Historical Armalite Information

[farfuture]

Over time, I have had quite a few assault rifles and battle rifles. My first was a 1964 or so AR-15, followed by an M1A, and others. I bought two of the AR-10 kit-built rifles in the 1970's.

Anyway, way back in 1984, I visited the offices of Armalite in Costa Mesa California. They were gracious and hospitable hosts and welcomed me as a researcher. In fact, they basically pointed me to a set of file cabinets and their photocopier, and said “Feel free to copy whatever you like.” Which I did…

I have copies available on all sorts of subjects about Armalite (the first company).

you can see more here:

http://www.farfuture/net/armalite/

[Zombie_Hunter]

fixed hyper link
http://www.farfuture.net/armalite/

[farfuture]

Thanks Zombie Hunter!

[farfuture]

I was in California on a business trip (a publishing convention, nothing to do with anything fun) and I thought "Here I am near Costa Mesa; let's just give Armalite a call...".
They were very nice and invited me out to visit. This was their little machine shop in Costa Mesa. I said I wantd to do "research" and they said sure. Then they pointed to a file cabinet, and a xerox machine, and said copy what you want. I did.

After a while, they asked "Do you want to see the gun room?" Imagine a darkish room with all sorts of guns on the walls. WWII machineguns. Samples. An AR-18 configured as a pistol (and a rejection tag from the ATF). AR-5 survival rifle (bolt action) with a serial number in pencil.

I pointed to a gun case on a high shelf and asked about it. They said "That's nothing." I climbed up anyway, pulled it down. It was one of the prototype AR-10 rifles, with a side mounted gas tube, packed in foam rubber that was decidedly deterioriating. I spent about an hour blowing the foam off with an air hose.

They had AR-10 Sudanese and Nicaraguan models. They had AR-15s with waffle mags. They had the Golden Gun Shotgun.

Essentially, they had samples of everything they had ever produced, there on the wall to handle, disassemble, and examine.

I am still, years later, grateful for their hospitality on that day in long-ago 1984.