AR18S – Page 7 – AR180S.COM

May 27, 2015

What’s New at AR180S.com

Things have been busy around here and I think it will only get busier. Just the way I like it.

My new job has me out of town during the week but I love to travel and weekends with the family can’t be beat.

Next stop the San Francisco bay area then on to Oklahoma City and Amarillo TX.

The parts lot that I purchased is leading to a potential new project. (Don’t they always)

Thinking about building an AR-180B in .458 SOCOM. Why not, right.

I’m thinking a disapator with carbine length gas and full length handguards in a 16″ barrel.

Mods may have to be done to one of the guide rods and ejection port as the clearance may not be enough to clear the larger case.

Tony Rumore turned down a case head to fit the bolt and snapped this pic to show how little clearance there is.

I have a stripped Bravo upper and bolt carrier group, front sight bases and all the piston parts. Everything to build an upper but the barrel but how boreing would it be to build a stock one. First thought was .300 Blackout but then it struck me. Go Big or go home.

Maybe I can fit the 180C gas block under the hand guards and use a stripped 180B front sight base at the end of the barrel.

I’m going to be moving ahead with this project as funds and time allow. (As I get back to work I gain more of one and less of the other)

By the way I still have a few complete bolt carrier groups available for sale from the parts lot. Pick one up for your next project or as a spare. I don’t have to tell you how hard the bolts are getting to find.

Made up a new flash hider from an original print that I was given access to. (Sorry it’s not anything I can share or publish at this time)

You can see how it differs from the one that I reverse engineered from a picture. I do believe, however that the one I used as an example was not built to the same specs as the one that later made it into production

The new to me AAA SAP is begging to be made into an SBR and I am trying to find an original stock.

The rear of the reciever was cut off when it was made as a pistol so some type of adapter would have to be made.

I am also considering the left over Vulcan V18 stock as shown in the teaser pics from my last post.

I still have to get it to the range to test fire it before I even consider sending off for a stamp on this one.

As always I am watching my local craigslist to see if I can find a bigger lathe and possibly a small milling machine.

I am also looking for someone with a Leader T2 MkV that is in southern AZ so I can take some side by side pics and show the differences that were made when AAA took over production.

Thanks for the feedback on the new mail system. It seems to have worked other that the fact that I sent out basically a blank message.

I hope the email you get for this one will be much improved.

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 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.

April 23, 2015

AR-180 20 Round Magazines

Today we will be covering the subject of AR-180 20 Round Magazines that were original equipment with your rifle.

All AR-180’s came with two 20 round magazines when sold new but there are several differences in them that we should know about.

They came with magazines that are very similar to AR-15 mags but with a few important differences. They had no cut-out or dimple on the left side and had floor plates that were marked AR-18.

Howa’s came with magazines that were virtually identical but had a different floor plate design.

These are the most common ones found today.

These are generalities and as you will see in the pictures shown below, there are some minor differences even among the 20 round magazines.

Many would consider these magazines interchangeable but upon closer inspection we can see they are different and can be identified as early and late.

The mag on the right has a green/gray color and is quite smooth. The left one is fully gray and has a rougher texture. The one on the right is early and is correct for most Costa Mesa rifles, at least the early ones. It will be referred to as early and the other as late.

In this picture you can also see that the rivets in the early mag are smaller than the the ones used in the late.

Again showing the early mag on the right you can see that the floor plates are different as well. The early plates have a dull finish and the late ones are smooth and shiny. Shown propped on another early magazine.

The early magazines came with a device to block them to 5 rounds. This piece is often missing as this was one of the first things people removed after buying their new weapon.

I have not been able to determine when these early mags were phased out, we may never know. It is possible they shipped with all the Costa Mesa guns and the later ones went with the Sterlings. It is also possible that they were only used early on and the later CM guns used the late mags. More research is needed but the ease with which mags can be swapped around may make this an impossible task.

One piece of evidence that may help is the fact that the Howa mags were identical to these except for the floor plate design.

Here is a Howa next to an early mag. You can plainly see that the rivet is the same and other than the shade being a little off, the color is a close match.

Here the floor plate design changes are easy to see.

To my mind I believe the mags were made by the same company and in the same time period. That would put the manufacture in the mid 60’s to early 70’s.

Lastly we have the easiest to identify, the late Sterling magazine.

The Sterling’s were painted black over parkerization till somewhere around the S20,000 serial number. It is my speculation that they used the gray magazines as well as the black during that time and then used the gray during the remaining run of blue finished guns. I have no evidence to back this up.

Shown hear next to an early mag with a late one on the far right. You will note that the rivets are the same as the late mag.

The floor plate is also smooth and shiny like the late mag but features a white color fill in the lettering.

A better view of the different floor plate designs and finishes.

All of these mags used a black plastic follower that has a cut-out for the bolt hold open at the rear.

In order of rarity and application;

Late gray magazine, Late Costa Mesa? and Sterling. Overwhelmingly the most common.

Black Sterling Magazine. Not common

Early Costa Mesa magazine. Not common

Howa Magazine. Not common

All of the uncommon mags will be hard to find but many of them will be lumped in for sale with the common gray mags and will not be sold at a premium. This is not true for the Howa mags however as they are easily identified.

I would like to say thank you to Chuck at GunLab.net for the suggestion of this article and the load of original source material he is sending me to further my research and to bring you more articles in the future. Go check out his site, it is a wealth of information.