I used to have an original Sterling 180. Sold that to a dealer in '94 as i was moving to Australia, and 10 yrs later, home on a visit to Sask, seen it a a gunshow in YQR, no doubt still doing the show circuits. Ser S206XX. Never had a prob with it, and firing it often from 1980 til '94.
AR-180B. Are they truly garbage or do they have their merits?
- Thread starter Jakestinson
- Start date
come to bc, its just like new zealand
Jakestinson
Member
- Location
- Angus, Ontario
I had the chance to hold an old Sterling 180 at a friend's grandfather's gun store outside of Owen Sound. Felt like a really solid rifle. I was devastated when I found out that rifle along with the FAL and numerous prohib handguns were to be seized by the RCMP (grandfather died and store closed, so grandmother took possession, she died, so their son was given a certain amount of time to move the firearms before the police seized them. Apparently you can only pass down prohib weapons once)
stumpy-kiwi
Regular
- Location
- saskatchewan
Jakestinson
Member
- Location
- Angus, Ontario
667 makes a pretty solid assessment. I can't argue with that.
Jakestinson
Member
- Location
- Angus, Ontario
Long story short guys, I don't want to spend the money on one of these, then get burnt. I'm not looking for a tack driver. I drink way too much beer and chew too much tobacco to have anything that resembles a steady hand. As long as it goes bang and won't blow up in my face, I'm happy.
Greenhorse six
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
It will go Bang , It will NOT Blow up in your face ,and if you can find one for under a grand , jump on it .
I got one back in 2001 , and have never had any issues or trouble with it of any kind , point of fact , I told my daughter that if she got her RPAL she could have this rifle [ yes , I know , it's Non restricted , but that was the deal ] Now wishing I had of offered her just a AR15 now, but any ways , She was just offered $1800 from a friend and she turned him down , she loves this rifle .
Only real down side to it ........I really can't see any .
Jakestinson
Member
- Location
- Angus, Ontario
Perfect. That's good enough justification for me. Thanks Greenhorse. As for finding one under a grand? Not even a maybe. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled. As for my question about M96's, no one really stepped up with any info. Yes they look bada$$, yes they look like M63 Stoners (which is bada$$), but do they live up to the price tag?
Jakestinson
Member
- Location
- Angus, Ontario
One might argue that is a question for another thread, but basically my decisioning is between a 180B or a M96 for my next purchase.
Greenhorse six
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Jakestinson
Member
- Location
- Angus, Ontario
Oh believe me Greenhorse, I have eyed that piece of hardware up for a week now. I know that is the going rate for them, but the question is, does the reliability live up to the price tag?
I bought mine last year (used- i'm the second owner ) and I have put about 300 rounds and no problems so far
Thinking you'll get one for under $1000 is silly. Ever heard of inflation? Add to that the supply and demand factor and I would say a fair current day price is anywhere from $1200-$1600 depending how much you're willing to spend. Some guys are asking a lot of money but if you let them sit on it the price will come down or someone that wants it more will pay it. Just wait for the next one to show up and hope for a better price.
My 180 is one of my favorite rifles and I'll never sell it.
Besides the cracked receiver hinge issue, has anyone here had the scope base fall off the upper?
Several years ago, a member here contacted me about doing some welding for him.
He had just bought an AR180B, and the long thin proprietary scope mount fell off almost right away.
I took a close look at it and it had two small plug welds that failed. (A plug weld is a hole in the upper plate that is filled in with weld to join to the lower plate)
It can work if done right, but this was not.
I did get it solidly welded, but even then, the proprietary mount did not hold the scope itself solidly. It wobbled about, he said.
My opinion is that it IS a clever design, but is a cheap, sloppy, lazy execution of it.
If AR15's were not Rest, and AK's not prohib, the AR-180B would have very little following.
In Canada, it is desirable because of what it is NOT, rather than what it IS.
Several years ago, a member here contacted me about doing some welding for him.
He had just bought an AR180B, and the long thin proprietary scope mount fell off almost right away.
I took a close look at it and it had two small plug welds that failed. (A plug weld is a hole in the upper plate that is filled in with weld to join to the lower plate)
It can work if done right, but this was not.
I did get it solidly welded, but even then, the proprietary mount did not hold the scope itself solidly. It wobbled about, he said.
My opinion is that it IS a clever design, but is a cheap, sloppy, lazy execution of it.
If AR15's were not Rest, and AK's not prohib, the AR-180B would have very little following.
In Canada, it is desirable because of what it is NOT, rather than what it IS.
Travis Bickle
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Upper Lower Middle Alberta
Really? Your receiver broke personally after 100 rounds?.....
OP I owned 2 over the years and I will give you the no bias on them.
Pro- very light weight. As accurate as any generic AR rifle. Excellent ergonomics. Takes AR mags. Takes AR trigger groups. Still 50% the price of any of the current NR black rifles. The two I owned were extremely reliable. Fed any ammo including soft point hunting projectiles. Well balanced. I fired many hundreds of rounds through both of mine. The first one I owned I shot it hard and fast without even so much as a stoppage. They are very clean rifles and easy as hell to strip and clean.
Cons- parts-there are none. If a bolt lug fails etc you're literally SOL. There are no parts available anymore and if you do find them in private hands expect to pay a lot. Not easy to mount plastic junk and battery lazers on it. Even a scope recquires a special rail adaptor that is hardish to find these days. It was not a well developed design after initial manufacture runs.
Speaking to the lower being "plastic and weak" both of mine never broke. I also didn't slam the reciever open as hard as I could like a retard causing it to break.
Here's the short and sweet of the AR180b; take it for what it is, a very light semi auto reliable and well designed rifle for good times target shooting and maybe even varminting and you will have fun with it all day long as long as a critical parts doesn't break.
The AR180b is not the AR18. It's a civilianized and simplified manufacturing version based on the AR18 design which was a military rifle design. It's not designed to be dropped out of a helicopter or used as a club to smash in Zombie Taliban heads etc or whatever nonsense most people think they need a rifle to be in this country. It's a civilian target shooting rifle made by armalite for shooting paper or coyotes in the bush. It's not a military rifle. It's not as robust as a military rifle. Anyone expecting it to be will be disapointed.
If you're one of those guys who thinks he's going to be surrounded by nazi zombies or going to be shipping out to Iraq with his own personal civilian rifles then the AR180b is not for you. The same if you are one of the "SHTF" nut jobs. Think Kel Tec SU16 rifle of today. It filled the same niche back then as that rifle does today. But better design, better made and more robust than the Kel Tec by far.
That being said if you can live with the potential Cons I listed above then I would highly recomend getting one. And as a side note Armalite does still have a few parts left for the AR180b and Wolverine can import them for you. They do not have any critical parts though ie bolts etc
One of the reasons for the cult following of the AR180b (for me anyhow) is that it has serious potential. The design is literally brilliant and if it had been developed to be more robust and made in higher numbers with parts support there would be no competition or even much consideration for XCR's, Tavors etc and everyone and his dog in Canada would own one. But that's not the case.
And again if AR's were non restricted then we wouldn't be having any of these conversations at all and dealers would suddenly magically be able to drop the price of Tavors and XCR's down to roughly the US price tags....
But that is defintely not the case.
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