AR-18S – Page 10 – AR180S.COM

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.

May 24, 2015

Subscriber Pictures #5

These picture come from Shane and I have to publicly apologize for not getting them posted earlier.

Besides the fact that he has an excellent Costa Mesa gun, he has an awesome case to put it and his accessories in.

If anyone has seen a case like this before and can shed some light on its origins, Shane as well as the rest of us, would like to know.

Please leave comments with any info you might have and if my spam blocker catches yours and you don’t see it post, hit me up on the contact form and I will get it handled.

May 16, 2015

Subscriber Pictures #4

These come from a self professed AR-180 Fanatic, John.

With 14 rifles I would say his diagnosis might be accurate, at the very least, he has a severe case of RBRD.

That’s Retro Black Rifle Disease for those who are unfamiliar with the acronym. A disease that I too, suffer from.

Here is just a sampling of some of his collection from the last time he pulled them out of the safe.

I especially like his early Howa. I hope to have one of those myself someday.

He likes to shoot his ,which is what they were made for, and reports great success with steel case ammo.

He also has a surplus of parts, accessories, and guns for sale so send me a message via the contact form if you are looking for anything and I will put you in contact with him.

Thanks again for all the e-mails and suggestions. Keep them coming and don’t forget to subscribe and comment.

May 5, 2015

AR-16 : Father of the AR-18

Some of you may not know but the AR-18 was not the first stamped steel rifle that Armalite made, that distinction goes to the AR-16.

This gun was also the last gun designed by Eugene Stoner before he left Armalite. That’s right, he was not one of the designers of the AR-18 as many have maintained.

First a little background.

Armalite never wanted to be in the business of building weapons but rather to design them and license the manufacturing to someone else. After selling the patents for the AR-10 and AR-15 outright to Colt’s, they quickly determined that they needed another design to license but it could not use the direct impingement system that they no longer held the rights to. They also decided to design a weapon that could be built on machines that required less skilled labor and fewer machining operations.

This lead to the AR-16 with only the bolt and trunion requiring complex and skilled machining operations.

Only three guns were reportedly built and only two known today. Both in the possession of Knights Armament.

Thanks to my good friend Chuck over at GunLab.net ,who actually took these photographs, we can show you an up close look at these fine weapons.

I think it is easy to see the family resemblance to the AR-18.

May 4, 2015

AR-180C Parts in the Wild

That’s right folks, I have just taken possession of some AR-180C parts. They came in a parts lot that I purchased. The story goes that they were part of a sell off after a gun store went out of business. I am still trying to track down what the name of the store was, but they came from Coal Valley Illinois. Some of you may recognize that as the location of Eagle Arms, which later became the new Armalite.

For those not familiar with the fabled AR-180C, it is the flat top, railed version of the 180B shown at the SHOT Show in

Now to the parts in question. Prior to this I believe this may be the only picture out there on an AR-180C.

If you click the image and zoom in a little and look closely at the front sight base you will notice that it is a clamp on style and has a small railed section.

Here are the parts that I cam across.

There is no question in my mind that these are genuine Armalite.

One thing that has never been mentioned about the ill fated AR-180C is that when using standard AR-15 sights, you would have to use a chin weld in order to get a sight picture. I found this very thing out on my Vulcan V18. Had Armalite went ahead with this gun, they would have had to make some proprietary sights for it. That would have added significantly to the cost.