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I'm building an AR and I thought it would be fun to have one with a side folding stock like you see on a lot of AK's. Nothing collapsible, just a fixed side folder. Why can't I find anything like this?
All you have to do is wait for the Para USA TTR to come out, and shell out the ridiculous amount of money they want for it! Now, if it is well below suggested retail, I may have to look closer at one.
Click "Start", and then click the "Split" button at the bottom of the animation to make it a cutaway or the "Glass" button to make it transparent. Notice that the recoil spring (aka buffer spring) is in the buttstock, and when the rifle fires, the bolt carrier recoils into the stock tube (aka buffer tube). That's why AR folders aren't feasible.
The AK can use a folder because the recoil spring is above the bolt carrier group rather than behind it.
I'd like to get a folding stock for my AR dedicated to the .22 conversion kit, but it makes no sense to me to shell out for this if I cannot find one LOWER than a standard AR15 stock (with a gooseneck near the juncture to lower it a bit like the Rob XCR) - but I cannot.
Im sorry I should clarify, I'm not too familiar with the AR platform as I've only ever shot Ak's but I was thinking it would be for use on a POF build.
The POF has a gas piston, but I think the bolt carrier still recoils into the buttstock. The only way to make an AR-style folder is to chop off the rear half of the bolt carrier, eliminate the buffer, and move all that mass to the front of the bolt carrier, AND move the recoil spring assembly to the top or sides of the bolt carrier instead of behind it. If you do that, you no longer have an AR, you have a SCAR or something like that---essentially a clean-sheet design.
Again, check out the animation I posted upthread. It shows why the stock can't fold and can't be angled or goosenecked.
AHA! Olympic Arms OA-93. It appears that they put a separate tube above the receiver to contain a recoil spring, and used a piston with a completely different bolt carrier. I don't think they make these anymore, but I may be wrong.
Exploded view of a short-barreled OA-93 upper showing the bolt carrier:
Looks kludgy and impractical to me, though, and I doubt it would be as reliable as an ordinary direct-impingement AR.
If a folder is that important to you, I'd suggest a Bushmaster ACR, SCAR, Armalite AR-180B, Sig 556 (yes?), M1 carbine, Ruger mini-14, or a civilian AK in .223, depending on your budget.
Well, the pictures didn't work for some reason. However, looking at the RRA PPS carbine, that is the way I would go, and chances are, might in the future!
Take a longer look at the new POF, it IS a side folder. The piston and spring are over the barrel.
With the AR system, part of the inherent accuracy is the straight line action. No out of axis propulsion of the bolt, straight back action, light and compact. Not a problem for the average shooter, military or civilian. Shortening the barrel and making the stock adjustable doesn't make it a better shooter, just a little more convenient wearing armor and getting out of wheeled vehicles in urban areas. A side folder doesn't offer more than that, either.
Portability vs. tactical accuracy usually means the professionals wind up using a fixed stock - even on machine guns. It's really rare to "need" a folding stock as it has such a limited application.
It helps to market a rifle with it, as POF obviously took time and effort to have one made up special, when a fixed stock on a (useless) buffer tube would have done as much. How exciting would that be demonstrating the lack of a buffer and relocated action spring? Not so much.
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