The Sexy Retro Shorty: Original AR-180 Police Carbine
Forgotten Weapons
•
14m
When Armalite designed the AR-180, they needed a factory to produce it, as their own production capacity was limited. Initially a license was granted to How in Japan, but this only lasted a few years before US involvement in the Vietnam War led Japan to cease allowing arms to be shipped to the US. In 1974, Armalite instead gave the production lice to Sterling in the UK. Sterling made a total of 12,368 AR-180 rifles, or which 10,946 were sent to the US.
In addition to standard rifles, Sterling also made a carbine version. The barrel was shortened to 10.5 inches and the gas system and handguard shortened to match. A small conical flash hider was added, and sometimes a vertical front grip. The action and stock remained identical to the standard rifle. Both semiauto and full auto carbines were made, with the semiauto ones being numbered SS225 through SS334 and the full auto ones AS001 through AS327. Few (if any) of the carbines went to the US because of their short barrel status, and most were sold in the UK - like the ones we are looking at today.
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Lever-Delayed Prototype SMG: The MAS ...
When France decided to adopt a new 9x19mm submachine gun after World War Two, all three of the main French arsenals (St Etienne/MAS, Chatellerault/MAC, and Tulle/MAT) developed designs to compete for adoption. Tulle would eventually win and their design became the MAT-49, but the other lines of d...
-
A Professional Warlord Copy of the FN...
Interested in more pistols from the Chinese warlord era? Check out my book "Pistols of the Warlords", now in stock and shipping at:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/chinese-pistols
One of the professional factory-made Chinese warlord-era copies of the FN Model 1900 came from the Nanjing Arse...
-
Original FG42: A Detailed Comparison ...
Today we are looking at examples of the 1st pattern (Type E) and second pattern (Type G) FG42, comparing their construction and disassembling both to get a close look at the internal differences. Despite sharing the basic mechanism, these two models share zero parts in common, not even the bayone...
