#EugeneStoner

KE Arms has just announced the introduction of the new 20 Inch WWSD Complete Upper. This new upper configuration combines a lot of the same aspects you’d find in the 16″ version, but with a barrel length that really gives the 5.56 NATO cartridge some extra legs. The new configuration is centered around a 20-inch Ballistic Advantage lightweight Modern Series barrel but also comes complete with a lot of the neat lightweight features people loved from the original WWSD project. Or, if you’d prefer, as a complete rifle.

About a week ago, you guys got to read my take on the WWSD 2020 rifle. Love it or hate it, the rifle has generated quite the buzz in the firearms community over the last couple of years and I thought it might be prudent to bring the designers of the WWSD and KP-15 projects on the TFB Podcast to explain the story from the start of the project to where we find ourselves today. Karl and Russel graciously agreed once again to come on the TFB Podcast and lend us their time to hopefully answer some of your nagging questions about the KP-15 and WWSD 2020 rifle.

DIY guns usually fall into one of two categories. Most of the time when we are talking bout DIY guns we either get horribly botched creations that you see on Hot Gat or Fudd Crap, but sometimes you’ll also get some cursed guns like the toggle-locked belt-fed monstrosity we took a look at earlier. Long-time TFB Reader and TFBTV subscriber Stubbs usually has creations that fall into the latter category of heavily modified or bastardized firearms. However, he recently contacted me over our TFB Discord channel to show me his latest creation and I personally think that this is one that might have actually made Eugene Stoner himself proud. Today, we’ll be talking about Stubbs’ latest DIY creation, the S96S top feeding AR which was inspired by the  Stoner 63 modular weapon system.

Today, February 23rd, 2021 is an exciting excuse to go over one of the most popular and even disputed cartridges in North America. The .223 Remington cartridge designed all the way back in 1957. This lovable 22 caliber cartridge is a regular mainstay whether it is used for varmint hunting like coyotes to prairie dogs or even a valuable asset in a prepper’s back stock of ammunition. Regardless of how you may feel about the distinguished .223 Remington today, we at The Firearm Blog thought it would be an excellent reason to shed some light on the history and some facts about the good old .223 Remington. Happy 223 Day, everyone! Let’s dive right in!

Growing up, I often sat in an old dining room chair listening to my grandfather tell me stories about the war and his life experiences. As the years progressed, I started to hear the true versions of his stories that were unfiltered and raw. My grandfather had a busy life and after the war, he was a hydraulic engineer for Cadillac Gage from the Mid ’50s until 1979.

We are all familiar with the AR15 and M16 and you’re almost certainly familiar with the man behind the design, Eugene Morrison Stoner. Well,  The Institute of Military Technology has put together a fascinating documentary telling the story of the man and the guns he designed. IMT are in the unique position of having many of Stoner’s prototypes in their collection as well as archival photographs and many of his original design papers and drawings.

I saw this video on Facebook and it is probably the best explanation of how to reload and use the bolt release I have ever seen. Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch is in the below video explaining the relationship between God & Eugene Stoner.

Arms of the 80’s, a blog that focuses on firearms advertising from the 1980s, has uploaded and shared a fascinating documentary made in the 1990s. The Stoner Machine Gun: A Navy Seal Remembers, features an interview with retired SEAL  Lt. Cmdr. Michael J. Walsh.

The Armalite AR-10 is the original lightweight 7.62mm combat rifle – a space-age amalgam of aluminum, steel, and advanced plastics capable of a rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute and weighing just a hair over 7 pounds, unloaded. Its younger, 5.56mm caliber brother, the AR-15, is today perhaps the dominant rifle design in the West, but the .30 caliber AR-10 is the one the started it all, the progeny of Eugene Stoner’s brilliant design and Fairchild’s advanced manufacturing.

Today is November Twenty-Second, and just so happens to be the birthday of Eugene Morrison Stoner, born in the year 1922. The designer has since passed away in 1997, but had he been alive today he would be 95 years old. Inventor of the AR10, co-inventor with Jim Sullivan of the AR15, the Stoner 63 weapons system, the SR-25 precision rifle, and numerous other small arms designs. Stoner was an interesting figure, and in a number of ways shared many traits with his design competitor Mikhail Kalashnikov on the other side of the world. Both drew enormous inspiration from their service in the Second World War, both designed prolific weapons systems, competing against intellectual engineering giants of their fields with very little experience of their own to begin with. Neither ever received a college degree during their lifetimes, a testament to their passion and hard work ethic.

According to a report by Mönch Publishing Group, French Special Operations units and Danish Armed Forces are currently testing Knight’s Armament Corporation’s Stoner 5.56x45mm NATO LMG. Specifically the French Commandement des Forces Speciales Terre, and even more specifically the 1 Regiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine will be conducting extensive tests of the XLMG to replace current FN Herstal M249 legacy systems in their inventories. There is little information dealing with what Danish unit will be conducting trials or is considering an LMG replacement.

The Stoner legacy goes beyond just the AR-15. Several firearms designed either by Stoner or based off his work continue to impress modern shooters at the range and in use. One very notable such weapon is the Stoner 63 LMG, the weapon Larry Vickers has taken to the range for the first time in the video embedded below:

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 special operations trooper in some desolate and ungodly hot backwater, in the seemingly unending struggle against Communism.

InRange has an excellent interview (and range video!) with Jim Sullivan, a designer of the AR-15, Ultimax 100, Mini-14, and other firearms. In it, they get to fire Sullivan’s improved M4, which is more tolerant of sustained fire and employs the “constant recoil” principle used in Sullivan’s Ultimax 100 machine gun. I’ve fired the latter weapon, and I can say without a doubt that Sullivan means what he says when talking about its performance and soft-shooting characteristics. To help illustrate this, here’s a video of my friend Arthur firing the Ultimax 100 taken by a high speed camera at about 1,000 frames per second (due to the lighting conditions that evening, the quality is not as high as I would like, but the effect of the constant recoil mechanism is very evident):