Kids today have it good when it comes to the AR-15.

[Miami_JBT]

Seriously, damn kids today have it GOOD when it comes to AR-15s. The selections are out of this world. So many manufacturers and setups. You guys have braced pistols, midlength gassed carbines, light as hell free float rails, amazingly cheap quality optics, finishes and coatings that rival stuff in science fiction, and such an array of quality magazines.

Back in the day during the height of the AWB. Our options were limited. 20rd and 30rd preban magazines were usually $30+ and the only options in magazines was either GI Aluminium, Thermolds, Isralei Orlites, and junk. In my personal experiences. The Israeli Orlites were <removed>. The only mags I stocked up on were GIs and US made Thermolds; the Canadian made ones were <removed> since the Canucks changed the polymer formula.



Honestly, back then, American made Thermolds were the Pmags of the decade.

AR-15 layouts and options were also mighty scarce. You had pre-bans like the Colt SP1 Rifle and Carbine or newer made guns like the A2 HBARs hitting the scene.



Other than that. You were limited to post ban guns. If you wanted a carbine; good luck because like this unless you had a pre-ban rifle you can swap out parts on. If you didn't, all you had were options like this. Oh, and hope you had good hearing protection because that Mini-Y Comp and AK Muzzle Brake were the devil. A2s were verboten.



I happen to own a Ban Era Bushmaster Carbine that was a LE Letterhead gun. It is exactly the same as the Bushmaster Shorty AK Rifle. Only difference is my XM15-E2S Shorty Rifle has a A2 flash hider and a bayonet lug. It is a pig of a rifle with its 1/9 HBAR but it is a hell of a shooter too. It also cost $1,000 new back then too.



Colt came out with similar guns too like their Match Target Model 6731. A 16: HBAR Cabrine with a fixed A2 Stock and a A3 Reciever.



If you wanted to trick out your ARs; well. Your options were fairly limited. Red dots while in existence weren't cheap and mounting options weren't as varied as they are today. Same with lights. You had a few options and most of them were simply 60 lumen Xenon bulb Surefire 6Ps or Streamlight Scorpions. Tape switches were magic.



If you had cash to throw, you could send your gun to someone like Ted Yost. He'd cut off the carry handle and install a sight rail so you can mount a red dot optic and put on a free float aluminium tube as your handguard. Other than that. You were limited to a 60 lumen light and maybe a three point sling.



Seriously, you guys have options like this today and you can get them for a hell of a price before the panic and can still build 'em for a cheaper price than what you got in the 90s and early 00s.



If you want a basic M4 Cabrine, they're usually $500 or less (barring panics) thanks to places like Palmetto State Armory.

 

[Hokkmike]

I think we have reached the acme of AR choice and availability. I FEAR for the future of this platform....

Some would have us all using slingshots and they are soon to be in charge.

 

[bannockburn]

Miami_JBT

Back in my day your choices in semi-auto .223s were a lot more limited. You basically had your choice between the Colt AR15 SP1 Sporter or the AR180, which at the time was being built by Sterling Armaments in England. Both were priced roughly the same but the Colt was the definite winner as to parts availability, spare mags, and having a better overall build quality. I added the Colt round handguards as I never really cared for the triangular shaped ones. Other than that it's still box stock and can reach out and hit a liter water bottle at 200 yards with iron sights, that is if I do my part too!

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

Slingshots have worked so well for those guys in venezuela! After all, governments have never turned on their own people! https://www.google.com/amp/s/in.new...erendum-venezuela-constitution-015831907.html

 

[mjsdwash]

there are tradeoffs though, if you don't want a flat top, good luck to you. I know you can get them if you try hard enough, but 15 years ago you had to pay more for flattops.
Otherwise, yea options are better now.
When I fist got one, an M&A kit built on a Bushmaster lower, I spent about $640 on the setup, while the lowest locally available built rifles ran $1200 and up, when you could find them, which you really couldn't because the CAI AK's and $100 SKS's and -$100 bolt guns filled the racks.
The only available new mags were 30 round, with 20 round being near impossible to find.
The barrels available were:
Heavy 16"
Heavy 20"
Extra heavy 20"
You could buy a $1400 Colt sporter after a year on the wait list, or have a 8# rifle that pointed like a shovel.
Optic adaptors that were not Airsoft cost several hundred dollars.
Telescopic stocks were mostly Chinese made.
If I brought my AR to the range, it made people stop and stare, lots of questions from "do you really need that" in the Fudd tones, to "Is thad a sniferrrriifle?"
Another odd thing, back then if you saw another AR in public, it usually didn't work. This is an experience I have had, and other I know have had. While I don't want to finger point, in the days of Colt/Bushmaster being the only option, ONE of those brands didn't seem to run.... even the military agreed. A friend who had one that ran used to save his brass for me.... headspace was concerning.

