I'll be putting together an article soon on an all-but-forgotten assault rifle that came onto the scene too late for the U.S. to seriously consider it. It embodied features that even today are considered desirable: easily manufactured mostly from stampings, a folding stock, and a gas system that doesn't vent into the bolt area.

It was the Armalite AR-18. Derived from the 7.62 AR-16 designed by Eugene Stoner, it was scaled down to accept the .223 cartridge. This was the brainchild of Arthur Miller, George Sullivan and Chuck Dorchester; conceived in 1963 and patented by Miller in 1969.

Armalite had sold the rights to the AR-15/M16 rifle to Colt perhaps prematurely; and then introduced the AR-18 as a competitor, probably not a sound move, as the U.S. was already committed to the earlier system.

At any rate, the AR-18 and its semiauto sibling, the AR-180, was produced under the Armalite name by three manufacturers. There was Armalite itself in Costa Mesa, California, Howa in Nagoya, Japan, and Sterling in the UK.

Costa Mesa made 1,171 AR-18s and 4,018 AR-180s from July 1969 to June 1972. Most of these show evidence of hand fitting.

Howa made 3,972 AR-180s from 1970 - 1974. Production ceased when Japan declared neutrality in the Vietnam War and could no longer produce armaments for any of the nations involved there. Howa-manufactured AR-180s are particularly noted for quality and are the rarest of the three manufacturers. The rifle pictured is one of these, made in 1971.

Armalite then turned to Sterling, and they manufactured 12,362 AR-180s from 1979 to 1985; 10,496 were imported into the U.S. These are the most commonly found AR-180s, and the quality on these varied. Many were used by the Irish Republican Army, who called it the "widowmaker."

The AR-18/180 used magazines similar to the M16 mags; M16 mags can be converted by proper placement of a slot in the side of the mag with a Dremel tool.

A 2.75X quick-detachable scope was made for it; one of these is attached to the rifle illustrated. It was range-adjustable with the range numbers on the top turret; calibrated for .223.

Currently, an AR-180B is being manufactured with a fixed stock and a plastic receiver utilizing AR-15 components.

I thought you'd like to see one of the originals.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Very interesting info. Are you familiar with the new Armalite company currently in production?

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Fidelis Ad Mortem

I have one of the Sterling built AR-180s, it came with a scope as in your picture...my scope is "Colt" marked. It's an excellent shooter, phenomenally accurate, handles quite well.

I always wondered why these rifles were never more popular. Even back during the bad-old-days of the Clinton-era AWB I remember seeing AR-180s at gun shows for relatively low prices.

I love mine, and I'll likely never sell it...plus, no one would give me very much for it!

Tim

The newer AR180B seems to me to be a polymer AR15 receiver mated with an updated AR180 upper. What I like about the AR180B , like the AR180 is that it is a piston driven gun instead of direct impingement.

bob

I have one of the Howa's that rode under the head rests of my patrol cars for many years. Then it rode in a rifle rack in my pickup on the ranch for 20 years.
It's still on duty sitting in a corner by my desk.It's got a converted 30 round magazine in it and ready to go.
It's one of those "go to guns" that we talk about.

I have a scope mount that can be used with regular commercial rifle scopes but have never used it.

It's never missed a beat since I got it in 1973.

No, I'm not all that familiar with it.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I have a Sterling AR180. I purchased it new. It has always run fine and is noticeably more accurate then my Ruger Mini 14 that I got around the same time.

Sounds like an interesting project John.

Myself and some of my friends ran AR-180's back in the last half of the 70's, all Costa Mesa built. A friend busted a Gas Piston firing rifle grenade parachute flares from his 180 and when he contacted the plant in Costa Mesa they confirmed, after he gave them the serial #, that his Piston was one built in Japan that probably had the "metallurgical issue" which caused a brittle condition. From the scuttlebutt we heard back then, this same issue plagued at least one of the test Rifles used in Gov't trials.

Someone at the Costa Mesa Plant immediately sent him a new Gas Piston and requested that, if he would, he send them the busted piston for analysis, which he did.......

Nice article, but wouldn't a Costa Mesa rifle be the "original" instead of a Howa? Where did you get the production figures?

A "Colt-marked" scope is a Colt scope, since the scopes sold by ArmaLite are marked "ArmaLite" and are made in Japan. They have an odd reticle in that there is a post coming from the top of the scope instead of the bottom.

My Costa Mesa AR-180 has obvious machining or grinding of the receiver surface in the area of the selector/safety. I suspect that the receiver originally had AR-18 markings, to include a third position for fully automatic fire, and those markings were ground off in order that the receiver could be remarked with only two positions, safe and fire, for a semi-automatic rifle.

The current ArmaLite AR180B is a big disappointment. It merely resembles the original, but has little connection with the original, other than the name. The receiver is PLASTIC and is one-piece with the butt stock.

I was excited when the the AR-180B "upgrade" of the AR-180 was announced, but was sorely disappointed when the rifle debuted.

I used "original" in the sense that AR-180s are the original design, whereas the newer AR-180Bs are the current but modified design marketed by Springfield Armory in Geneseo, Illinois. Certainly, Costa Mesa guns were the first of the original AR-180s.

The production figures are available on the internet. A figure of 20,000 is often quoted for the grand total of AR-18s and AR-180s, but the actual tally works out to 21,478.

The scope on this rifle is Armalite marked and has the "stalactite" reticle. I believe the Colt-marked examples are cobbled together from Colt scopes designed for the AR-15/M16s and AR-18 mounts. I also have an AR-180 mount that will accept conventional scopes using Weaver-type rings.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

My sentiments exactly. I sold my AR-180 back in the early 80's, which I regretted soon after and when I decided to get back into AR's not all that long ago I naturally looked for a 180.

When I checked out the 180B, I too, was sorely disappointed in what I found.