As the title asks. I don't see them on this forum. I always thought they made a quality product. What is their status?

They apparently pulled out of this forum shortly after they were sold.  They have had a drastic overhaul of their product line, and the goal of that is not very clear.  They used to have a very complete product line, but not so much now.  I love Armalite rifles, but I can't tell where the new owners are going to take it.

They just released a $699 basic Carbine style rifle, on the surface it looks like they did so without dumping the quality.  It even has a 1/7 twist.. looks like they're taking a solid shot at the market segment that includes the Bushmaster XM-15 and the PSA PA-15.  They still show some of their midlengths , but not all of them, looks like some of the M15's got canned, including my version of the M15A4, midlength with a front sight post.  I also don't see their old standby "Match Rifles", but they have a line of SBR's available now.  

I would be surprised to see their quality take a dive, I've been using their products since 2000, and I have never had reason to complain.  IMO they are one of the most under rated AR's on the market.

Does it matter?

They were well positioned to ride the AR craze and they blew it. 15yrs ago you had precious few choices for a factory rifle. Colts and KAC were very difficult to find if you could find a 6920 it was going to cost you $1500+.  At that time Armalite enjoyed a great reputation and when AR popularity exploded they did nothing.

They failed to innovate, adapt, or even keep up with current trends. While companies like BCM, Noveske, DD were giving us what we wanted armalite brought out an AR- 18 rehash with a plastic lower and an unlined barrel. Then S&W shows up and even Colt is offering new configurations. What does Armalite do?  They market a CZ-75 clone that is made in turkey and costs more than a real CZ. GENIUS!!!

All the while clinging to their silly ass modded M14 mags for almost a decade after the ban expired and then finally when 10 companies jump into the AR-10 game using SR-25 mags they finally get on board but its too late, people quit giving a shit about Armalite and their 1998 product line years ago.

good riddance.



eta: they do make a good rifle. If their config meets your needs have confidence.

The AR-10A Tactical Carbine has my full attention, but as another member here posted, Armalite should have produced this a long time ago.....

http://www.armalite.com/ItemForm.aspx?item=A10A4CBA2F&ReturnUrl=Categories.aspx?Category=a1bbbf86-b2ed-495f-be70-47ca6b86de76

They should have paid attention to their customer base a few years back.


Here's my sad story....

Armalite was coming out with the Hog Killer Carbine for $xxxx.  They were offering complete uppers for $xxxx.  It was to be at least a 6 month wait on either, but get your order in now, exactly as you want it.  You'll get a call for funds when your shit's ready.    Fuck yeah, I jumped on it.  I called and ordered a 10TCBNF Upper and asked everybody's favorite salesman there if I could have my ar10tcbnf with a full rail instead of basic handguards....  "No problem!"  "When it gets into pre production, we'll give you a call to find out exactly how you want your high dollar upper built."

Close to a year later, I get an email wanting my Credit Card info, so they can send me my upper!  

I start to spec out what this guy's sending me, and it doesn't have the rail on it, just handguards.  WTF?

ETA:

After the fact, TR explained to me that ALL of the uppers were built the same.  NO SPECIAL ORDERS.   This was contrary to what he told me when I ordered my upper.  

His solution...  Pay for the upper with the slick handguards.  Have it shipped to me, send it back on my dime to get the rail installed on my dime, then have it shipped back to me on my dime..

In the end, ArmaLite shipped me a very nice upper with a full rail, but screwed me on the price that Mr. Rooker  quoted me.

That was my last purchase from ArmaLite, except for some AR10 mags from the now defunct  "12 Days of Armalite" sale..

Fuck you, TR.

It would be nice if they would just hurry up and die so we can take the AR10 title for all of the other SR25 pattern guns.

Larry's gonna lose it.

The do make really nice rifles... I have been seeing lots of NM AR-10s at the Long Range National Matches - and the shooters are winning with stock NM AR10s.  

It will be interesting to see where the new owners take the company.

Yeah, I was looking at their "National Match" rifles and especially the uppers at Perry this year. They were damn nice looking uppers and I was REALLY wanting to buy one.

