One lazy afternoon in the gun shop I was killing time browsing the local gun classifieds when I finally found the gun I had been seeking since middle school: an Armalite AR-180. I promptly made arrangements to meet the seller and called my wife to haggle over money. I [Read More…]
Back in January after the hustle and bustle of SHOT Show 2020, I had the pleasure of taking a look inside the armory at Battlefield Vegas. Battlefield Vegas have some amazing firearms in their inventory, one of many rare and interesting rifles you don’t see in the [Read More…]
At SHOT Shows or other exhibitions, booths of companies like Serbu Firearms are some of the most interesting ones to visit. And the reason is, as a rule, such companies constantly experiment with new ideas and if you are lucky enough, you can meet and discuss their [Read More…]
At the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, gunmaker FB Radom was present at the Polish pavilion, displaying their MSBS modular assault rifle, recently named “Grot” (arrowhead) by the Polish government. The new rifle has been selected [Read More…]
Polish arms maker Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów (ZMT) has released a new large-caliber semiautomatic sniper rifle system. The 100 year old company, formerly known for their bolt-action sniper rifles and autocannons, introduced the new advanced rifles at the [Read More…]
What do you get when you combine what’s widely regarded as one of the best rifle operating mechanisms ever invented, an innovative and promising concept, and a factory with over 150 years of history making some of the finest small arms in the world? If you said [Read More…]
Strabane Police discovered an Armalite AR-180 and ammunition during a security alert. The PSNI (Police Service Northern Ireland) Superintendent Mark McEwan blames the “New IRA” for the weapon and that they intended to kill people with it. He goes on to [Read More…]
In October, I traveled out to see my co-writer Alex C. to collect data on the weights of different long guns and some of their components. Over that weekend, I weighed 58 rifles and submachine guns, and numerous magazines, bolts, bolt carriers, and other miscellaneous [Read More…]
Rufus writes: This is a picture of my original Armalite AR-180 manufactured in England by Sterling. I saw it in a shop next to one of the new ones produced by the current Armalite (which is the same company in name only) with the polymer lower. I fell in love with [Read More…]
Aftermath Gun Club has posted images of the Leader T2-derived AAA SAP pistol on its firearms identification site ID.Gun.FM. The Leader T2 was not a commercial success, resulting in the dissolution of Charles St. George’s company Armtech Pty Ltd in 1983. [Read More…]
I certainly won’t pass up a chance to post about the AR-18; the rifle has a uniquely 1960s-chic about it that I can’t resist. The marriage of unadorned stamped steel and black polymers makes for a rifle that looks like it’s ready to be carried by a [Read More…]
We’ve covered a little bit of the AR-18 here before, and in passing mentioned its ancestor, the 7.62mm AR-16. For those uninitiated to this relatively unknown rifle, there is a brief but instructive article on the rifle at Wikipedia. GunLab’s Chuck has [Read More…]
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, [Read More…]
Ronaldo came across a negative of a photo of an AR-18 he photographed at the Brazilian Army’s Fábrica de Itajubá back in October 1982. The gun is unusual for having a rifle-length handguard, carbine-length barrel and rifle-style flash suppressor. It also [Read More…]
The Armalite AR-18 is arguably one of the most influential guns of the 20th century. Many of its gas, bolt and recoil spring features continue to be appropriated in new gun designs. The rifle was a commercial failure, although some of its direct descendants did well. [Read More…]