AR180S.COM – Page 26 – Celebrating the Armalite AR-180

December 9, 2015

SAR West: After Action Report

Plenty of AR-180 action at SAR West this year.

I saw 5 Sterlings and a Costa Mesa, all over priced and I’m sure the dealers took them back home.

I looked over an early Howa on Saturday morning but wasn’t prepared to spend that much money. (I had to sell something first)

Turns out good friend on the site Tommy snagged it along with a Hybrid scope, Colt scope with an Armalite base. He brought it by for me to look at and take some pics. Serial number S000045. The earliest one I have seen.

There are far too many of these hybrid scopes for them not to have come from the factory like this.

The furniture had been painted but Tommy reported back that a few hours with paint remover brought it back to it’s former glory.

I was able to pick up a stripped Costa Mesa lower and an AR-15 barrel that had been sort of converted to work on an AR-180. Another project in the making. It’s an early three digit receiver and a C MP C barrel that has had the shoulder turned back to line up the gas port. I think I might turn this one into a more accurate AR-18S Clone. Of course this project is not going anywhere till I get the internal parts. The search continues.

Oh and a new scope to add to the collection. A second gen, inverted post, marked in yards with serial number 712116. A pretty high number.

I was also given access to another Hard Times Armory full auto conversion from the guys at AZFirearms.com and I was able to open it up and take some pictures of the inner workings. There will be a full article on this one forth coming. Special thanks to those guys for allowing me the access.

I also picked up a very few flats from Chuck. Now the question is, how to bend them properly.

I also did a lot of horse trading and came home with a couple project revolvers. Before 180s I was a die hard Colt Double Action man. I guess I still am in many ways.

December 3, 2015

SAR West Gun Show

I just got back into town from Vegas about 12:30 this morning and I am preparing to head to Phoenix for the SAR West gun show. I have never attended this show and I hope to get the most out of it. I will be wandering around with my AR-180S Shorty and a backpack full of AR-180B Lower Parts Kits. I’ll be stopping by the NoDak booth to check out his retro stuff and I am hoping he has some NDS-18S lowers with him. (Ok, I’m hoping he has one in particular, the one I ordered some months back.) I’m also hoping to run into Bill, a great gunbroker seller who I have purchased some AR-180 parts from before.

Make sure you say “Hi” if you see me walk by.

The best part however is going to be staying with Chuck and Shirley and all the other guests at their house. I can’t wait to meet all the great folks.

Sleep has been a little lacking for me this week and I don’t see that trend changing anytime soon.

November 23, 2015November 23, 2015

Readers Pics : Costa Mesa With Original Box

Reader Maurice sent me some wonderful pictures of his Costa Mesa AR-180 in the original box, including an original scope.

I think this is a great way to see how these rifles were originally sent out when they were sold new.

Enjoy

November 17, 2015

Early HOWA AR-180 – Spot The Differences

Leave a comment and tell me what differences you see between the early Howa and the early Costa Mesa in these pictures.

November 3, 2015

Early Howa AR-180 Part 2

One feature of early Howa AR-180 rifles that is unique is the flash hider, or recoil compensator as it is referred to in the factory documentation.

These were of a different design and had serial numbers stamped into them. What I did not realize was that the barrels were also different. As you can see in these two pictures, the contour of the barrels is not the same between this early Howa shown first, and the early Costa Mesa shown second. I plan to remove the flash hiders to see if the threaded sections are the same. I suspect the Howa will have shorter threads because a lock nut is not used. Late Howas also have the same contour (the step up at the muzzle end) so this may not be true as they use lock nuts.

The fact that no lock nut is used means that special care had to be taken to get the flash hiders to be timed properly. I believe that the flat washer behind the lock washer must have come in different thicknesses to accomplish this.

Finally, one of the fantastic guys over at the AR15.com Retro Forums (isplice) reports that where the flats ended up and where the serial numbers were stamped was not consistent.

If viewed from the firing position my example has the flats at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock with the serial number stamped at 9 o’clock. On gun 96x, the flats are in the same orientation but the serial is stamped at 3 o’clock. Guns 34x and 82x, the flats are at 6 o’clock and 12 o’clock and the serial number is stamped at 6 o’clock.

Reader and AR-18 Guru, Pete points out that he has noticed a difference in the windage knobs on Howa guns and all the others. I looked through the picture I shot this weekend and sure enough, he was right.

Howa – Knurled

Costa Mesa – Lines

I have found the earliest incarnation of the extra cut out on the bolt carrier as seen in my last post.

This picture is of the very first AR-18 serial number X001. It was scanned from an early AR-18 manual. If you look closely you can see that the cut out is along the full length of the bolt carrier.

The first AR-18s did not have a dust cover, it was a later improvement after military testing found fault with the opening allowing dirt and debris to get into the action. When the dust cover was added the cut out was shortened so that the second cut could be made. This second cut is there to cam open the dust cover.

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