I thought the complete rifles were tad overpriced, but they did come with a ton of extras, so maybe not.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

I've got a M15 NM.  I'm not a target shooter, just wanted a heavy barrel varmint rifle and man is it a nice rifle.

Also have a AR10A4 B model I had ADCO put a solid FSB on.  Funnest rifle I've ever owned.  Both get used on lots of varmints.  Maybe the AR will head out for elk and deer this year.  Who knows.  The ArmaLite AR10 is a really superb rifle.

Got a M15 in 7.62x39 and an AR-10.  Both are fine rifles that have never given me a single issue, glad to have them.





Armalite always struck me as being very passive to the market, wasn't all that surprised when it passed them by.

 

Had Mark Westrom been running the show, I think things would have been different....these new folks have zero passion for the field. Have no idea WHY they even bought Armalite.  Armalite had a GREAT line up, the new owners chopped it and left people with a lot of guns that are set up in the way that many folks just don't exactly want.



Damn shame!!!  Armalite makes a hell of a rifle.  They could have easily focused on some elementary platforms in both mag patterns that would have garnered them a lot of business....



I still use many of their parts for builds and I am glad they are open to the aftermarket parts business....but i would like to see them succeed a lot more than they are doing....



 

I just looked over the AR-10 and M15 line ups at ArmaLite`s website. I don`t get the bitchin`. The new owners have shaken things up. Westrom only grudgingly came out with the AR-10A. TR steadfastly reported there would only be 2 models the carbine, and the SASS for the  foreseeable future. There are now  multiple models and a new series with melonited barrels. There are complete uppers  available across the entire  AR-10 line and the M15. And now there are factory SBR configurations available.

The National Match lines are a limited  low volume market. It looks like they stopped offering low volume configurations at the moment. I remember all the complaints that Colt`s product line used to receive. It looks like the new ownership has heard the market and is responding.


And  as for the Hog killer carbine, check out the SASS carbine upper for the AR-10A.

I had heard from a semi-related source that Westrom was the one who refused to let anything change.

That's the problem with a dominant captain in charge of a company...that company can go many places, but it will only go where the guy in charge is willing to venture, and all too often a failure at the top to listen to everyone else and admit that they might be right prevents the company from succeeding.

What happened to AR180? thought they were coming out with a metal lower to take advantage of the AR18 piston drive. Armalite really could've done something cool with it.

I just checked back to see if Larry had showed up to crack heads and hurt feelings, dont let his furious passion for trade marked nomemclature fool you. He really is a wonderful guy. I met him 10yrs ago at an arf hometown shoot.  Let me shoot  many of his garands and he let me shoot and compare his origimal ar18s to the then new 180.  Good dude in real life, curmudgeon on arfcom.

That whole "he's a great guy in real life" doesn't go very far when you're telling it to a bunch of people that will never meet him.



 

The company rep that posted here a lot blew smoke up everyone's ass, then the whole thing got canned because it was "too expensive" and the engineers had to like work hard at it or some shit.





The funny part being, Master Piece Arms just came out with their AR-180 variant clone of the Leader Dynamics rifle, and it's selling for between 700-1100 bucks depending on configuration.





Armalite could have done pretty well for themselves with a AR-180_ line during the piston, black rifle crazes.



 

Nodak is coming out with a metal lower.

It's funny because it's true. MPA could do an AR-180, but armalight found that their engineers were "too busy" not making a single innovation in the black rifle industry.

 

Hell, if Hesse/ Vulcan can cobble together an AR-180-ish out of parts and hacked up AR-15 receivers, you'd figure Armalite could have sneezed out new 180's.





I hope MPA's MPAR 556 rifles sell like hot cakes and keep the 180 lineage alive.



 

You have got to be kidding!

Mark Westrom is the reason for all of their problems! Back when the ban expired in 2004 and Bushmaster/Colt/DPMS was selling every M4 carbine they could make he was still pushing 20" fixed carry handle rifles. He actually refused to make M4 configuration rifles or rifles with 1/7 barrels! He had the best name in the business and refused to adapt or innovate. He was keeping his company in the Stone Age while every other AR15 maker was banking! Quite sad if you think about it.

i was a big fan in the old days, but have sold/traded most of my armalite stufff and moved on. i still have 2 rifles built on armalite m15 lowers - no better / no worse than others - meh a lower is a lower. i do like the jumping lion logo. also, my go-to 308 has the armalite 16" lightweight middie barrel - i like that barrel - but i use other brand uppers/lowers in 308 now.

ya'll are right, they had the name, rested on the laurels, got stagnant, sold out, and now others are trying to pull it up by the bootstraps. time will tell. its a business you either sink or swim.

