Celebrating the Armalite AR-180
Grabbed a copy of FreeCAD and went to work today teaching myself from scratch.
I couldn’t do any old project so I drew up a trunion for an AR-180B.
I reverse engineered the dimensions from my original upper I found it to be a lot of fun.
Just a quick picture.
The hole takes a modified AR-15 barrel extension, just like the original 180B.
I am still not sure how the original was retained other than a press fit.
Just got my sample parts from Chuck and I must say, they look awesome. I really like the light park job that he has done on these and the quality is outstanding.
The Bolt hold opens need a bit of a tweak on one bend so that is holding us up a bit. They should be ready to go shortly so get your name on the list by emailing me at rkelley91 at gmail dot com and I will put you on the list.
These parts along with an AR-15 lower parts kit will allow you to populate a Nodak NDS-18S lower without having to buy an AR-180B first.
You can then use that lower on your original AR-180, AR-180B, and Vulcan V-18. Using one on an original 180 will allow you to use standard AR-15 STANAG magazines instead of 180 mags.
Pricing is $125 per set, shipped and insured in the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii slightly higher. No international sales at this time.
Now for some pics of this set in my SBR lower.
Not exactly a competition but since Chuck at GunLab.net was nice enough to loan me his Leader Dynamics T2 MkV rifle, I used that opportunity take some pics and compare it to it’s direct decedent, the Australian Automatic Arms SAP.
Not exactly a visit to ArmaLite but a visit to the location of the Costa Mesa location.
I was working in Torrance CA last week so I took a little jaunt south to see for myself where my gun was made.
As some of you may have seen before the building where they set up shop is now a body shop and a busy one at that.
I didn’t want to bother them so I just took some pics and did not go inside.
Just picked this little ArmaLite AR-7 up yesterday and like everything I buy, I have to immediately learn everything about it.
Just like when I got my first AR-180, I find there is not much info to be had. That’s exactly what led me to start this sight. To put all the info in one place.
I took a few pictures and I am reaching out to you, my readers to help me fill in the blanks. I’m trying to find out when it was made and there is no database of serial numbers like others may have. The closest I have been able to come is the parts list indicates that California residents have to pay 4% sales tax. A little research reveals that only was true from 1962 to 1967. How cool would it be if this thing was made in my birth year, 1965.
What I know so far;
ArmaLite made these from 1959 to 1973.
The first models had brown stocks and butt pads.
The earliest models had serial numbers that were covered up when the stock was installed.
The second versions had swirled, multi colored stocks like mine.
I’m not sure if ArmaLite made the stocks in black before selling to Charter Arms in 1973.
Some stuff I ran across on the net (unverified);
Brown stock models started with serial 50,000
Swirled stock models started with serial 70,000
I don’t see any reason that we can’t put together our own database of serial numbers with the features they include.
I would want to include things such as serial number and location, stock type, roll mark on receiver and the roll mark on the barrel.
If you have any information to contribute, I would appreciate it as well as the rest of my readership.
I found this awesome early model in a forum post here
