As long as they are not stressed further at the cracked area, the stocks can be used for many years. This is caused by over tightening the assembly screw when putting the gun together. The early plastic stocks have a tendency to develop cracks around the front opening for the action. They were offered with three colors of plastic stock: black, swirled green and brown. The ArmaLite guns were made in Costa Mesa, California. When the AR-5 was adopted as the MA-1, but not placed in issue because of the numbers of M-4 and M-6 survival weapons in USAF inventory, ArmaLite used the research and tooling for the AR-5 in developing the AR-7 for the civilian market.ĪrmaLite introduced the AR-7 Explorer on the American market in 1959. The AR-5 had the advantage of repeat fire over the then-standard M-6, using the same.

Stoners’ contribution to the program was not actually the AR-7 but the AR-5. 22 Hornet bolt-action made by H&R and the M-6, a. The main survival guns of the time included the M-4, a. The AR-7 was born in a program to design a survival arm for the USAF to arm pilots and other personal in survival situations. Stoner is well known as the designer of the AR-15/M-16 series adopted by the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1963. In fact, any gun can be utilized as a “survival” gun but relatively few have been marketed as such.Įugene Stoner designed the prototype of the AR-7 at ArmaLite in the late 1950s.

The AR-7 is one of the few firearms that have been marketed with the “survival rifle” moniker. When someone says those words what do you think of? I bet many of you think of the AR-7, a. Original ArmaLite AR-7 rifles are now quite collectible and will often sell in the $250 to $400 range.

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