True Dat.

It seems Armalite has always been a little off the mark in something.  They could've been killing it like Bushmaster was during the Ban if they just had a little better marketing and depth of product. It seems like they focused really hard on selling complete rifles rather than selling you everything including the kitchen sink like Bushmaster did.

One thing they did do though was give us the Middy. I don't think anybody had one out before them.  Early on in the ban everybody was sporting M4 uppers with full length A2 stocks which look like ass in my opinion. Armalites middy's made the AR look and handle significnatly better.

I, for one, wish they had gone ahead and built the updated AR-180B that they talked about on this board at one time.  

They asked for input from our members about what features we would like to see on an updated AR-180B built with an aluminum lower rather than a polymer lower like the earlier ones.  

They got a shitload of input from our board members but then, after a period of time, they just dropped all talk of a new one.  

I would absolutely have bought a couple of new ones if they had made them with an aluminum lower.   They even talked about the "new" AR-180B metal lowers being made in such a way as to fit the older uppers.  

So there was a lot of talk and no action.  

So I am not surprised to hear of all of the internal ArmaLite  turmoil that is being posted about in this thread.

They always made good stuff but were always behind the curve. So many of their products could have really blown up with minor changes.

I wish them the best under their new leadership. I won one of their COP uppers in a contest they had on here. Not really my thing but the quality is there and it shoots well from what I can tell the little I have used it. Notice they don't offer those anymore but Aero has them listed under their own name.

Gun business is a weird business

This

There are a lot better AR-10's out there now.

Edited...VA-gunnut


 

Ya know, youre right. I had been drinking when I posted that so I had my rose colored glasses on. Maybe he's a bi-polar dick and I caught him on an up swing. Fuck if I know.

You mean 308 AR's.......

Oh, I have no doubts, but I already have an MP-10 and dropping ~$1100 on even a nice upper would have been a stretch, at the time. (And I'd still have to locate a SR25 mag compatible lower, which they did not have there.)

A buddy of mine has one of their SASS rifles and it's damn nice, if heavy. He actually bought a carbine to hunt with, because the SASS was a pain to carry around on a hunt.

The one I was looking at was a heavy profile barrel and was VERY solid-feeling. I don't see it on their regular site, so it was probably a special run, which is too bad, I think it could be a good seller for them. I'll certainly consider buying one, if I see it again.

Maybe re-think that.  The Gen 2 "B"-model steel mags and feed are superior.   I know the SR25 mags seem more poopular, but once a fellow has the mags, who cares?  Nothing much is interchangeable between companies on these guns anyway.

dollar for dollar I think Armalite is still hard to beat. Which guns are a lot better and why??

I very much like my two AR10b's and will get another for no other reason but just to have a third.  I have lots of mags and dont see a reason to switch based on that.

The new S&W and Colt AR-10'a are very good for their price points


S&W for value to dollar, colt for the flexibility and technical backing

+10000

RIGHT ON

The B-model magazines are superior to the original and SR25 mags.  From a purely technical standpoint, Knight is the one that blew it in sticking with a system that the original ArmaLite company identified as inferior and actually developed an improved prototype to rectify.

That had zero to do with why Armalite went with modded M14 mags.  They could have just started from the ground up if that was the case.  

This. Exactly word for fucking word. Talk about a company with the ability to dominate dropping the ball....



 

That isn't the point I was making.  The original ban mags {modified M14 mags} were chosen for 2 reasons as you probably know; 1} they were available and would likely be in the foreseen "ban" future and 2} they were a sturdy and well-designed magazine, allowing an improvement to the feed system of the new AR10 Westrom was designing.  His lower was engineered to make best use of the available magazine.  Initially there were teething pains with modified mags but the end result being the Gen 2 mag made for the best mag/feed system on the market.

