Armalite AR-17 Golden Gun

[Badger Arms]

Thought it was about time for a thread on this. First, I just bought one and was wondering what others' experiences were. Here are some of my thoughts:

Right off, one notices that the gun is light. It's REALLY light, so much so that it doesn't seem to swing like I'd expect it to. I might shoot a round or two of Trap with it to see if I can get used to it. I've got a Black Anodized one, not Gold like most were. Outwardly, it looks fairly conventional. The innards are a bit unconventional and I'll explain that here in a second.

The receiver is fairly standard from the outside. It has the profile of a Remington 870 with a step near the front to allow room for the recoiling barrel. It has a Remington-style safety in the conventional location. The trigger-guard is conventional being a cast aluminum part which houses the firing mechanism. The bolt rides on groves inside the aluminum receiver. The barrel, as I said, is aluminum. I’ve heard that it is hard-anodized and the bore won’t wear out unless you shoot steel shot through it. There is a Lyman-style choke tube assembly at the muzzle and the gun came with three choke-tubes originally. A red anodized bead rests atop this assembly.

The stock is hollow plastic. This plastic is fairly thin and a molded piece slips on the end of the stock held there by a HUGE aluminum screw. This part screws into a buffer tube that also houses the buffer spring for the bolt. The stock is equipped with a slip-on recoil pad. The grip cap on mine is missing, but was a glued-on plastic plate. The checkering resembles cut checkering and is molded into the stock. The fore-stock is made from the same hollow plastic as the butt with an end cap held on by a long fluted aluminum rod so that the barrel free-floats which it must. The fore-end has checkering on the bottom and a few groves on the sides for your fingers. The furniture has a rich, polished walnut appearance despite being plastic.

The barrel fits about two inches into the receiver and is held on by a lug below. This lug is spring loaded to return the barrel after the firing cycle ends. On firing, the bolt is locked into the barrel extension by a Johnson/Stoner type multi-lug rotating bolt. There are two extractors and the ejector rides on the left side of the bolt. The barrel recoils about 1/4" while locked and imparts inertia to the bolt. The bolt carrier then continues once the barrel/bolt assembly stops on the shoulder inside the receiver. The bolt carrier cams the bolt out of engagement and extracts the cartridge which is then thrown free of the weapon out the ejection port on the right. The cam action of the bolt is very similar to that of the AR-15 with the whole bolt assembly being similar in concept. Roll-pins hold most of the parts together in the bolt carrier. The firing pin is spring loaded.

Here's where it gets interesting. This is only a two-shot gun. The second round is held under the bolt carrier assembly by a loader assembly. It's difficult to get the feel for loading this, but in a skeet match it wouldn't be that difficult I guess. I suppose in the field you could shoot once and reload the 'ready' round to keep two shots at the ready all the time.

Not sure I'll ever shoot the gun, but it seems to feed dummy rounds well enough. My criticism of the gun lies mostly with the aluminum barrel... and this seemed to be what kept production numbers at around 1,200 units (800 more parts sets). The weight of the gun gives me the impression it would kick quite a bit. Being designed principally for Skeet and Trap, I wonder why they would make it this light? It would make a wonderful field gun I guess but it wasn't marketed that way.

The trigger pull is horrible. It's mushy and multi-staged feeling somewhere between 8 and 12 pounds. The stocks feel fine and it shoulders like an 1100 would only at half the weight. The straight comb would probably keep the gun from pounding my cheek. I don't really think the scrollwork on the receiver are that flattering nor is that funny knob of a stock bolt that looks like a tiny magazine cap.

All-in-all, it seems like a sound gun. The aluminum barrel would scare many off and the heavy trigger would probably scare the rest of them. The loading mechanism is awkward but sufficient for the range. There are innovative features on this gun, but I don't remember anybody asking for them. In fact, I'd say they were awkward and a step backwards to put it nicely. If they could sell this gun for, say, $150 at Wal-Mart today, it might sell pretty well.

On the positive side, this is a collector’s gun, after all, and only worth what I paid for it because of that value. If you collect Armalites, you might want one to occupy a place between your AR-15 and AR-18 but there is little shooting market for it.

[Dave McCracken]

Thanks for posting all that, BA. An interesting bit of curiosa. Another interesting design like the AR 7 takedown 22.

I'm not enough of an engineer to do it, but it'd be very interesting to see how many innovations introduced with this are now incorporated in other arms.

[Joshua Hutchison]

How much does it weigh?

[Badger Arms]

It weighs a deceptive 5 1/2 pounds. Since the weight is not distributed in the barrel, the gun has a center of balance right at the rear of the bolt carrier where you can see the firing pin retaining pin hole there. Makes the gun feel almost like it doesn't have a barrel. For comparrison, my 1100 balances about an inch forward of the front of the receiver and weighs 7 1/2 pounds. Both of these weights are unloaded. Of course, my 1100 has a vent-rib barrel too and a 2" longer barrel.

[Wildalaska]

Dont shoot it.

WildnotworththeriskAlaska

[Joshua Hutchison]

what an odd shotgun.

[ray hanson]

I need something to show me how to put togather this thing and a parts list.

hand draw ings would work. ray hanson