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AR-180B users ~ Let's see your rig (Page 8 of 21)
| Hi everyone. I have a 180B and I live in northern Indiana, does anyone know who can remove the muzzle brake and thread the barrel for regular ar15/m16 muzzle devices? I am thinking of doing that plus a folding ACE stock - also does anyone know if the folding stock is really stable? Thanks for all the replies. |
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Here is my AR180-Bravo with a Midwest industries tactical forearm. The top 1913 scope base is by Elite machining through wolverine supplies and has a recessed area through the center so that the iron sights can still be used when a scope is mounted. The one thing about installing the Midwest industries tactical forearm is that you have to cut the guide rod assembly down by 5/16 of an inch on both sides (the tapered areas). Note that the instructions refer to the guide rod as the operating rod - you don't want to cut down your operating rod! I used a bench grinder to remove the excess material and made sure that the edges were smooth. Midwest should have just added another 5/16 to the length of the lower rail section that attaches at the barrel so that the rods wouldn't need modification. I checked to see that the shortened rods would still hold the original top hand guard in place, like the instructions say, and they do. Another thing you have to do is take the front sight\piston and the hand guard cap completely off for installation and then make sure that the gas piston intake hole on the front sight lines up with the gas hole in the barrel when you reassemble. This gives you a chance to give it a good cleaning since, if you're like me, I'd never taken the front sight off before. After adding the forearm I took the Bravo to the range and fired 120 rounds with no malfunctions (as usual) or difference in accuracy - what a great rifle! I plan on adding some hand rail covers, a bipod mount with a Harris bipod, a straight fore grip and a tactical light. Does anybody know of a US company that will sell accessories directly to individuals in Canada? Karl http://www.thinkbotics.com/ar180b/ar180b_with_tactical_3.jpg See through scope base http://www.thinkbotics.com/ar180b/see_thru_scope_base.jpg modified guide rod http://www.thinkbotics.com/ar180b/guide_rod_mod.jpg Lower rail section http://www.thinkbotics.com/ar180b/lower_rail_section.jpg top rail removed http://www.thinkbotics.com/ar180b/top_rail_removed.jpg |
I had Josh at Storm Werkz make me a custom stock adapter a couple months ago, today I finally got around to picking up an M4 stock. You'll notice the adapter puts the stock right in line with the barrel. This also provides a perfect cheek weld with the raises sight of the POF rail.
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I didnt really like the original design for exactly that reason...too low. Hey Josh, will you be selling THAT model? |
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here." ~Jayne
I figured that was the case that it was a one off. When I mounted the current adapter and put on a VLTOR tube it sat far too low and I took it off the same day. It wasn't close to comfortable for me. Went back to the ACE AK stock. So Josh, what's the word on making the other adapter a regular item? |
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here." ~Jayne
Sorry for the poor quality photos.
I'd say there's more ART than FART.  Well done! How about that in a medium grey instead of white? |
A majority (teachers parents and students) at Jefferson Elementary in Berkeley favored renaming the school Sequoia Elementary because Jefferson owned 100 slaves. Under Chief Sequoia the Cherokee owned more than 1500 black slaves -George Will
That's a thought. It didn't occur to me that grey might look good. You come and distract my wife's neice and I'll steal more of her crayons. 
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Okay....but try not to grab a purple crayola!
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A majority (teachers parents and students) at Jefferson Elementary in Berkeley favored renaming the school Sequoia Elementary because Jefferson owned 100 slaves. Under Chief Sequoia the Cherokee owned more than 1500 black slaves -George Will
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I bought my AR180B a week ago(I had a Sterling 180 for about 2 years) and found out a few things about it. There are a few parts in the fire control group that are NOT standard AR15 parts: the thumb safety shaft is longer on the 180B, so a standard or ambi from the 15 will not fit. I mad mine into an ambi safety by getting a DPMS AR15 ambi safety, and then milling a slot into the existing safety on the right side, and drilling and tapping a 6-32 hole into it. You can use the screw that comes with the DPMS safety if you want to, but it has a really small hex head size to screw it down with so I elected to use a standard 6-32 slot head screw made of zinc. They are cheap(.99 for 6 at Home Depot) and are super easy to get on and off with a regular screwdriver. If you break it, just put on another. Use blue locktite to secure it. Also the zinc coated screws take cold blue perfectly. You can make the thumb safety smoother by polishing the barrel of it to just remove the phosphate so it moves a bit easier. Also deepening the notches that the spring slides in for the safe and fire detent helps in the feel of it. A note: the addition of the safety for lefties means that the thumb safety torques just slightly as you move it from safe to fire with your left thumb...and it binds just a bit. I think it is binding on the plastic that it rides through on the right side of the receiver where you put the new lever on. Going from fire back to safe does not bind at all. I suppose polishing the inside of the channel it rides in might help, but I think I will just let it break in a bit. Also, you have to cut off the little point on the new lever(the one that points to fire or safe) as it will hit the right receiver bump that is just over the safety channel. I just cut a small slot in mine to point to safe or fire. Something else: The 180B's safety lever is REALLY hard, I think it might have a high nickel content in it. If you do this mod, use a lot of cutoff wheels and buy 2 drillbits