Is This the Ultimate Backpacking Rifle?

The GOAT-15 is (as far as I can tell) the lightest semi-automatic rifle in the world. It looks and feels like a miniature AR-15, complete with the same fire controls, pistol grip, and adjustable stock. But closer inspection reveals that this is a totally new firearm. It was designed from the ground up by Mountain Billy Gun Lab (MBGL) of Charleston, Utah, as the ultimate lightweight .22 LR rifle for backcountry small game hunting, plinking at the range, or training up a young adventurer.

My experience with the rifle has been good, but I’ll be curious to see if this concept takes off. After their initial launch at SHOT Show in 2024, MBGL has introduced short-barreled and pistol versions of the same platform, and they’ve also teased an AK-47 variant. That product expansion indicates strong sales, but I’m not sure hunters and gun owners are really clamoring for a three-pound AR-15.

Only time will tell, but I can say one thing for sure: it’s a fascinating concept, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot.

Mountain Billy Gun Labs is only a few years old, but getting to this point has been a long and tumultuous road for founder Eric Schmid.

“Our family business was making bolts for Cricket [rifles] when I had the idea, and that was about 5 years ago,” Eric told me via email.

Eric’s original concept was to market a miniature AR-15 to parents who wanted to introduce their kids to the platform. Dubbed the “JR-15,” this rifle launched at SHOT Show in 2020, and I remember walking past their booth. It was located in the basement of the conference center, but the crowds around the booth rivaled those of the larger companies on the main showroom floor.

That attention, as you might imagine, was both positive and negative.

“Thirty or so senators wrote letters to the Federal Trade Commission to have us investigated before we had sold even one rifle,” Eric said. “Posters made from our website made their way to the House floor in good ol’ Nancy Pelosi’s and Chuck Schumer’s hands.”

Rather than go bankrupt at the hands of regulators and government lawyers, Eric and his team decided to re-tool. They positioned their new rifle, the GOAT-15, as a lightweight backpacking rifle, though it retained the same miniature dimensions as the JR-15.

Gun companies are always cautious about marketing firearms “for kids.” That’s understandable for all kinds of reasons, both legal and political. But hunters can appreciate the benefits of developing a kid’s marksmanship skills as early as possible. Unless you want to wait until your favorite hunting buddy is nearly grown to join you in the woods, it helps to have a firearm that fits their stature. My son struggles to shoot most rifles off-hand or even leaning against a tree. That’s a problem in the squirrel woods since those fuzzy-tailed critters don’t tend to stay still long enough to build a stable shooting position. The GOAT-15’s ultra-light weight solves this problem, and it’s quickly become my kid’s favorite rifle.

Mountain Billy Gun Labs might not be able to market the GOAT-15 as a youth rifle, but I don’t have any problem saying that its miniature components will help jump start your mini-me’s small game aspirations.

Those components will look and feel familiar to anyone who’s had experience with an AR-15–they’re just about 20% smaller. The pistol grip is in the same location and has the same angle, and its size is perfect for smaller hands. But even my medium-sized mitts didn’t have much trouble maintaining control of the firearm, and I was able to fit three fingers around the grip.

The stock can be adjusted to seven different positions, though adult users will need to use it at its most extended. Even then, the shrunken length of pull makes shooting the rifle feel a little cramped. It’s doable, but not the most comfortable.

The trigger is heavy, but that’s what you want on a gun you hand to a youngster. My trigger gauge clocked it at 7.5 pounds, which is heavier than pretty much any other modern hunting rifle. That helps ensure your kid has to really want to pull the trigger before the gun goes bang. Just don’t let them get used to the GOAT-15 and then switch to a lighter trigger—at least not without a few dry fires first. That’s a recipe for an unintentional discharge if I’ve ever heard one.

Another instructor-friendly feature of the GOAT-15 is the knob on the opposite side of the safety selector. This knob can be pulled out and rotated to lock the selector on “safe.” This requires about 15 pounds of force, so it can’t be undone unintentionally or by little fingers, and it offers an added layer of safety when traveling with the rifle or handling it at the range.

Along similar lines, the gun also comes with a one-round magazine (as well as a 10-round magazine). This allows an instructor to train the fundamentals of gun safety without having to worry about another round being loaded into the chamber. It’s also useful in a hunting scenario when the excitement of a shot might induce forgetfulness about whether or not another round has been loaded.

