My 82 yo Father gave me a heavy barrel AR for my 50th birthday 22 years ago. He was an old WW2 DI and wanted to see what they were all about. He tinkered with it and shot it for a while. ............
Left to my own devices I'll take Mausers, #4 Enfields , levers and even a good Mosin-Nagant.
I clearly remember when the civilian Colt H-Bar was
THE AR to have. 20” heavy barrel, 1:7 twist, A2 style sights, fixed stock. That was the configuration everyone wanted. It was long before the fads of short barrels, collapsible stocks, Picatinny rails everywhere. The only controversy in that era was carry handle versus flat top.
To be perfectly open, I’ve never been super impressed with the operating system of the AR-15. Eugene Stoner was brilliant, and his gas system is lightweight and fairly simple. It works and with a modicum of maintenance, it’s reliable. However, directing those hot & dirty gases into the receiver and carrier group has always been the Achillies heel of that design. The adoption of the H&K 416 by numerous forces around the world is an acknowledgement of that weakness. Designs such as the SIG 540 or SIG 550, or even the AK variants stand out in contrast to the AR gas system.
I have no illusions of being some type of extreme operator that will push an AR platform to failure. But I’ve never really embraced the AR gas system. I will acknowledge that is lightweight, simple, works when reasonably clean and will likely work just fine.
I’ve just never liked it.
This bias is like the quartz watch versus mechanical watch bias. The quartz watch is far less expensive to produce, is far more accurate and entirely serviceable but I still prefer a mechanical watch.
