Why did it take the AR 50 years to catch on?

[Crosshair]

low recoil,

Lots of guns are, the M1 carbine held that role for a long time.

accutate,

Some were some weren't, flat-top uppers were rare.

high capacity,

Not a selling point for many. Bulk mail-order ammo was illegal from 1968 until 1986.

modular,

Not until the early/mid 90's if I correctly remember the magazines from that time I read. About the only thing "modular" was the length of barrel you put on it.

We saw the same thing with AK's in the early/mid-part of the 2000's. The market for things like rails and other accessories for the AK were seriously lacking in quantity and quality. Quality optics or optic mounts for the AK were hard to find. Now that market is far better catered to and an AK can hang virtually any accessory the AR can, and some that the AR can't.

Within the last 5 years we say the same thing for the mini-14. With the new 580 series Mini the accuracy was greatly improved and even older models could keep up with the barrel stabilizers that were introduced. Rail mounting systems are also readily available for the Mini as are a wide variety of stock options.

 

[JerryM]

I guess it took a new generation. As for me I would not own one, unless I could sell it fast.
Jerry

 

[stu925]

I think more than any other reason, because it's different. It not a bolt action or a lever action, there's no wood and the steel is black not blued. It didn't even look like any other commercial semi auto when it was introduced. To this day there are still people, myself included that think guns should be made of blued steel and wood. I think the AR is a pretty good rifle and I shoot them ok, I just don't particularly like them. I will say that I like them better now than I did 16 years ago when I was first exposed to them, but I doubt I would buy one.

Stu

 

[Scorch]

The AR took 50 before people recognized its virtues. Why is that?

As with any product, there are early adopters, followers, then the also rans. I was first exposed to ARs in 1974, when a friend of mine bought one, a Colt SP1. When I joined the USMC in 1976 and fell in love with the M16A1, anything vaguely military was definitely uncool, so a lot of people didn't want to be associated with the military/paramilitary firearms. A lot of negative opinions from VietNam vets who should have known better didn't help either. I tried to find a smith to build me a super-accurate across-the-course AR in 1978, and I was told "go away, the idea is stupid". I was told "223 isn't good for anything, why spend your money on that". I was offered M1As as across-the-course rifles by "experts" who claimed that the AR15/M16 was never going to compete in across-the-course matches. When I tried to tell them about my experience shooting matches in the USMC with the M16, I was shouted down and ridiculed. I am sure the same thing happened in 1896.

Fast forward to 1991, our military were "suddenly" heroes instead of baby killers, and the AR started to become mainstream as vets started buying the same rifle they had trained with. Video games appeared, and kids "discovered" guns en masse. War movies became popular again. AR sales increased. Then Clinton "banned" a lot of semiauto rifles, and people paniced, bought everything that could go BANG, etc, etc, etc.

I think the big thing that made ARs become affordable was the advent of CNC milling machines.

Before CNC (1980ish), we had NC. Before NC (1975ish), we had pattern machines. ARs may be a little less expensive nowadays in real dollars, but they are considerably more expensive than a bolt action rifle. Always have been. Besides, an AR is pretty simple, mostly aluminum forgings. BUT, put a good barrel and a good trigger into one, and look out all the way to 600 or 1000 yds.

Personally, I think the AR has been very popular for a long time, at least 30 years. That's about the time the manufacturers started putting good barrels on them and turning out a rifle anyone would be proud to own.

 

[44 AMP]

The AR took 50 before people recognized its virtues. Why is that?

My opinion is that it took them nearly 40 years to get the bugs worked out!

OK, I will admit that is a slight overstatement....

Why are they so popular now? Because they were nearly legislated away in 94 (or so people felt), and because today, we have a generation grown up with the improved AR. Take a look at the general accuracy of the original ARs, vs. the floated barrel ones we have today. Significant differnce.

 

[Ridge_Runner_5]

There were only a couple of companies producing ARs. They had a stranglehold on the industry, and could dictate prices as they see fit.

Nowadays, every mom and pop gunsmithing joint can manufacture their own ARs, which has torn the market to shreds and the guns now cost a fraction of what they once did. Doesn't hurt that they've become more mainstream in the hunting sector, either...

 

[radom]

Used to be all there was around was the colt SP-1 and then it was pretty dern expensive vs most other rifles at the time.

 

[BlueTrain]

I wonder it the AR-15 helped to popularize "plastic" stocks of the sort that are relatively common on commercial hunting rifles? Plastic stocks are even produced for the M1A, probably the M14 and these days probably a majority of FN FAL rifles still in service have plastic stocks.

I realize the AR-10 came first but I doubt that many had even heard of it 40 years ago.

 

[Skans]

Because for many years, the only AR15's were made by Colt and Bushmaster. The Bushmasters were originally considered Junk, and you were stuck with the configuration that Colt decided to build.

Not until about 8 years ago did you start to see all kinds of customized doo-dads, that could be leggoed together to make an AR. Now, you can chose from plastic, forged, cast and billet receivers that have different looks to them; piston or DI systems, all kinds of fancy barrels, fancy rail systems, stocks, triggers, etc.

It's amazing what technology has been able to do with recycled beer-cans and coke bottles!

 

[Old Grump]

Took a couple of generations to raise enough people who didn't know any better in order to get enough people to become fans of the gun. It would have happened quicker if the government hadn't put their 2 cents in and insisted on using a varmint round instead of a real military caliber.

Yeah, I'm a dinosaur who went from M1 Garand to M14 to M16. Government mandated improvements soured me on the gun forever, no matter how many improvements they made. First impressions last a long time.

 

[tirod]

We're ignoring something else altogether. The Mini was a hot property in the late eighties - Choate Machine saw to that. What, never heard of them? That's the point, most weren't into military weapons back then, an HK91 was exotic. Gunshows were the major method of reaching the public, and most shooting magazine buyers had likely never heard of The Shotgun News.

Buy 1999, the internet was publicly accessible, and the upsurge dates from there on. As described, the gunshop owners and gunsmiths were a lot more discouraging than supportive of the AR15. By 2000, there were 15 million prior service trained on a weapon they knew for a fact would be reliable. They'd spent years with it, and respected it. They weren't going to be talked down to by the old boys stuck in the G'rand Generation.

Once educated consumers could get direct access to what they wanted, Katy bar the door, Americans get what THEY want, not what they're told they need. The 18 month fielding disaster of 1967-8 was seen for exactly that, shared mutual experiences reinforced and knowledge passed around. Merchandisers were no longer restricted to the retail pipeline gauntlet that forced them to justify pushing something with a proven sales track off the shelf. They could sell direct.

Alternate calibers were introduced at the same time, and you could sidestep legal restrictions preventing use of the AR for hunting - it was now available in more powerful cartridges.

Frankly, it was the conservative Brick and Mortar stores trying to avoid the AR market that created the demand. Servicemen and women in America buy their battle rifle after they leave the service, and they were getting told no by dealers and the .Gov. The CMP was upfront the M16 would never hit their racks.

You can't tell Americans no. Automatic fire illegal, OK, Autosears. Register those, OK, slidefire stocks. Automatic knives evil, OK, put a thumbhole in the blade, and a spring to help it after it's moved an inch.

I was in a Area Group HQ's, our motto was "Don't tell us we can't get it." Pretty much covers the American Spirit. It has it's downside, too, but that's part and parcel of human behavior.