Costa Mesa – Page 12

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 9, 2015

A Visit to ArmaLite; Costa Mesa

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.

August 9, 2015

A New One Joins the Heard: ArmaLite AR-7

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

August 3, 2015

A Visit to the GunLab – AR-180 Parts

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to visit Chuck at GunLab.net and it was an awesome and overwhelming experience. I wished I had taken the time to take more pictures but I think I was a little in shock at all the cool guns, parts, and equipment. By far the best part of the trip was the company, Chuck and Shirley are two of the nicest folks you could ever have the pleasure of meeting.

We chatted at length about his work on the AR-180 parts he is building. The lower parts that he is making to fit your AR-180B and Nodak NDS-18S lowers were at heat treating and should be back this week. Parkerization and final inspection along with one final operation on the springs will finish this phase. They should be ready to ship very soon.

Next up he is working on uppers. We are hoping to have them available in several configurations from flats to complete uppers with trunnions and rails. He sent me some pictures of his solid model of the stamping die he is building.

Trunnions have also been modeled and those should be coming shortly after the upper sheet metal.

I also gave him one of my original prototype AR-180C railed front sight bases and I am hoping that we can get a few of those made.

The AR-180C flat top might become a reality after all!

Finally yours truly with the only picture from my visit, holding an MP-44 for the very first time. I find it astonishing that they were able to crank these out in the numbers they did, with allied bombs dropping all around them, and that the complexity of manufacture I see in this gun was actually a time saver compared to older weapons.

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