40-grain SS197SR, 27-grain SS195LF, and Hornady’s 40-grain Critical Defense load with its FTX bullet.

Even though it can be tricky to shoot the Stowaway with a scope like I did due to its form factor, once I found a steady and comfortable position along with a good sight picture I managed to print some nice groups off the bench.

5.7x28mm Accuracy In The Stowaway 

The 5.7x28mm round cartridge shoots relatively flat. At 75 yards, my groups were also quite consistent, with very few flyers. Average group size for the different rounds I tested were approximately an inch or so, but the Stowaway did have its moments. 

The best group of the day was with FN’s 40-grain SS197SR round and it measured just 0.44 of an inch. Hornady came in second place at 0.75 of an inch.  These group sizes weren’t the norm, but it was still nice to see that kind of potential from this rifle. 

Final Verdict

I liked the Stowaway quite a bit. The Stowaway shows lots of potential for decent accuracy. It’s also versatile, especially considering its take-down design and its available caliber-conversion kits. The action was fairly smooth too, despite a handful of times where I had to re-do the bolt stroke to chamber the round correctly. 

Personally I’m not a fan of the Stowaway being a single-shot rifle. It slows the pace down considerably. On occasion, I’d forget to cock the gun before the next shot. However, its single-shot design means simplicity and reliability. Like my old .22 LR Chimpmunk, the Stowaway’s slower pace would also make the Stowaway a great starter rifle for teaching a youngster.

I’m still lukewarm on the choice of 5.7x28mm as the Stoaway’s chambering. This ammo can be a little pricey; the “good stuff” can cost more than a dollar per round. Standard loads are priced 50 to 60 cents each. Perhaps this isn’t the best choice for a high-volume starter rifle. Doing so means the buyer would have to buy a rimfire conversion kit for an extra $180 to $200 to get either .22 LR or .22 WMR for a less expensive way to shoot.

With all considerations taken into account, the Stowaway is a handy, versatile and fun rifle to shoot. It breaks down quickly to a compact easy-to-carry package, making it a great option for hitting the trail when you want to stay light, mobile and unencumbered so you can enjoy the outdoors. 

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Caliber: 5.7 x 28mm
• Barrel: 16.65 inches
• OA Length: 31.78 inches
• Length of Pull: 13 inches
• Width: 2 inches
• Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Stock: Glass-Filled Nylon
• Sights: Three-Dot, Luminescent
• Action: Bolt
• Finish: Nitride/Black Oxide
• Capacity: Single-shot
• MSRP: $419

PERFORMANCE:

Note: Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity in feet per second (fps) from the muzzle by a Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph, and accuracy in inches for three, five-shot groups at 75 yards.