Celebrating the Armalite AR-180
My daughter told me that my site needed some help. I let her play around with it and so far I like it.
What do you think?
Also a little update to the Fusion Lower. It was suggested that I increase the reinforcements around the pivot pin.
Friend had some free time on his VMC so he agreed to make a lower to see how it looks in real life.
First couple of operations are done and it is starting to look the part. Another cut along the bottom following the magwell will just about finish the side profile.
What do y’all think?
I first talked about this in and article in 2015 https://ar180s.com/the-first-1000-howa-ar-180s/
It was speculated that the Early Howa AR-180’s actually started life as AR-18’s that were first produced prior to 1967. They were blocked from export to the US and that forced Armalite to step up and make them in Costa Mesa. Later this initial order of 1000 rifles were converted to semi auto and then imported in the early 70’s.
I was contacted by Jonathan Ferguson who is the “Keeper of Firearms & Artillery” at the Royal Armouries Museum ,UK. He is researching a book on the evolution of the British Bullpup rifles. One of the early concept rifles used an AR-18 that was converted to a Bullpup.
The best pictures of this converted AR-18 are on the Armament Research site. http://armamentresearch.com/british-enfield-sa80-part-1-mock-ups/
From these photos I could tell it was a Howa but it had been scrubbed of markings. Jonathan was able to find a serial number on the flash hider and my earlier article led him to some interesting documents.
Assuming the flash hider had not been changed he found the the rifle had been acquired for testing in January of 1967. It was only later converted to a bullpup after testing had concluded. This is the first definitive PROOF that these guns existed before 1967! Very exciting news. This is the kind of primary source documentation that prompted me to start this site. It is critically important that these sources be found and the dots connected.
Jonathan has given permission to post this info but he will be going into much more depth on the subject in his book. I will certainly keep you abreast of any updates I get as to it’s release date.
Just a couple quick pics. I lowered the pistol grip mount down and gave room for the web of your hand plus a few tweaks. More fake spot welds.
I think making it still be AR15 compatible would be the best way to go about it.
I ran into some problems with my earlier designs. Squaring off the rear of the receiver would leave no room for the web of your hand.
I had not realized this and was working on a Gen II version that had a 180B style rear end. This had the same problem as Gen I but also would not allow the BRN-180 to drop down into the receiver at the back.
I started fresh this morning and left the rear end alone and just modified the front to resemble the AR-180B/Nodak NDS-18S.
Astute observers may have noticed I also modified my pistol grip to fit on a standard AR-15 mounting point. I have had this request from some of my followers on Instagram.
By the way if you are on Instagram give me a follow. I post a lot of other stuff on there that you might like. Look up BigRix, the same as my Youtube channel.