AR-16 Style Hand Guards For The BRN-180

Playing with some ideas I have had floating around in my head as well as trying out some a new filament color, Army Green.

For those not familiar, the AR-16 was a prototype designed by Eugene Stoner when he still worked at ArmaLite. The furniture was wood but I always liked the shape of the hand guard. The part that stands out for me is the hand stop and the metal heat shield that sticks out the front.

I decided to give it a go and designed a couple prototypes.

photo sourced from gunlab.net
photo sourced from gunlab.net

So far I am very pleased with the outcome. The goal will be to creat one hand guard that works for both the long and short versions of the BRN-180. The green might not be your cup of tea but it photographs well. It will certainly be available in basic black.

What do you all think? Leave me your comments below and no this isn’t an April fools joke. I actually posted an article!

Christmas Came Early

My e-form 1 took 161 days but it made for an early Christmas Present.

I decided to Form 1 my Nodak Spud NDS-1815 lower. For those of you new to the site this is the lower I designed and licensed to Nodak. I have been working on a prototype butt stock and hand guard for the BRN-180 and my lower. I have been chomping at the bit to put them together but I’ve honestly been a good little boy and resisted temptation.

Now I can put them together and I couldn’t be more excited!

I know it’s been too long since I have posted anything and for that I apologize. I will try to do more in the future.

If you want to help out the site head over to the store at AR180Parts.com

Maybe you will decide to pick up something you like and that will also help keep the lights on around here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all. Lets hope for a better year in 2021 and stay safe out there.

Reader Builds SA80

Reader James put together an Airsoft based SA80 and I thought you would like to see some pics of his process. He also wrote me the following in an email which helps explain a lot of the problems I had trying to put mine together.

James wrote quote;

This is a bitch to put together……

For the upper and the lower. I used a Star Airsoft cause the metal was
a bit thicker then the G&G. They all had issues with spacing.
Basically… Here’s the deal.
You have to use an Airsoft body unless you have a massive press and dies.
But the airsoft guns all put the magazine too far forward and too far
apart from the trigger pack holes.
The airsoft guns are all too wide by about 2mm. And in some guns like
the G&G, the mag well is too short.
So basically… All uppers and lowers have to quartered and welded back
together. I have some images of how I did this and where I too material
out.
I used the STAR because its was 2mm too long all in the area between the
Magazine and the Trigger pack so I could just take out 2mm right down
the middle, and the mag well accepted AR15 mags without modification.
However, its probably the least like the real steel guns. The G&G and
Army bodies of which I have 2 or 3 each could work, but you’ll need 2
guns to make 1 gun cause the length of the airsoft gun is spot on, but
you need to remove 2mm from the length between the magazine well and the
trigger pack. This is all based on were the trigger is and having an
actual trigger rod and a trigger pack. You know the spring guide from
the back of the gun will locate the back of the Barrel extension block
or trunnion. And then the bolt in battery will basically just pass the
Auto sear location.

In AutoCAD i made blocks of the pieces that I had for the real gun.
Those I wanted to fit absolutely and I found that those told me where
things had to go to make things work. Key points. Spring guide rod.
Trigger Pack holes. Length of bolt hold open level to catch magazine
follower. HK magazine. Auto Sear location on Trigger pack. Auto sear
cam on bottom of bolt. Bolt face with lugs in battery will tell you
where the barrel extension goes.
Length of trigger bar from trigger to trigger pack. Those all all
fixed elements which when placed will show you that airsoft bodies need
a shitload of work to make things fit right.

The G&G and Army bodies although they’ll look better need to have 2
airsoft guns each cut into 4 pieces, 1 cross cut and one length wise
cut. Because they don’t have the extra length.

Hope this is helpfull to you.!

Enjoy the pictures, there are a lot of them!

Bullpup BRN-180

I don’t know how I missed this for 6 months but someone built a Bullpup BRN-180.

You can find the original post here!

Does someone have an account on that forum? If so shoot him a message for me and send him here, we need to chat.

He used an electronic trigger with a solenoid to actuate the “regular” trigger.

He has since moved the battery to the rear of the gun.

After seeing this I want to do the same thing and it might just end up bringing my SA-80 airsoft conversion back from the dead.

Airsoft lower with the guts out of a BRN-180 upper.

Fusion Lowers are Almost Here!

The Fusion lowers are getting close.

These will be the 80% version that will be available through my website. When they arrive I will be testing different jigs to get an idea which ones will work. I can say with confidence that those versions that surround the entire lower and are designed for forged lower will not work without mods.

The magwell area will interfere. Those jigs that attach to the rear of the lower should work.

As well as those popular router jigs.

For those that are looking for a 100% solution I am proud to announce that Nodak Spud has licensed my design and will be producing what they call the NDS-1815. This is the first prototype and the first run should be fully machined and off to anodizing by the end of October. I’m very excited to see this come to fruition.

NDS-1815
NDS-1815

It’s been a long road bringing these to market but I’m sure you will be as happy with these as I am.