The rest of the rifle’s features are self-explanatory. The full-length picatinny rails allows users to mount optics and accessories, the 1/2×28 threaded barrel accepts most .22 LR muzzle devices and suppressors, and the handguard has M-LOK slots for bipods and other shooting aids. The rifle does look a little silly with a full-sized scope, but it’s great with a red dot, iron sights, or smaller, LPVO/fixed-power scope.

Weight (unloaded): 2 lbs 14 oz

Weight (with loaded 10 round mag): 3 lbs 2 oz

Barrel length: 16″ CMV Steel

Barrel Specs: 1:16 Right Hand Twist Threaded 1/2-28

Size: 27.75” – 30.75” (Fully Extended)

Safety: Patented Tamper Resistant

Action: Blow Back, Single Shot, Semi-Automatic

Rail: Standard Picatinny Rail With M-Lok

Buttstock: 7 Position Adjustable

Magazine: Ships with 1 Rd and 10 Rd

Sight: Not Included (Red Dot Recommended)

The .22 LR is a famously dirty cartridge, so it’s important that any semi-auto rimfire be easy to disassemble and clean. The GOAT-15 isn’t as easy to take apart as an AR-15, but it’s not difficult, and definitely easier than a 10/22. Two Chicago screws replace the takedown pins and can be unscrewed using a flathead on one side and an Allen wrench on the other.

Once the upper receiver has been removed from the lower, the charging handle and bolt assembly can be removed from the rear of the upper. You’ll notice that there isn’t actually a buffer or buffer spring in the “buffer tube.” The bolt assembly functions entirely within the upper receiver, much like a 10/22. That allows MBGL to easily convert a rifle into a pistol with a folding stock: all they have to do is cut off the tube and replace it with a picatinny rail.

After you disassemble the upper and lower, you can clean the barrel like normal. You can also remove the firing pin form the bolt assembly, though the bolt carrier doesn’t easily break down any further. I found that a good spray with some cleaning solvent and a new light coat of oil keeps it functioning smoothly.

Part of why the GOAT-15 is so light is due to its polymer upper and lower. This isn’t ideal for maximum durability, as any AR-15 aficionado will tell you. The good news is that you probably aren’t taking the GOAT-15 to Fallujah or using it as a crowbar in your next home renovation project. Under normal use conditions, which include taking the rifle into the backcountry, I wouldn’t worry about the polymer receivers failing. Polymer AR-15 lowers usually fail at the buffer tube attachment point due to recoil from the bolt into the buffer assembly. The .22 LR doesn’t produce enough recoil for that to be a concern, and the force on the rear of the receiver is mitigated by the spring system. As for the upper, the torque required to secure the .22 LR barrel is minimal enough that MBGL isn’t concerned about attaching it to the polymer receiver.

And, for what this is worth, MGBL reps tell me they sent a GOAT-15 to an Iowa gun range that put 80,000 rounds through their rifle and it’s still going strong.

Of course, while the proprietary parts used to build the GOAT-15 save an incredible amount of weight, the rifle is also incompatible with standard AR-15 parts (including magazines). If you were hoping to install a lighter aftermarket trigger or a more comfortable stock, you’re SOL: this is one AR-type rifle that can’t be easily modified. You can purchase a full-sized gun or use a conversion kit to turn your centerfire into a rimfire, but both of these options maintain a standard AR’s weight.

I did not have high hopes that this rifle would be a tack driver. Semi-auto .22’s can be incredibly accurate, but I wasn’t expecting much from a new rifle from a new company.

With a .22 LR, I’m always happy with a one-inch group at 50 yards. A squirrel’s head is usually over an inch wide, so I figure that’s a pretty good benchmark. I was surprised to find that the GOAT-15 averaged a one-inch group at 50 yards with three different kinds of ammunition, one of which is designed specifically for small game. The SK Match earned the top spot with this half-inch group.

You’ll notice that the GOAT-15 did have some trouble with the last two loads in the chart above. The CCI Clean grouped well enough, but not as well as the others. And those 36-grain pills from Federal sprayed all over the page, so I gave up trying to shoot groups after 10 or 15 shots. That one “group” measured about six inches.

