This bugs me a little...

[Canine Dave]

What does the AR stand for as in AR-15?

[Bawanna]

Assault Rifle. Poor choice in this day an age.

[Canine Dave]

Friend of mine takes his daughter ground hog hunting with his AR. His best shot this year is 300 yards. Her's somewhat less.

It's just a semi-automatic rifle, right?

[340pd]

AR stands for ArmaLite rifle. The design goes back to the 1950's.

[getsome]

Eugene Stoner is every bit the genius that John Browning was but had better tooling and materials to work with.....The military decided the M14 needed to be replaced and wanted a light weight small caliber rifle and contracted ArmaLite to make a prototype and gave the project to Eugene to engineer a working rifle to meet the contract.....Stoner hated the small caliber demand and wanted to invent a better M14 .30 caliber platform but to get ArmaLite the contract he engineered the gas system and carrier group to make the thing work and the rest is history......

I bought a AR-15 rifle a couple years ago because I figured this time would come when the government would no longer allow law abiding citizens to own one and it saddens me but I’m glad I did it because even though I didn’t have money at the time to buy one it’s a very good shooting semi auto rifle and even if they take away our right to own one, I got mine..........

[Canine Dave]

So it is just a semi-automatic rifle like my Dad's Remington 742 Woodsmaster.

I don't recall anyone being scared of my Dad's 742 Woodsmaster.

[Bawanna]

AR stands for ArmaLite rifle. The design goes back to the 1950's.

That was my first thought too Armalite which is what I have, but browsing around multiple locations call it Automatic Rifle.

I like Armalite better myself.

[AJBert]

Armalite is the correct name, it is just over the years people have come up with their own description. First used in Vietnam, the troops mostly didn't trust it and referred to the manufacturer as Mattel due to the plastic stock and fore grip.

[mr surveyor]

My understanding has always been that Stoner constructed the first model with precision fit ... which made the workings too tight for nasty jungle battlefield work. Way too many jams in the beginning. I have a cousin that was in Nam in the late 60's/early 70's that sort of informed me on what he saw. When he finished his required time they had been issued a later generation of the "Mickey Mouse" gun that seemed to be more stable, but since he was an MP (fortunately for him) he wasn't on the nasty front. He did say that one of their major problems was not being issued enough proper cleaning supplies for any of their rifles. Some of the guys on the front lines were even using the the melted peanut oil from the C-Ration peanut butter to get by ... that and knotted boot laces for "bore snakes".

Since I wasn't there myself, I can only relate what I've been told. Neither the Navy or Army would take me due to medical/physical conditions - In a way I'm a bit sad to not have the experience, then again I feel fortunate that I didn't. God Bless Those That Did.


jd

[Bawanna]

"Since I wasn't there myself, I can only relate what I've been told. Neither the Navy or Army would take me due to medical/physical conditions - In a way I'm a bit sad to not have the experience, then again I feel fortunate that I didn't. God Bless Those That Did."

This was me also, I tried all 3 branches but Nam was just winding down and the Marines told me if another war came up to come back and they would get me in but didn't need me.
I should have got a purple heart anyhow, got beat up pretty good during the physical but that's a story for another day. Nothing but love and respect for those that did go, it was ugly.

[getsome]

The problem with the original rifle design was not the engineering but was the very dirty ammo provided to front line troops.....The rifle was sold to the troops as self cleaning and not needing field cleaning which got a lot of soldiers killed because their rifles jammed up in combat....Later ammo was of a different powder and cleaner burning which didn’t clog up the rifle.....All firearms need to be cleaned and maintained even on the battlefield but once better, cleaner burning ammo became available the problems with the AR rifles went away.....

[SlowBurn]

AR stands for ArmaLite rifle. The design goes back to the 1950's.

This ^

[340pd]

An interesting design. The caliber was not the best for use in jungle warfare as dense foliage would deflect the lightweight bullet. Troop training was poor and the spray and pray method was way overused. Positives, a troop could carry a lot of ammo. Negatives, the troop shot way too fast and wasted most of what they carried.

I was in a tank battalion the Army Reserves somewhat pre-Nam and trained with an M1, M1 carbine, M14 during basic training, and issued a 45 sidearm. During my time on an active Army base, I never saw troops training with an AR. I never shot one until the early 1990's at an outdoor range. Built one in 2015 with my 12 year old grandson just because obama told me I could not have one and the next president Hillary Clinton would enforce obama's wishes.