for the tap. It seems to tap just fine, just take your time. It took me 2 hours total to do all the mods to the safety, now it looks a lot like the 180's ambi one! Now, lets talk about triggers. I like and use the Rock River Arms 2 stage triggers. They are reliable and cheap(99$) and I like that they feel similar to my Garand. They are however not perfect. They have an easily correctable flaw that IMHO needs to be corrected right from the box: The small pin that holds the disconnector into the trigger is never pinned (or whatever it is) correctly. It likes to walk out within 20 shots. I find the size of the pin in a cheap steel drill bit, and cut the shank of the bit longer than the pin supplied with the RRA trigger. Make it long enough so that when it moves(and it will) it cannot move far enough to allow the disconnector to pop out of its slot in the trigger. It has to be short enough to also clear the sides of the trigger slot in the receiver, and allow the hammer springs to lie beside it. Another thing: standard AR15 trigger and hammer pins do not work right in this rifle. The 180B pins are a little longer in order to pass through the thicker plastic reciever. I tried regular AR15 pins, and they will work, as they are retained by the steel inserts inside the trigger well, but that is not an ideal solution. Another thing on the RRA trigger: It has a safety design in that if the sear should fail, or entirely break off, the hammer is caught by the front of the trigger like the stock 15 uses the front of the trigger as a sear, and the hammer has a slot cut in it like the stock hammer. On mine, they interfered with eachother, and the trigger would not reset. So I took just enough off the front of the trigger, where it contacts the hammer notch, so it cleared. Another problem is multi-faceted: The disconnector was REALLY stiff when it grabed the hammer, and did not like to release the hammer when you let go of the trigger. I polished off the posphate coating that is on the back of the hook that the disconnector slips over. That was enough so it released the hammer. Also the 2nd stage of the trigger pull is governed by the disconector and it's spring. It was really stiff on my specimen...to the tune of almost 3 pounds. Armalite uses the identical trigger, and has a technical bulletin about it that gives a few things you can do. I will not touch the actual sear, trigger angles as I am not competent to mess with those. BUT, they said you can shorten the disconnnector spring a little bit to lighten the 2nd stage pull and also lighten the hammer disconect. They say to use a belt sander, I uses a stone tool in my dremel. Be VERY careful, and work slow. I only flatened on end's coils a little bit, and removed like 1/4 of one coil from the other end, and then flattened it a bit. Boy, what a difference! The hammer disconnect is slightly easier, but the 2nd stage of the trigger release is now just over 1 lb(1.1) and has zero creep. The classic glass rod break. Just outstanding. And if the trigger wears, you can adjust the amount of 2nd stage there is also. I like the fact that this trigger group is not fussy about lubrication, and has worked in my 15 w/o any lube. Also for lefties: If your particular rifle likes to spit enties into your face, you can cut a coil or 2 off the ejector spring. That is what Bushmaster does to it's match rifles. Just make sure you have a spare in case you go to far...but even one coil off of it seems to work and makes the empties go froward instead of in my face. Sorry for the length, but lefties have to mess around with their rifles sometimes more than the right sided guys! David |
And I will bless them that bless ME :-)
Joined:
Mar 2004
Posts:
11567
EE: 100% (353)
VA, USA
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My Baby.... http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/3639/myar180bwbipod0sx.th.jpg http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9154/589375217orig5rt.th.jpg heres a shot of her the day she came home from dunhams: h.gif http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/6023/mineandjoesrifles3kg.th.jpg srry 4 the half-ass pics... best i could do for now was my camera phone. h.gif got her febuary 05' and have had many memorable trips to the rifle range sence. only had a few minor stopages while she was teething when she wouldent eject properly and would spit the shells back into the chamber and jam after every shot but now that ive put about 1,200 rounds through her she aint given me any problems worse then being a bitch to find proper fiting magazines for. sence that pic was taken ive added a scope and StormWerkz mount, thx Josh!! he only the promag actually functions properly in the Bravo. i had to file down some edges on the promag one to get it to work but the colt one holds the bolt open like the mag is empty even with rounds in it. donno why but im working on it. hreaded after i get my digital cam working again ill post pics of the scope and mount too. hehe... almost forgot. I made this sig up in photoshop in tribute to my AR-180B. Enjoy. http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Mr_Blazin/my-rifle-sig-02.gif |
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Wow.... Slow topic..... h(srry bout crappy pic quality, cam phone is still all i gotz) heres a decent shot of the StormWerkz mount. its the shjt! works like a dream. http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/2812/bravomountshot016qa.jpg my arsenal: http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9059/myweapons019zh.jpg heres a shot of my clamp-on bipod and another of the scope. http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1412/bravobipodshot012jy.th.jpg http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1738/bravosideshot021ac.th.jpg I havent had a change to get her out to the range sence geting thwe scope and bipod but when i do ill be sure to post a range report. |
Sheesh ISED8U, nice typing finger discipline!   ~This message was paid for by "The friends of Hepcat85"~ ~"I'm hepcat85 and I abrove this message"~ |
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here." ~Jayne
The mount is quick detach and the stock makes the rifle balance better than factory in my opinion. -Josh StormWerkz |