This was a little after '04. The M&A rifle never gave me any issues, and I actually bought another a few years later in A2 configuration. My first was rebarreled with a Windham Bushmaster 16" pencil barrel and a tapco stock. It was my beating rifle for a long time, and ran hard. Still have it, it still works. Just my experience.

 

[Speedo66]

Slingshots have worked so well for those guys in venezuela! After all, governments have never turned on their own people! https://www.google.com/amp/s/in.new...erendum-venezuela-constitution-015831907.html

Talk to this guy named David for a great slingshot story.

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

While David had a little help from above on that one, I’m sure he would have preferred an AR-15.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Telescopic stocks were mostly Chinese made.
If I brought my AR to the range, it made people stop and stare, lots of questions from "do you really need that" in the Fudd tones,

LOL. I worked at a range like that back then. You know, I knew only one person who owned an AR15 back then, and he was a police officer. Before the 94 ban, I didn't know anyone who owned them, and I never saw one at the range, ever. I didn't start seeing them until I started competing in Service Rifle shortly after the ban. By 2005, everyone I knew had one, and they were all over the range. I think I'm still the only person I know who doesn't own one.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

While David had a little help from above on that one, I’m sure he would have preferred an AR-15.

I think it's every history buff's fantasy to jump into a Delorean and go back in time to fight ancient battles with modern weapons.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I think it's every history buff's fantasy to jump into a Delorean and go back in time to fight ancient battles with modern weapons.

Holy crap. I think just stumbled on to the next great thread topic.

 

[Demi-human]

Holy crap. I think just stumbled on to the next great thread topic.

You’d better... or I will!


And, yes, @Miami_JBT, I agree. We do have it relatively good in the AR realm, all things considered.

 

[hq]

I added the Colt round handguards as I never really cared for the triangular shaped ones. Other than that it's still box stock and can reach out and hit a liter water bottle at 200 yards with iron sights, that is if I do my part too!

Back in the day I just had to have both A1 and then-new A2, and a gunsmith-modified 11½" shorty (good luck finding off-the-shelf spare barrels or an armorer's wrench in the 80's). Amazingly enough, some pencil barrel A1:s were real shooters. While my 20" 1:9 HBAR A2 needed a lot of fine-tuning to be acceptably accurate with select ammo, the 1:7 A1 shot pretty much anything to the tune of 2" or so grouping at 165yd, with an original Colt 3x20 carry handle scope. It's not even the only example I know of. The major annoyance was Colt's proprietary hinge pin that required an adapter when cheap milspec uppers started flooding the market in the 90's.

Things have changed quite a bit since.

 

[bannockburn]

hq

The major annoyance was Colt's proprietary hinge pin that required an adapter when cheap milspec uppers started flooding the market in the 90's.

Yes indeed I found that out for myself when I tried to put a "Shorty" upper on my SP1 lower and the hinge pin wouldn't work. Had to get another one from some surplus parts company I found in Shotgun News (way Pre-Internet days).

 

[Miami_JBT]

LOL. I worked at a range like that back then. You know, I knew only one person who owned an AR15 back then, and he was a police officer. Before the 94 ban, I didn't know anyone who owned them, and I never saw one at the range, ever. I didn't start seeing them until I started competing in Service Rifle shortly after the ban. By 2005, everyone I knew had one, and they were all over the range. I think I'm still the only person I know who doesn't own one.

Prior to the repeal of the Clinton AWB. I was pretty much the only guy at Trailglades Range or Markham Park in South FL with an AR. I remember showing up and the other shooters either would look down on me for owning such a rifle or look in wonder when I loaded a pre-ban 30rd magazine. In the end, they were all shooting their wood stocked guns like Enfields, Mausers, Garands, Marlin Model 60s, Remington 700s, etc...

Now, when I show up to the range and I bring out something like my SKS, Krag, Garand, Winchester 1894, or Remington Nylon 66. All the shooters look at me with wonder since I have blue steel and wood stocks (except for the Nylon 66 of course).

Hell, they look at me in wonder since the majority of my ARs have A2 Carry Handles and no optics.

 

[Miami_JBT]

hq


Yes indeed I found that out for myself when I tried to put a "Shorty" upper on my SP1 lower and the hinge pin wouldn't work. Had to get another one from some surplus parts company I found in Shotgun News (way Pre-Internet days).

I have a Agency Letterhead purchase Colt 6721 from 1999 that was not a large pin receiver and has regular FCG pins. Now my SP1 from 1980 is a different story.

 

[FFGColorado]

Prior to the repeal of the Clinton AWB.

In May 1994, former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives in support of banning "semi-automatic assault guns". They cited a 1993 CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll that found 77 percent of Americans supported a ban on the manufacture, sale, and possession of such weapons.[9

 

[hq]

I have a Agency Letterhead purchase Colt 6721 from 1999 that was not a large pin receiver and has regular FCG pins. Now my SP1 from 1980 is a different story.