I’m not sure why I saw so much variance between .22 cartridges, but I can tell you it’s pretty common. Rimfire accuracy is just as much about the ammunition as the rifle, so most rifles will run into ammo it just can’t group. I don’t see that as a knock on the GOAT-15, and I’m sure you’ll be able to find ammo it shoots well.

For me, this was the real test for the GOAT-15. Even the most expensive semi-auto .22’s can struggle to reliably cycle, mostly because the .22 Long Rifle is insanely dirty. Those all-lead bullets leave shavings in the action, bullet lube gets left in the barrel/action and collects dirt, the powder doesn’t always burn completely, and the primer leaves residue. All of that crap collects even more quickly while using a suppressor, which pushes it back towards the action.

This means that all semi-auto .22’s need to be cleaned periodically to function. The question is, how long will they run before they start to jam?

Once again, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the GOAT-15 handled the various kinds of ammunition I threw at it. I’ve been plinking in the back yard for the last few months, and I’ve only cleaned it once, even though I’ve used a suppressor most of the time.

I was also happy to see how well it cycled standard-velocity, subsonic ammunition. Slow .22 sometimes doesn’t have enough juice to push a semi-auto bolt carrier back far enough to strip the next cartridge. But I found that the GOAT-15 ran just fine with the SK Match and CCI Small Game loads, both of which hovered around 1,000 fps. Eric tells me that in their experience, the gun usually cycles well with anything above 900 fps.

I’m not the only one who’s had a good experience with the GOAT-15’s reliability. Matt Miller, the Director of Content Partnerships here at MeatEater, also got a chance to take a different sample of this rifle for a spin. He told me that after making sure the action is well-lubed, the GOAT-15 has run perfectly with four different kinds of subsonic ammunition. He hasn’t conducted formal accuracy testing with a magnified optic, but he says he can hit a Coke can consistently at 50-100 yards, which is all you can ask of a double-deuce.

My only reliability issue came from the 40-grain CCI Clean ammo. Federal released these a few years ago. The bullets are covered in a kind of polymer, which supposedly makes the bullets feed more consistently and leaves behind less residue. During my accuracy testing, I fired the first three groups without any trouble, but then a cartridge got stuck halfway up the feed ramp. I cleared the jam, but after that, a cartridge would fail to chamber about every five or six rounds.

The problem resolved when I switched to a different cartridge, so I’m confident the problem was caused by the bullet and not the rifle. Those cartridges are a few years old, so I wonder if the polymer coating degrades and ends up causing more issues than it solves.

Much like accuracy, you’ll probably run into one or two cartridges the rifle just doesn’t like (for whatever reason). This is normal for a semi-auto rimfire, and it’s not a knock on its overall reliability.

The GOAT-15 functions exactly as advertised: it’s insanely light, compact, accurate, and reliable. But the question remains: does it meet an actual need?

For your average small game hunter, I think the answer is no. There are more ergonomic rifles for adults, and I don’t know many squirrel hunters who complain about the weight of their rimfire after a morning in the woods.

That being said, there are definitely categories of hunters and sport shooters who will love this gun.

The original concept was to make an AR-15 for youth and other small-statured people. For that, it’s perfect. There is almost zero learning curve with a red dot, and its short length-of-pull means kids can get into the eye box of a magnified optic without craning their necks. All the furniture and controls are designed for smaller people, and the weight allows for easy carrying and shouldering. My son took this rifle on what turned out to be an unsuccessful squirrel hunt, and despite not remembering to bring a sling, he never complained about carrying his rifle on our five mile walk through the swamps of East Texas.

In some scenarios, adults will find the GOAT-15 useful as well. If you’re going on a backcountry small game hunt or you’re backpack camping and want a long gun without adding too much weight, the GOAT-15 is a great option. Even big game hunters might consider toting along a GOAT-15 Atom pistol with a folding stock for some impromptu small game hunting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been sitting in a deer stand wishing I had a .22 to take care of chattering squirrels. The Atom pistol would fit in a backpack, and a suppressed, subsonic .22 is insanely quiet. If I’m not optimistic about deer movement during one of my sits, those squirrels might be headed for the frying pan this Fall.

Bottom line? The GOAT-15 might not be for everyone, but if you ever need an ultra-lightweight semi-auto rimfire, this rifle could be exactly what you’re looking for.