Billet AR180B lower range report.

Armedsask

Armedsask

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Well, I was finally able to put a good number of rounds down range this weekend with my home built aluminum lower that uses the AR180B upper. I was home for the weekend so went out in the back forty with a buddy of mine for some good wholesome Saskatchewan shooting fun.

We started the day zeroing the sites on my new CZ858, love this gun. Any way, after shooting the CZ the transition to the billet lower was like night and day. Coming off the CZ 858 really accentuated the muzzle climb of the .223 rifle, or lack there of. Due to the position of the stock actually being slightly higher than the barrel center line there was next to no muzzle climb. It was amazing! I expected muzzle climb to be reduced but I was completely blown away. I was smacking the target on rapid fire with out even trying.

One issue I did notice was the stock was slightly too high, even with the raised sight line of the POF railed forend. It felt like I had to put my face down too low to get a good sight picture. This was easily remedied by using the adjustment range of the ACE hinge assembly.

Sadly, my home made magazine catch s**t the bed after 14 magazines. I'm proud to say it wasn't my weld that broke, but the actual piece of drill rod. Serves me right for not stress relieving it after welding.

Here's a picture of the rifle for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about:
billetlower_prototpe.jpg
 
Nice to hear your positive range report. That lower will sure make the AR180b more appealing to many of us.
 
to be honest, this looks similiar to an XCR, which are few and far between. BUT, how much on top of a base AR 180-b would one have to spend to get it in the above configuration.
Does anyone have both (XCR and 180B?)
hwo do they compare?
 
well I have an XCR, and have some experience with a 180B. Both are great. an XCR will cost you a little over double what a 180B costs. Now factor in the quad rail, flip up irons, and an aluminum lower, and the price of the 180B basically catches up with the XCR.

The XCR I have is an HBAR, so it is a little front heavy, and weighs more than a 180B. other than that, both rifles seem to run flawlessly in my experience, and both are gas piston, not direct impingement, resulting on less fouling.
 
Armedsask said:
Sadly, my home made magazine catch s**t the bed after 14 magazines. I'm proud to say it wasn't my weld that broke, but the actual piece of drill rod. Serves me right for not stress relieving it after welding.
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Drill rod? Quite often the term "drill rod" is used with O1 oil hardening tool steel, is this what you have? If so, it is going to take more than a 300 C stress relief to keep such an easily hardenable steel from getting brittle in the weld cycle. A 600 C post weld temper is more like it. Consider preheat and hydrogen exclusion steps if the region being welded is large enough to accomodate any steep temperature gradients.

I would go to a much lower grade steel. There is no reason for a mag catch to be anything special.
 
Looks absolutely awesome. VERY nice. Any pictures of the inside?
Also, pardon my ignorance, but why aluminum and not sheet metal? I think it is way cheaper to have it rollformed then milled.

Cheers.
 
Stokka, it is actually very expensive to form a sheet metal anything, especially if you are only making one. It would be ridiculously expensive to make the dies and only stamp one lower. Yes, sheet metal stampings are cheaper for mass production but the have an extremely high start up cost (dies, stamping machines, etc.). I do plan to make a sheet metal lower some day for fun. Nothing fancy like the original though.

Also, my intent was to basically make an AR15 styled lower that fits the AR180B, so aluminum billet was the way to go.
 
You are right. There is no such a thing as generic rollformer - it has to be custom, but there is such a thing as generic CNC milling machine. Especially for aluminum. I guess I did not think it through in a small batch production terms..
Anyway - great job, Mr. Wolf :)
 
Looks terrific, sounds like it's an improvement in design and materials over the 'B' you might accidently produce the best .223 Black rifle design of the 21st Century.
 
ian_in_vic said:
Looks terrific, sounds like it's an improvement in design and materials over the 'B' you might accidently produce the best .223 Black rifle design of the 21st Century.
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DM Fortier wrote in the last issue of shotgun news that the magpul masada is the most revolutionary rifle design in decade.....:rolleyes:guess what the gas sytem is based on....AR180...this could be significant if you also do a CNC upper with a quick change barrel capacity.....;)
 
Armedsask said:
I've actually thought of that as well. :D
I want to make a wooden, tradition granddaddy's hunting rifle looking lower. That'll really confuse the antis.
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Hey while we're at it how about an acrylic version....
Y'know... see-thru. So you can tell when the guts are getting dirty...:D
 
Armedsask said:
I had a little chunk of drill rod laying around, that's the only reason I used it. :p
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Consider using something in the 1024 low carbon steel range and if you need it to be slightly harder, oil quench after the weld and then stress relieve it. Should be more elastic and A LOT less brittle.
 
Clobbersauras said:
DM Fortier wrote in the last issue of shotgun news that the magpul masada is the most revolutionary rifle design in decade.....:rolleyes:guess what the gas sytem is based on....AR180...this could be significant if you also do a CNC upper with a quick change barrel capacity.....;)
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Honestly, I thought the Masada was all that and a bag of chips. the more I look at it, the more I realise there is really nothing revolutionary about it. They just took all the great features of current firearms, threw in a few nifty gimmicks and produced a great looking rifle.

As for quick change barrels, honestly, do you really need quick change barrels? User changeable sure, but quick change? After some thought I really don't see it as that high of a priority. The upper I'm thinking of making would be CNC milled from aluminum billet and take standard AR15 barrels with the standard AR15 barrel nut. That way you can use all the AR15 forends on the market. Of course that's just my idea, I'm not sure if it will work though with the AR18 internals and so on.
 
Armedsask said:
Honestly, I thought the Masada was all that and a bag of chips. the more I look at it, the more I realise there is really nothing revolutionary about it. They just took all the great features of current firearms, threw in a few nifty gimmicks and produced a great looking rifle.
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As we rarely have a revolutionary concept in firearms, isn't the smart move to take the best elements from proven designs and find a way to optimize there potential?
 
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