How about that.....I just noticed that CrazyCanucks rear sights are gone. As far as I can tell it was lopped off. Anyone have any insight? |
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here." ~Jayne
The rear sight is welded on, it was milled off. Mounting the POF RIS requires cutting down the front sight. No front sight makes the rear sight useless, looks nicer to just hack it off. Flip up sights can be added if you want irons. I haven't had irons on my AR180B for years. |
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Here's my AR-180B. Thanks to all of your reviews and pics. I decided to buy one a few weeks ago. Was considering buying a Robinson XCR but couldn't handle the sticker price or the wait. I love my AR-180. I've fired about a hundred rounds through it- both Wolf and American Eagle. My handguard heated up pretty good, so I decided to add a vertical grip I had laying around. I had to disassemble the rifle, dremel out a slot in the bottom half of the handguard and tighten the grip around the barrel. I just love the way it handles now. Feels like a Tommy Gun. Looking into an ACE folding stock. Once again, thanks for all the reviews and pics. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/rugerp345/AR-180Bwithforegrip.jpg http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a174/rugerp345/AR-180Bcloseupofforegrip.jpg |
| I handled an AR180B at a gun show about a year ago. I liked it but one thing I didn't like was that the safety just kind of "slid" from one position to the other, seemed pretty easy to accidentally engage/disengage as there were no positive "click" stops as there are on an AR15. Has Armalite fixed this or is the safety still "loose" on current production guns? |
 I made the above just for you Grendel_J
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"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here." ~Jayne
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To Urban Ops, Regarding the foregrip and accuracy- I haven't taken my 180 to a range yet. I've only fired it at about thirty yards. However, it does really improve the handling. I live on a acreage, and spend an hour or so every night walking around the property after dark. We had an attempted nighttime burglary in Oct. 2003. Thankfully, I was home at the time and confronted an unarmed burglar with my P-89. Then last summer, we were burlgarized again. This time, they got into the house and stole cash and customer checks- we have a photography business. Fucking crank users! I was walking perimeter for past year with my Mini-14 or my PTR-91. But I wanted something different that used AR-15 mags. So I ended up getting the 180. I don't believe the grip has an effect on accuracy. However, when "walking perimeter", the ergonomics are greatly improved. I'm saving up to purchase one of your long rail scope mounts. I also need to attach a light to the 180. |
Mine doesn't click, but it is not loose. There is nothing to fix. |
If it's a Colt, it's a copy of an original ArmaLite.
Run for it??? Runnin's not a plan. No, runnin's what you do when a plan fails.
AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!!!
Run for it??? Runnin's not a plan. No, runnin's what you do when a plan fails.
AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!!!
Kidding aside, I thought the very same thing when I first handled my 180B. But it hasn't loosened over time and you do get used to it very fast. When you do buy one, be sure to post some pics here brother! |
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til you understand who's in ruttin' command here." ~Jayne
For most problems the Marine is issued a solution. If ill, go to sickbay. If wounded, call a Corpsman. If dead, report to graves registration. If losing his mind, however, no standard solution exists.
My, what a lovely bravo.  the tactical forearm looks great! makes it look much more refined and tactical like the bravo should. I'd kill to have one of them on my bravo, it would solve all my accessory mounting problems in one foul swoop. Does anybody by chance know if the armilite railed forearm requires less modding than the MI one??? I think armilite's is cheaper anyways isent it??? no wait... i just checked... they are both the exact same price. 
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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." -Sigmund Freud
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms."
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms."
the mount and forearm sold by Armalite is the MI brand.
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StormWerkz.com
Your wish shall be granted! .....shortly.
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A majority (teachers parents and students) at Jefferson Elementary in Berkeley favored renaming the school Sequoia Elementary because Jefferson owned 100 slaves. Under Chief Sequoia the Cherokee owned more than 1500 black slaves -George Will
well damnit.....  somebody better post some pics of a few sexy ass bravo's cause this boy aint been to the range sence febuary and im getting very veery itchy!!  I've had that leupold scope mounted sence march and havent fired one single round with it yet!!!  and seeing that guys bravo with the MI railed forearm is making me horney!!! 
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The Grunt dies for 1500 poorly placed rounds.
The Sniper dies for that one perfect shot… that JFK shot. The pink mist.
The day a Bush tries to draft me into an unjust war you will find me casting my vote from the local rooftops.
The Sniper dies for that one perfect shot… that JFK shot. The pink mist.
The day a Bush tries to draft me into an unjust war you will find me casting my vote from the local rooftops.
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Okay, since nobody else has posted yet, here's another one of my Bravo with the fine Midwest Industries tactical forearm looking down range. I finally ordered some accessories for the rails so I'll post more pics when I get them in. BlazinChronic - with this pic you can imagine yourself sitting at the bench blasting through a 30 rounder putiing each shot into a dime sized group... Karl Bravo looks downrange http://www.thinkbotics.com/ar180b/bravo-down-range.jpg |
AR-180B users ~ Let's see your rig (Page 8 of 21)
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