Category: Personal Guns

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Modern AR-180?

I as well as many others have pondered what the AR-180 would have become if it had the same development as the AR-15.

I think I may have found the answer.

The Remington/Bushmaster ACR Advanced Combat Rifle

Designed by MagPul and named the Masada the rights were sold to, and the civilian version is made by Bushmaster.

I snapped a few pics before I left town but it has many features that are directly decedent from the 180.

Look familiar?

More pics to come and I hope to get them both to the range to compare them side by side.

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Update: AR180S Pistol Grip

I’ve had lots of folks contact me about buying these when they are available. I don’t think I could sell them fully finished for enough to pay for my time but I think I would have no problem selling them in the raw, printed state.

Anyone willing to sand and polish their own?

Heading for Salt Lake for work so let me see what I have into these for design and materials and I’ll see if I can put a price on them.

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AR180S Pistol Grip Prototype

Been wanting a better pistol grip to use on my Nodak NDS-18S lowers pretty much since they came out.

I used an ArmaLite grip but only bought a couple before they stopped selling them. (Sound familiar?) It also didn’t have the right shape.

Since I have been working with Fusion 360 I have been thinking of all kinds of things to design. Why not a better looking pistol grip.

I’ve still got a few kinks to iron out then I can make a more detailed print. I’m confident it would be a functional part when I am done and will certainly put it through it’s paces. It is very comfortable in the hand.

I’m diggin’ it. Anyone else?

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SAR-80 Kit Build – Finished?

The SAR-80 kit build is alive and well.

Installing the rear sight was really straight forward. Eyeball it in the center then weld it from the inside through previously drilled holes. I tried measuring it to center it but my less than ideal bends made that pretty much useless.

A shot of primer on the bare metal parts and she is ready for a trip to the range.

As you can see in the video it is pretty ugly. I cleaned some of that up with a belt sander then tried my hand at the crinkle paint to duplicate the original finish.

I have since added a binary trigger to it and I hope to have some fun video of the next range trip.

Everyone who uses this gun at the range just falls in love with it including my self.

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SAR-80 Kit Build – Receiver

My first foray into building my SAR-80 receiver was to reweld the upper back together. Using a gas torch and being completely out of practice led to less than stellar results.

I know it’s possible as Henderson Defense built one as a post sample and got it running well. Although they mentioned having to take the BFH to it to straighten out the warping.

I decided to start from sratch and ordered some 18ga 1008 sheet steel off of Amazon.

I tried to bend it in a cheap harbor freight brake and it flexed too much. I resorted to milling a piece of 6061 aluminum to fit inside then beat the corners into a more square-ish shape. Felt like Boris building an AK from a Shovel.

I cut up some pieces to weld inside to guide the cam pin and to retain the charging handle. The combination of my crappy AC flux core welder and the this sheet steel led to me needing to reweld these multiple times. I now call this one my “Ugly Build”.

At this point it still needs the rear sight welded on and the charging handle spacer piece rewelded.

More on that next time.