the tavor suit israel better due to the environment/battlefield they are in mostly urban. the bullpop has its advantage been easier to move in/out from vehicle and easier to fire in vehicle. for a traditional battlefield, the tavor doesn't provide any benefit. I fire tavor before, the trigger sucks almost 12lb pull, and suppressed has issue too. tavor did a pretty good marketing in the US, thats why alot people buy it. is it better than AK/m4, in different situation yes, but it also has disadvantage compare to M4 etc
there is a reason ppl in competition or 223 precision shooting still prefer AR. the ar is such module rifle where you can pop in a different upper under a minute for different situation. ar trigger is better which provide better accuracy. in a battlefield where engagement are in 100-400yrd, i don't think i would use tavor. but for house to house where engagement is less than 100yrd, get in/out of vehicle, the tavor has its advantages.
ppl pay $1800 on gun not gonna say it sucks
Gun Review: IWI TAVOR SAR - The Truth About Guns
First let me make something clear,no one is down grading AR here, definitely not projecting tar 21 as the ultimate assault rifle(as for being one,one has to have no disadvantage,down point or flaw)which is not true for a single assault rifle out there.You have to make compromise here and there,at the end you have to decide the main purpose for the rifle.Tar 21 being made to fight, perform the main purpose of good assault rifle well.It has its own share of advantages and disadvantage when compared with ar.But if you compare all the points in different areas and then make the final assessment, tar 21 will fair better than ar over all.
The Good
The TAVOR SAR (hereafter referred to as simply "the TAVOR") is exceedingly compact. It fits in places where only an SBR could previously go, including small trunks and briefcases. Which makes it much easier to sneak the gun in and out of your apartment building without getting the stink-eye from the neighbor with the Obama/Biden '12 sticker. It also makes the gun more maneuverable, an especially prized feature for close quarters-style fighting. In fact, for that reason alone, this might have sprung straight to the top of my recommendation list for home defense rifles.
I have to admit to spending a good half hour clearing my apartment with the rifle over and over again, and compared to my previous rifle of choice (300 BLK AR-15) it was delightfully sleek and unobtrusive. Having all the weight of the gun behind the pistol grip allowed me to free my support hand to open doors or hold a flashlight without ever really losing control of the rifle. For the first time, this gun allowed me to open a door and keep the rifle shouldered and ready to fire at the same time. I loved it.
The rifle's design, with its easy disassembly and modularity, is excellent in theory as well as practice.
Field stripping the gun for cleaning is easy as pie. One pin and the whole bolt and piston assembly slides free, opening the gun up for maintenance. It's a welcome change from the complicated dance of the AR-15 and its charging handle, which has thrown many a newbie for a loop when tearing the gun down for the first time. Definitely something that new and experienced shooters alike will appreciate.
With the push of a couple pins and the turn of a couple keys, the gun will readily convert from the current 5.56 NATO configuration to any other caliber that can fit in an AR-15 magazine well. According to the IWI reps, a .300 AAC Blackout conversion kit will be available within the year and a 9mm and 5.45×39 kit are already in production. It's nice to see a rifle that can be changed so radically with such little work. By comparison, the AR-15 requires specialized tools and more to get the barrels changed out. It's so daunting a task that I prefer to buy a new complete upper than to swap a barrel myself.
Moving forward on the gun, there are two things I want to point out as particularly excellent.
First, the forward-mounted charging handle. Not only is it non-reciprocating (averting the only complaint about the SCAR I have) so you don't bash your knuckles, but it falls readily to hand and is easy to operate. In short, it just works.
Speaking of "there when you need it," the thing just refuses to die. I used the worst ammunition I could find, the worst magazines I could muster (including some experimental models), and tried everything I could think of to make this gun jam. But no matter what I did, the TAVOR fired reliably every single time.
Bad (as pointed by you)
Trigger -it's heavy
Yes it is.But does it mean it is bad?The person in the video posted above mention this "the trigger is heavy but turns out to be a good one".It's heavy but a lot of that is due to the additional springs included to help force the trigger to reset even if the mechanism is full of sand (IWI overengineered the thing. Thoroughly). People have removed one of those springs and managed to get much more reasonable trigger weights out of them.
One can easily modify trigger by themselves (by removing extra spring) and bring down the trigger weight around ar .
Range- accuracy long ranges
This i will hand it down to you .AR has better accuracy in long ranges,but this does not mean tar 21(18 inch barrel) fails at long ranges,it is still effective at long ranges just that ar is better at it,but you can easily bring down a target at 500 yards with tar 21,most of the modern battle particularly special forces firefight happens anywhere to the range of 300 yards where it is quite effective.See tar 21 at 500 yards in rain.
Suppressed problems-Yes it is a major issue to some but then for some it does not seem so.I cannot find much detail about it so i guess have to hand it to you.Though i guess there is some replacement ejection port cover being provided which seem to tackle this issue.
Only good as a range toy-Yes but for whom ?civilians ,who can go in a precision firing competition (but this rifle was not made for that),cannot go to hunting (at long ranges yes there are far more better rifle made for that),can go to firefight-(this is the main purpose for which this rifle was created but being civilian i do not think you can make use of it)
Price- This is a point from my side .As i feel it is a bit overpriced,to be frank if it has to be made as cheap as an ar than i think you feel see a lot more of it than the traditional AR.
So in the end tar 21 is a compact,reliable rifle which has good ergonomics along with good weight distribution which make it a lot easier to handle.It has very good accuracy upto 300m and reasonably accurate at much longer ranges .It's not an precision rifle,its an assault rifle meant for battle where you know all the shooting is based on reflex action(where tar 21 excels due to its weight distribution and ergonomics),m4 maybe better at long ranges but then you cannot set the limit for ur firefight in a battle.You would have to face any situation in a battle ,and hence a weapon which excel overall in most of the situation is a better choice.
Good marketing tactics-Tavor is being used by "military" special forces of Azerbaijan,Brazil,Colombia,Georgia,Guatemala,India ,Philippines,Portugal,Thailand and Ukraine .If all of these just bought some uber expensive junk just based on marketing (without any trials and inspection and handling)than god save all.
The person who is featured in the video above have borrowed tar from someone ,so no he has not paid for it.Plus "Tar 21 SUCKS" you will find people all over the world who share similar thought for one or the other product.The main factor which decide reputation about the product is whether the people that hold such thought are in minority or majority.And my friend i have to say you are in minority as far as it goes for tar 21.
note*- I am having problem in posting in the forum so was not able to properly highlight and underline important points.So please excuse for the poor presentation.