Q Sugar Weasel: The Best Counterfeit Honey Badger – Video Review

The Sugar Weasel is designed to be a more budget-friendly Honey Badger, brought to you by the same people that made the original Honey Badger. Everyone wants to know the exact differences between the Honey Badger and the Sugar Weasel, so I’m going to lay them all out for you, so you can decide which one works best for your needs. First up, and this is actually one of the biggest differences, and probably where Q gets to save the most money and passes those savings on to the consumer; the receivers. The Honey Badger has solid billet receivers that are machined to have the channels in it for the Honey Badger stock. This process makes the Honey Badger upper and lower unique to any other AR on the market. The Sugar Weasel has forged aluminum receivers which are pretty much standard to any AR. Except for the fact that the forward assist has been removed to save weight. Also of note, while both guns have a clear anodized finish, the billet on the Honey Badger is very pure and has no imperfections. Giving the Honey Badger a very perfect gold color. There can be some minor impurities in the forged aluminum used in the Sugar Weasel, sometimes giving the receivers slight streaks of grey. I actually think this looks kind of cool and think it adds to the unique character of the Q guns.

The receivers lead us to the next difference, the proprietary stock and buffer tube system used on the Honey Badger. The Honey Badger has the stock or brace that slides into the proprietary receivers, and a shortened, proprietary buffer tube and recoil system. The Sugar Weasel has a mil spec buffer tube and an SB Tactical SBA3 Brace. The buffer tube is clear anodized to match the rest of the gun and the SBA3 is light grey to look just like the Honey Badger stock or brace.

The next difference is the trigger. The Honey Badger currently ships with a Geissele trigger, while the Sugar Weasel has a mil-spec single-stage trigger. Don’t feel like you’re being short-changed though, the Sugar Weasel’s trigger is very smooth and surprisingly light at just under four pounds. I was worried that the trigger in the Sugar Weasel was going to be inferior, but it’s actually very good, it is more than sufficient and far better than a typical mil-spec trigger. Next up, the Honey Badger has a radiant charging handle, and radiant ambidextrous selectors, while the Sugar Weasel’s controls are standard mil-spec. The charging handle is clear anodized to match the color scheme.

Those are the differences, now for the similarities. They’re both ridiculously light, the Sugar Weasel only weighs 4 pounds 11 ounces, making it only a few ounces heavier than a Honey Badger at 4 pounds 8 ounces. Both are extremely compact; the sugar weasel is just a little over two inches longer when collapsed than the Honey Badger, and both have those amazing good looks that all Q guns have. Everything north of the receivers is identical to the Honey Badger. You’ll get the Q 7-inch fast twist rate barrel, with a 1 in 5 twist. The Team at Q is the same team that developed the 300 Blackout round at Advanced Armament. So, if they tell me that’s the twist rate I should use, I’ll go with that. But seriously, the 1 in 5 twist rate will allow full expansion of subsonic hunting rounds if you plan on doing more than just looking good at the range with your sugar weasel. It will also allow subsonic rounds to group tighter.

You’ll also get the same handguard, adjustable gas block, and of course the cherry bomb muzzle break, that are all directly from the Honey Badger; making the Sugar Weasel have the same superior accuracy and performance as the Honey Badger. The Sugar Weasel will also suppress just as well as the Honey Badger, after all, it is a gun manufactured by a suppressor company. We had it suppressed about 90% of the review with the Q Thunder Chicken and had absolutely no issues or malfunctions in any way through the entire 1000 round review.

We received a lot of questions comparing the Sugar Weasel to other 300 Blackout ARs, and here’s how it breaks down to me. Compared to the Honey Badger it falls short. In my opinion, the Honey Badger is the greatest 300 Blackout gun ever devised, and if you can afford one, that’s the one you should get. The Sugar Weasel is meant to be a less expensive alternative to the Honey Badger, and it is an amazing alternative. I can easily say this, I have a Daniel Defense 300 Blackout SBR, and if given the choice, I would take the Sugar Weasel over the Daniel Defense. The Sugar Weasel captures so many great aspects of the Honey Badger; from the weight to the barrel, and even the awesome looks. If you want something like this, the Sugar Weasel is a great choice and I would take it over many other high end 300 Blackout ARs.

The Sugar weasel is still designed by the guys that designed the 300 Blackout cartridge, it still brings to the shooter everything they wanted to deliver from the cartridge and a specifically designed firearm for that cartridge. You’ll get absolutely phenomenal subsonic performance, that far outperforms any sub-gun for close-quarters work; and by simply changing magazines you can go to supersonic rounds, giving you much greater effective range. All of this in a very small, compact, and lightweight package, that still delivers in ergonomics, accuracy, and stunning good looks. I can’t tell you how many times when I brought this to the range, people would say to me “oh you have your Honey Badger”, and I would have to correct them and try and explain the whole sugar weasel thing. I say that to let you know that most people will actually think this is a Honey Badger. The Sugar Weasel is an absolutely top-notch 300 Blackout AR15, and if you’re in the market for one, and looking at brands like Daniel Defense, BCM, or most other direct impingement ARs, you need to have the Q Sugar weasel on your list as well.

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