My friend Sgt. Levos is the armorer for San Jose Police Department (SJPD) and they currently have 400 Colt 6920s but are actively looking for 400 more rifles to add to their inventory. I saw Sgt. Levos at SHOT Show 2023 while I was checking out Aero Precision’s newest SOLUS rifle. Sgt. Levos approached Aero Precision and they arranged to have an LE Demo. Aero brought down two of their 11.5″ SBRs, two 16″ rifles as well as their SOLUS rifle.
Aero Precision @ TFB:
- [SHOT 2023] Aero Precision Solus Bolt Action Rifle
- Back For One Final Run: The Aero Precision Heritage Lower Receiver
- TFB Behind The Gun Podcast Episode #46: Kirk Foreman with Aero Precision
SJPD Aero LE Demo
The SJPD Aero demo was held at the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Firearms Range.
To maximize the most value out of the SJPD Aero LE Demo, Sgt. Levos invited the majority of the Bay Area Police Departments. The Monday before the demo, I found out there was a slight hiccup with regards to the demo guns so I helped by contacting my friend Jayden, the engineer who designed the LAHAR-30 suppressor. Jayden and Chad Forrey, VP of Sales, pulled out all the stops. Jayden managed to get an entirely new SOLUS rifle built in just a matter of days, which he brought down personally along with LAHAR-30 suppressors and the SBRs for the SJPD Aero LE Demo.
SJPD used this range session to practice for qualifications and they ran some drills with the Aero Precision rifles.
Jayden and his LAHAR-30 at the SJPD Aero demo.
Aero Precision brought their AR-15 M4E1 with Magpul stocks, Magpul grips, Ballistic Advantage barrels and their R-ONE MLOK handguards. The Aimpoint Duty RDS were supplied by SJPD and is their preferred optic for their duty rifles.
Aero Precision SOLUS Rifle
Sniper pad has steel targets out to 500 yards up the hill.
At the SJPD Aero demo, I spent most of the time hanging out with Jayden at the Sniper Pad with the various Bay Area snipers and shooting the suppressed Aero SOLUS rifle. It was rather fun talking with the various snipers. Two of them were exchanging notes on what they use to shoot through various windows and predicting the path of the bullet after it breaks the glass.
The SOLUS receiver is cut to accept both AICS and AIAW magazines. The stock is fully adjustable and has a bag rider.
The SOLUS bolt has a 60º throw.
There is a convenient thumb rest on the right-hand side.
This SOLUS was chambered in .308 Winchester. The barrel profile is rather beefy.
I met Sgt. Levos through my friend Vic whom you can see below. He was the gunsmith for Spartan Precision when they were still in the Bay Area. He has worked on a lot of Bay Area sniper rifles.
Here is a short video of the SOLUS at the Sniper pad. During a lull, Jayden would get on the SOLUS. I challenged him to make head shots at the 500-yard target. You can see a clip of this at the end of the video below. Later he was shooting the eyeballs of the 500-yard target. I was using the Accufire Omnis digital spotting scope to help spot. I will have a review of that coming soon.
Did you see how relatively clean the head on that target was at the end of the video above? I managed to capture two slow-motion clips with my Chronos 1.4 and a 600mm Sigma Mirror Lens. You can see the bullet wake in slow motion and the bullet hit the head. Both were shot by Jayden on the SOLUS bolt gun.
SJPD Aero LE Demo Final Thoughts
A huge thanks to Sgt. Levos for inviting me out to his demo and an even bigger thanks to Chad Forrey and Jayden for going the extra mile and bringing down the guns for a great demo. Sgt. Levos told me they shot 6,000 rounds of 5.56 through the Aero Precision AR-15s. No malfunctions with any of the guns. The lightness of the gun is a feature everyone liked plus it has ambidextrous controls. The trigger is just a mil-spec trigger so nothing to celebrate there. So far, the Aero Precision AR-15s are the best bang for the buck. Their cost is less than half of a Daniel Defense rifle so they can spend the money on kitting the guns out with Aimpoints, iron sights, slings, 6 mags each and weapon lights all for the same price as a bare-bones Daniel Defense. Add to the fact they are planning to buy 400 new rifles, and they need to save where they can.
Sgt. Levos did not get to spend much time with the SOLUS rifle since he was acting as Range Mom the whole day but he was impressed with what he saw. He loves the chassis and can’t wait for a folding stock version which is in the works. We shot 600 rounds of 168gr Federal Gold Medal Match .308 Winchester out of the SOLUS rifle. Everyone who shot it liked the SOLUS rifle. The only other gun that possibly outclassed it was the Santa Clara Sheriff Sniper’s Accuracy International rifles equipped with Thunder Beast suppressors, Schmidt & Bender scopes and PVS-22 night vision clip-ons. According to Sgt. Levos, those guns were donated to the Sheriff’s department. Must be nice. The Santa Clara Sheriff snipers were there to practice with their rifles but they did get some trigger time on the SOLUS rifle. Vic told me he helped change out the barrels on those AI guns the first time around after they shot them out.
The range had these signs and I thought the silhouettes were a little odd. MP5/10, SIG Sauer P226, bolt action rifles and pump action shotguns make sense.
But what is this rifle? Who’s that Pokemon? LOL
My friend Greg Gruber aka Scaarat on IG thinks it is the INSAS. Pretty close resemblance. Closer than anything else I could think of. But the question arises “why did the artist go with this silhouette over an AR-15 or M-16?” I don’t think Bay Area police departments are showing up with INSAS rifles to train there.
The Aero LE Demo went off wonderfully. Everyone was impressed with their products and I am thankful for being invited to check it out.