Latest ArmaLite retro project

[imarangemaster]

Hello the forum! I'm still alive and feeling retro. My NDS 601 SP1 Carbine clone is still my main go to rifle. (The 602 was sold to help fund my renewed passion in Cowboy Action Shooting- very expensive!)

My first AR180 was a Sterling that I got in about 1982, and used as a LEO trunk weapon until I stupidly traded it for a "real" AR-15! I bought my second Sterling made Armalite 180 when I was living in Mississippi IN 2009-2010, and sold that when I knew I was moving back to California in 2012. At the same time, a good friend offered me an original, low serial number Costa Mesa manufactured AR180 for a price I could not say no to ($1100, 99+% finish, two original AR18 20 round magazines, and two steel AR18/AR15 30 rounders, all 99+% finish. This was just as I was leaving Mississippi, so the Costa Mesa AR180 went to my buddy's in Elko, NV on the way back to CA. (since Armalite AR180s were banned by name in 1990). I really haven't shot it more than a couple times in the last five years





For a long time, I was content to leave it in Elko, and just shoot it when I went to the desert. I wanted to leave it original. Now I want to announce my latest Retro project: I am taking the upper half of the Costa Mesa mfg. ArmaLite AR180 and and mating it to a NDS18S forged lower (which is legal in California) from Mike and Harlan, and then thanks to Big Rix and Stormwerks, I am finishing it out as a California legal, featureless, AR180. Top half will be Costa Mesa, and the bottom half will have an AR180B fixed stock.

As I approach 65, I realized I wanted to enjoy it my AR180 without being a Californication felon, or having to go to Nevada to shoot it. Using the Costa Mesa top half on the NDS lower, the upper will have more wear than the lower, but I really don't care. I am going to have fun!

Here's everything except the stripped NDS lower. AR180B LPK completion set and butt stock from Big Rix, and the stock adapters from Stormwerkz. I already had a standard AR LPK and the assorted grips for the non-180B stuff for the lower. I get my lower out of Jail on the 10th. To be featureless to comply with the communist edicts of Californication, I got a CAV brake to replace the three prong, the AR180B stock is fixed, and I will use either a MMG or a grip wrap (depending on which feels best).

Also, with a featureless build, fI can still use a standard magazine button.

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