Mine are from the 70's and 80's. They had regular .154" FCG pins unlike ~1991-2009 Colts. I'm not sure when they abandoned the large hinge pin, though.

 

[jmorris]

Prior to the repeal of the Clinton AWB.

It wasn’t repealed, it had a sunset provision. Bush would have renewed it if it would have made it to his desk. We can thank Congress for not letting that happen.

The thanks “we” got for putting the Republicans in control of the Executive and legislative branches of government was, to do nothing.

 

[SC45-70]

I bought my first Colt carbine in 83.
Paid $350 for it and got a coupon for a colt scope for $55.
That was alot of money back then, but we were getting good money for fox hides so I figured it would pay off.
I sold it in the late 80's for more than I paid for it so I could buy a new Colt HBAR. I think that one cost me $650.
Both guns worked great for me and I never had a problem with either.
In the early 90's the HBAR was getting too heavy so I bought a Colt 16 inch heavy barrel and collapsible stock and rebuilt the HBAR.
I still have that gun.

SC45-70

 

[mcb]

Did not buy my first AR until a few years after the 94 AWB sunset in 2004. I now own several of them but only two in the original 556 chambering and only the first one was factory built (and its been change a fair bit too); all the rest were assembled by myself. I don't shoot either of the 556 guns much any more other than the occasion 3-gun/carbine match.

 

[AlexanderA]

Back in my day your choices in semi-auto .223s were a lot more limited. You basically had your choice between the Colt AR15 SP1 Sporter or the AR180, which at the time was being built by Sterling Armaments in England. Both were priced roughly the same

The Colt AR-15 and the Armalite AR-180 were not really direct competitors. I bought my first AR-15 in March of 1968. By October of 1970, when I was looking to buy another one, Colt had withdrawn it from the market. (This had to do with uncontrolled automatic fire when the disconnector was removed. Colt eventually reintroduced the gun after devising the notched hammer and beveled bolt carrier, which would cause a jam in case of a removed disconnector.)

So, in the absence of the AR-15, I bought an AR-180 (Costa Mesa manufacture). Later I added one made by Howa in Japan. But by the time AR-180 production shifted to Sterling in England, not only was Colt back making AR-15's, but the quality of the AR-180's had slipped noticeably.

The only reason the Armalite AR-180 succeeded -- at first -- was that it temporarily had no Colt competition. That, and the folding stock, were its selling points. Other than that it was generally just an inferior product.

 

[bannockburn]

AlexanderA

At the time I got my Colt AR15 the only other .223 available was the AR180. This was in the late '70s if I remember correctly. Liked the folding stock on the AR180 but the whole thing seemed rather flimsy and fragile. Besides which I had my heart set on an AR15 ever since I read about them in Guns and Ammo magazine. I even bought a ton of magazines, web gear, and accessories for one, including a bayonet!

 

[D.B. Cooper]

You’d better... or I will!

I tried it. I really did. I created a post, set up a writing prompt, set a few parameters...

Then I read it before I hit submit. It so so incredibly juvenile that I just deleted the whole thing.

Sorry man. (It really did sound completely stupid when I read it back to myself.)

 

[AlexanderA]

At the time I got my Colt AR15 the only other .223 available was the AR180. This was in the late '70s if I remember correctly. Liked the folding stock on the AR180 but the whole thing seemed rather flimsy and fragile.

Yes, the stamped-and-welded construction of the AR-180 was its downfall, compared to the AR-15. And by the late 1970's, the Sterling-made ones were worse than the early American- and Japanese-made ones. I considered getting a Sterling, just to complete the series, but the poor quality turned me off completely. (Note: Sterling-made AR-180s represent the vast majority of those that were made.)

The other thing worth noting is that the AR-180 used a non-standard magazine. (To this day, the only dedicated 20-round AR-180 magazines that I have are the 2 each that originally came with the guns.) But, the one thing that Sterling got right was its steel 40-round magazine. These have slots on both sides, so they work equally well with AR-180s and AR-15s. And they are highly prized today.

You can cut a slot in a standard magazine to make it work in an AR-180, but that's a kludge job.

Fast forward to the mid-1980's. The Korean Daewoo K2 was everything the AR-180 should have been: folding stock, piston action, forged construction, standard magazines. But it was only around for a shot time before the import restrictions killed it. The low price (at the time) fooled people into thinking that it wasn't as good as it was. In retrospect, I should have bought more than the one that I did.

 

[.455_Hunter]

My interest in the AR platform pretty much goes from the first production guns in the 60's, the M16A1s I used as a Cadet, and stops with what my soldiers drew out of the arms room late morning on 9/11/01- full size M16A2 rifles and bone stock M4 carbines.

Dropping an ACOG on an M4 is acceptable. The Barbie rail guns do nothing for me.