armalite ar180

[Jon Coppenbarger]

Just picked up my ar180 I have been wanting for awile. Have not owned one since like 1991 and have looked for another one for awhile. either the rifle was not in good condition or the price was to high or when I saw a deal I just could not aford it untill now.

Got it from the original owner at least that is what he said. It is a costa mesa in great condition with a ser # of like 12xx. It came with 3 original 20 round armalite factory mags. one looks like it had been loaded and fired only a few times and the other 2 were new.
The parkerizing has hardly any wear and I will try and get a few photo's up.

Dang picked up 4 original Galil factory finish mags from a pawn shop today. two 35 and two 50 rounders and they looked unused. paid $50 for all four of them so its been a decent day.

 

[CapnMac]

And many happy returns on a profitable day! "Good on'ya!" as my Digger compadres are wont to say.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Nice score. Do AR180s take AR mags or are the proprietary?

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

they work fine but there is a small slot on the side that needs to be cut on the ar15 mag for it to work. most folks will take a original mag and use it for a template.

 

[CapnMac]

If I remember right, AR-180 mean "proprietary mag" and folding stock.

The AR-180B using an AR-15 magwell, so any mag fits; but you can't have a folding as they were all built to 922(c) compliance.

Now, I also want to remember there's a Small Arms Review article from long, long ago on the modification you can make to a stock AR mag for "dual use." But, and I cannot stress this enough, could be remembering that wrong, too.

 

[AmEngRifles]

Glad you made a new purchase on an "old school" favorite. The AR-180 has many progeny.

Yes, AR-15 mags can be converted. Get a couple of dogs for cheap and start out, because there is always a very slight learning curve. Make sure the slot is low enough that you get good HIGH lock-up for proper feeding. Also, you will need to file down the "hump" above the standard AR-15 lock up hole, otherwise your mags will be tight in the 180 well.

Check a recent old school addition, thanks to an Aimpoint MkIII and a full length Stormwerkz AR-180 picatinny rail mount with quick detach dovetail. Can't wait to get it sighted in. Paid 50 bucks for the Aimpoint and it came with the 3 power scope! My bargain of the day.

 

[AlexanderA]

I have two AR-180's that I bought new, a Costa Mesa and a Howa. Recently, I got one of the Stormwerkz detachable Picatinny rails and I saw that it was noticably skewed when I put it on the Howa, but it was much better aligned on the Costa Mesa. The difference was in the alignment of the spot-welded dovetail on the top of the receiver. So, it looks like quality went down when production was transferred to Howa (Japan). From what I've seen of the Sterling-made ones, quality went down even more when they moved production to the UK.

Sales of the AR-180 really took off in the brief period in the early 1970's when Colt temporarily took the AR-15 off the market to make some design changes requested by the ATF. The AR-180 is inherently inferior to the AR-15 because of the spot-welded nature of its construction. The full-automatic version (the AR-18) was known to shake itself to pieces in hard use. It didn't achieve many military sales. (On the plus side, it does have a piston system instead of direct gas impingement, and the bolt carrier rides on guide rods a la the M3 Greasegun.)

If you want a really good alternative to the AR-15, take a look at the Korean Daewoo K2. That one was underappreciated when it was first imported in the 1980's, but has since gained a following.

 

[ultradoc]

Lucky you. I had one years ago and it was my first rifle.

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

Bought another ar180 today at a show. Was getting a case of winter cabin fever and it looked like a good weekend to get away. headed up a couple of hundred miles north this mourning and hit a couple of small gun shows.
Found a sterling ar180 in like mint condition and got 3 mags and a soft assult case with it. The price was $750 total so I could not say no.

so heck now I have to find the howa now and make it complete.

 

[carbine85]

Post pictures or it didn't happen

 

[Maverick223]

Congrats, they are a fine rifle...the one that all AR-15s aspire to be!

 

[BruceB]

Back in the early '90s, I bought a pair of new Sterling-built AR-180 rifles. They cost $325 each, and I also got some 40-round Sterling STEEL magazines at the same time. Those steel mags were among the best AR-type mags I've ever seen, and they had the cuts for both AR-15 and AR-180 rifles.

We lived in the Canadian Arctic at the time, and on one occasion I had several fully-loaded 40-rounders that I'd stashed several months earlier just for a "torture test". On a cold morning, forty degrees below zero, I placed an AR180 and one of the loaded magazines on the hood of my F250 and left them there for several hours.

After the time had elapsed, I went out, inserted the magazine, worked the action...and proceeded to fire all forty rounds without a malfunction. I was impressed."Forty below" is no joke, and places severe difficulty on anything mechanical.

I should note that for extreme cold conditions, all our rifles were cold-prepped by being cleaned to an absolutely-dry state...NO lube of any kind. This regimen worked well for all types of rifles for many years.

The only flaw I found in the AR180 was that the stamped-out tabs for the butt-stock locking plungers were a bit fragile and bent easily.

There was an AR180 (Howa) for sale at the last Big Reno Show. It sure wasn't going for $325!

 

[Tizona]

Congrats on a good day; that's one of the best rifles ever made.

Cheers,
Tizona

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

here is a picture. costa mesa on top sterling on bottom.

 

[Orlando]

Sterling with original Armalite scope and mount
Only bad thing about them is the trigger is the worst I have ever felt on a rifle

 

[Iggy]

I have one I carried as a long gun when I was on the Highway Patrol.

Went back to ranching and it rode in my pickup for 20 years. It's sitting behind the door with a 30 converted M-16 mag in it.

So far it's never had a hiccup.

 

[carbine85]

Sterling with original Armalite scope and mount
Only bad thing about them is the trigger is the worst I have ever felt on a rifle

+1, they are bad. My trigger was almost 13 lbs. It's easy to fix. I dropped it down to around 5.5lbs.

 

[Orlando]

Tell me more, I would love to lighten the pull

 

[carbine85]

Tell me more, I would love to lighten the pull

All you have to do is very very carefully clean up the notch in the hammer and polish the nose of the trigger.
The metal parts are made by stamping and bending. The end result are very rough engagement surfaces.
Go slow and don't change the angles. I did this on 2 AR180s, the Sterling was the worse.