History – Page 4 – AR180S.COM

September 12, 2015

Original ArmaLite Shipping Box and Parts

I recently traded some goodies with one of my readers and ended up with this awesome piece of history.

It would appear that someone ordered some spare parts for their AR-180 and then it just sat around, unused.

I believe it was sold recently on GunBroker as a package with the gun and I was able to do some horse trading for it from him.

This is the stuff that really gets my juices flowing. I almost love the history part of this hobby more than the shooting. Almost.

Shown here with what is left of an AR-180 Scope box.

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015

The First AR-18 Carbine?

Reader Eric sent me a link to an older article on The Firearm Blog that talks about a mysterious Brazilian AR-18 Carbine.

I think that we can actually find enough clues in this one known picture to postulate that this is a factory made prototype.

This gun has some of the of the features found only on the earliest AR-18 guns.

If we compare it to the first prototype SN: X001, we see that they both share the straight charging handle design and the lack of a dust cover.

I believe it may have been built around the same time as the first AR-180 prototype seen here. It shares many more features with this model SN: 002. Straight charging handle, no dust cover, dovetail scope mount, stock folding mechanism.

Finally, the original authors speculation about the front fore-grip not being a factory part is shown to be false when looking at the production model AR-18 Shorty, SN: A5689. Clearly they are both modified factory hand grips.

I think this is a very cool variant of the AR-18 and is quite reminiscent of the early M-16 carbine, the Model 605.

Of course after seeing the picture of this AR-18 Carbine, I am going to have to build one. Who’s with me?

Try as I might I was unable to find a link to the original SAR article “The Lost Armalites” that I “borrowed” the majority of these pictures from. If anyone has a link so I may give them credit and a link-back, I would appreciate it. Also if anyone has the original magazine and would like to sell me a copy, I would like to add one to my collection.

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August 27, 2015

Leader Dynamics VS. Australian Automatic Arms

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.

June 30, 2015

Armalite AR-180 Serial and Production Numbers

I feel a bit remis that I have not covered some of the more basic information for collectors on the Armalite AR-180 serial and production numbers.

I have been trying to verify this information through other sources but so far I have come up empty handed, so here is what I have been able to find.

Production began in July 1969 in Costa Mesa CA and continued till 1972. Howa production was from 1970-1974. Sterling production was from 1979-1985.
Costa Mesa rifles
S0001-S0012 July 1969 12 rifles
S0014-S0050 no date 37 rifles
S0030 no date 1 rifle
S0077 no date 1 rifle
S0101-S4067 no date 3967 rifle
TOTAL 4018 rifles

Howa rifles
X000001-X000012 Oct 1970 12 rifles
S000001-S001000 no date 1000 rifles
S10001-S12915 Feb 1974 2915 rifles
TOTAL 3927 rifles

Sterling rifles
S15001-S27363 1979-1985 12,362 rifles

The first 1000 Howa rifles had the serial number on the upper and the flash hiders have matching serial numbers on them.

Total production was 20,307 not all of which were imported to the US. Some were also exported to Ireland and there has been some attrition as well. I estimate something like 15,000 to 17,000 left in the US.

Quite rare when you compare them to even Colt SP1 numbers which approach 225,000 not to mention the number of M16’s made.

May 26, 2015

AR-180 Derivative: Australian Automatic Arms

Many weapons can trace their lineage back to the AR-180. Some of this is somewhat convoluted and hard to follow. Such is not the case with the Australian Automatic Arms series of guns.

The story starts with Charles St. George and Leader Dynamics. In the late 70’s St. George along with his partners, started Leader Dynamics and manufactured among others, the T2 MkV.

This gun bears a striking resemblance to the AR-180 both inside and out. Charles St. George even says he was largely influenced by the AR-180 in this interview from Ian at Forgotten Weapons.

The company was dissolved and the rights to to produce these guns was sold to Australian Automatic Arms in Tasmania. Some minor modifications were made and production commenced.

Unfortunately, the timing could not have been worse as the Assault Weapons Ban stopped importation in 1993. It has been reported that the Australian government shut down and closed the plant shortly after that.

Only about 700 of these particular SAP pistols were ever let into the country.

This pistol in particular happened to call out from me from a table at my local gun show a few weeks back. She came home with me.

One improvement I particularly like it that the self contained bolt carrier/guide rod assembly. I makes field striping that much easier and you can’t loose any springs!

One interesting thing about this design that is not readily apparent, the gas system is offset to the right to make room for the charging handle. You can clearly see this in the picture of the bolt carrier group.

I will be bringing you more information on this gun and how it compares to our beloved AR-180 soon. For now,enjoy the pics.