For our February Blog Of The Month, we take a trip back to the early 1960s, after Armalite had sold the rights to its highly desirable AR-15 to Colt’s, and were searching for a competitor to their own design. The rifle designed by Art Miller to fill this void, itself an evolution of Stoner’s work on the 7.62mm AR-16, was the AR-18, the civilian model of which was called the AR-180. Dedicated to this fairly unsuccessful but highly influential weapon is AR180s.com, a website that in its own words seeks to become “the central depository for AR-180 information.”

AR180s.com’s author’s Costa Mesa AR-180, the rifle that started it all.

The site is only a couple of months old itself, but already contains some interesting information on the AR-180, including different manual variations, scope information, and a project to build a short-barreled AR-180 pistol, patterned off the AR-18S.

The AR-18, though it was a design that prioritized expeditiousness of manufacture uber alles, still was highly mechanically sound, and probably would have achieved greater success had it not been beaten to the market by other designs. Even so, it laid the mechanical foundation for later designs like the G36 and Remington ACR, and so has an important place in the history of modern small arms. AR180s.com promises much more information on this interesting and significant rifle, and is therefore our February Blog Of The Month!