The  point I was making was simply this;  While ArmaLite gets hammered for lack of "innovation" for later lackadaisical attitudes towards the market, Knight showed zero innovation in adopting the original magazine and in fact chose it for one of the same reasons that ArmaLite chose the M14 magazine; it was available in those days.  But the fact is the design was not the best it could be as demonstrated by the original ArmaLite improvement program that resulted in a prototype with a lower configuration very similar to the later B model.  

Knight as a so-called "innovatior" saddled the .308 world with a magazine that is inferior to the later improved ArmaLite Gen 2 magazine.  The Gen 2 mag allows longer OAL and has been demonstrated in ArmaLite testing to be superior to the original.  Part of that is due to the mags themselves and part is due to the engineering of presentation of the round to the chamber.  Looking at an "A" and "B" model side by side you can see it.  This is also shown in the earlier improved model ArmaLite.

It is funny that aficionados will nitpick on both important and unimportant matters, striving for perfection.  This same desire for technical superiority if applied to the .308 AR market would result in increased "B" model sales but for some reason unknown to me many folks in purchasing PMag/SR25 -mag compatible guns seem happy with second-best in magazines.  Who knows how that is panning out for ArmaLite.  Last time I checked with them they said the B models were still outselling A models.  Maybe there are more savvy people out there than I think.

It always makes me laugh when I point out that I never heard any complaints about M14 mags all these years and I just get a blank state back

The conversion kit magazines occasionally had issues. The factory "B" magazines usually worked fine. ArmaLite, the non innovator, aimed its` sales primarily at the civilian market. KAC, like Colt, basically ignored the civilian market. Through the tech notes, ArmaLite updated their technical info for their customers. I believe ArmaLite may have been the first to offer flattop uppers and gas blocks on factory guns.

As for the AR-24,I believe there was a falling out between ArmaLite and turkish manufacturer, Sarsilmarz.

Funny stuff in this thread LOL! Here are some interesting factoids:

1) The Armalite company that Mark Westrom formed in Illinois has NOTHING to do with the Armalite division of Fairchild Aircraft that Gene Stoner worked at in California - and that is responsible for both the AR10 and the AR15. Mark Westrom bought the rights to the name and there is no other connection between the two companies.

2) The Stoner SR25 type magazine is the original AR10 magazine design and the only type of AR10 magazine adopted by the Militaries of both the US and GB. It was designed by Gene Stoner - the guy who designed the rifle in the first place!

3)  Claiming that the Armalite Gen 2 mag is superior because Armalite tested it and says that it is downright silly. There is no real world proof that it is. Ever notice how Pepsi always came out on top when the PepsiCo was doing the testing?

4)  Many highly regarded companies such as KAC, Larue, LMT, LWRC, Colt, CMMG, and DPMS now make 308 AR type rifles that use the SR25 type magazine and none of them use the Gen 2 magazine. NONE.

Learn some firearms industry history please. Stop parroting the Armalite website and open your mind to the truth!

Yep

Except nobody uses the KAC mags because they are too expensive which is what everyone bags on the Armalite mags for

My Armalite upper from their Twelve Days of Christmas sale in 2005 or so was the best shooting upper I ever had.  I was holding 2.5" groups at 100 yards with irons.  For an M4gery with cheap 55 grain, that was all I could ask of it.

I would suggest to take your own advice.  Start with the Government document DTIC website and collect a few thousand pages of materials as I have. Pick up the Black Rifle series as well for some more general information.  See where a little research leads you. Probably to some accurate information, the kind of which you are not in possession of at the moment.

I would suggest to take your own advice.  Start with the Government document DTIC website and collect a few thousand pages of materials as I have. Pick up the Black Rifle series as well for some more general information.  See where a little research leads you. Probably to some accurate information, the kind of which you are not in possession of at the moment.

Were in THE BLACK RIFLE books does it say Westrom bought technical data
from the original Armalte ???

I have both books at home

What are the page numbers ?????

Eagle Arms bought the name Armalite
Show me were they bought tech

I'm very interested to see this

EVR you are delusional and your entire post is baloney.