Reader Pics: New Sharpshooter Kit

Got an email the other day and I knew y’all would be interested in it.

A brand new Sharpshooter kit.

 

This one is packaged as coming from Timberline Hawk and differs in construction from my example. The hand guard cover is improved by the addition of Velcro to allow it to be removed easily. The butt stock cover is the real pain in the ass to install. If I made a new version of this I would certainly use Velcro for that as well.

Just for fun I am including a pic from the movie Daylight’s End showing a Sharpshooter in use.

 

Lost ArmaLite Part 2

The most obvious and interesting thing about serial number 021 AR18S is the hand guard. Lets have a closer look.

The hand guard is made of wood and is the only one I have seen like this. What wasn’t apparent until these auction photos surfaced was that it is made of multiple pieces and different materials.

The upper hand guard is much taller than a traditional AR18 part almost making up the entirety of the hand guard itself. This setup does not use a metal retainer like other 18S models do. No picture are shown of the top but I am going to guess there are vent holes and ribs just like the standard pieces.

The left side shows some damage. The right side has a crack that might turn into a break like this.

The front of the hand guard was the most interesting to me. It looks like a different material was used, possibly fiber board. Hopefully something that can withstand the heat. This piece appears to be pinned and glued to the main hand guard and is retained by a protrusion on the front sight base. we will explore the FSB in another article.

What I can’t be sure about is if this piece is slotted so the hand guard can be removed in a normal fashion or if the front sight base must be removed first and the hand guard slid off the front.

The lower piece looks to be made of yet a different type of material. I’m guessing Micarta.

It is retained at the rear my the lug on the trunion but I can not for the life of me figure out how it is attached at the front. Looking closely at the first picture in this article you can make out ribs cut along the bottom. I first thought it might be held on with a screw into the FSB but I don’t find one.

I welcome any comments about things you see that I have missed.

And if anyone wants to buy this gun and let me inspect and document it for posterity just head over and throw in a bid. I’m staying out of this one.

Morphy Auctions

 

A “Lost Armalite” Resurfaces

I just received an email from a good friend alerting me to a shorty AR-18 that is up for auction but to fully appreciate it we need to check out an article in Small Arms Review titled “The Lost Armalites”

A5689 sold last year Click Here For Details

The Subject of this post is serial number 021.

Check it out Here

I will do a deep analysis of this gun in a follow up article. Stay tuned and subscribe!

 

AR-180 Police Carbine Part 2

Earlier I wrote an article about an AR-180 Police Carbine lower that had shown up on a Japanese website. Turns out there are pictures of a fully assembled gun on the web. I have seen and shown this gun before but never saw all the pics and therefore I did not know it was the real deal.

Buried deep in the sturmgewehr.com website are a bunch of picture and some of them actually happen to be of a Police Carbine, the semi auto SBR version of the AR-180.

Interesting flash hider and sling mounts on this one. I originally misidentified it as an AR-18S from the two pictures I had seen previously.

ar180_commando ar180_commandobarrel ar180_commandobarrelmarkings ar180_commandodisassembled ar180_commandodisassembleda ar180_commandoejectionport ar180_commandogaspiston ar180_commandogaspistonspring ar180_commandomarkings

This one is serial SS 291 and I was recently sent a picture of one with a slightly higher number. This one also has a standard flash hider. It is almost impossible to know if  this is how it left the factory.

20150913_082304