Why are AR's so popular?

[Darkemp]

I was a latecomer to the AR party a few years back when a group buy got me in, I learned to shoot on semis and bolt actions. What has and continues to amaze me is how modular the platform is (think Lego's on steroids), and how easy they are to learn and shoot accurately.

 

[smokey]

I'll cross-post this here. A teacher-friend wanted my input about the shooting. After I provided her with some, she wanted further input on why do we need "automatic weapons". This was my response to her...

Before I begin sharing my experience with modern sporting rifles, I'd like to show you a couple videos:

This is a video of my brother, Jeremy, competing in IDPA with his carbine he built. I competed there too with the carbine I built(pictured below with the marine okc3s bayonet), but didn't have anyone there to record me.
• http://youtu.be/c646oF8PTAk
• Here is a video of me competing with my p99 during the handgun portion of the day...
• http://youtu.be/e3I6j4H9oBs
here I am at a family BBQ, raffle give away and shooting day one of my gun groups was hosting. I'm shooting a steel plate from about 25 yards away my my walther p99.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SkrrmQnTg4
And finally, here I am shooting my buddy's tommy gun at the hunting clubhouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8hH...qOgNV-BZoSS9PA
...my ar I shoot around with and use as my primary home defense gun...
(put picture of my ar here)
• Here's my secondary defense gun. By secondary, I mean it's a backup, or not the best solution. If I have time, I will be using the AR-15 above for defense. If I'm surprised, my handgun allows me to respond immediately, since it's easy to carry on me all the time. The old gun-world saying is that a handgun is used to fight your way to your rifle. It's because they are extremely weak compared to a rifle. Projectiles under 2000 fps(basically all semi-auto handguns) wound by a permanent crush cavity made by the bullet crushing material as it impacts it. Rifles and projectiles over 2000 fps can also wound through the temporary stretch cavity tearing material as it expands to create a much larger wound than the diameter of the bullet. It may take many more shots from a handgun to stop a determined threat compared to the relative few from the rifle...I'll get in to this more later, but more shots to stop a threat increases your odds of the threat hurting you AND the odds one of those bullets you're directing towards the threat will hit someone in the background.
(put picture of p99 here)

So what good are semiautomatic guns to law-abiding folks? Before I continue, it's important to make the distinction between "automatic" and semi-automatic. When the military looks at "assault rifles", they're talking about rifles with select-fire capability. This means the operator of the firearm is able to pull the trigger and hold it back as the gun continues to fire. These are not illegal now, but are extremely expensive(because the machine-gun registry was shut down, making a finite number of registered machine guns. they also require LOTS of extra paperwork and tax stamps costing hundreds of dollars. They're the plaything of rich gun owners and largely inaccessable to poor criminals). What the media terms "assault rifles" really aren't. They're SEMI-automatic. The difference is that they have a disconnect built in to the fire-control group(trigger) that causes the gun to only fire once when the trigger is pressed. To fire again, the shooter must release the trigger until it resets and then press the trigger to the rear again. the "automatic" in semi-automatic is because the firing of the gun causes the gun to extract the fired shell casing from the chamber, eject it out of an ejection port, pick up a new cartridge from a magazine(different from a "clip"), push the new cartridge into the chamber, and lock back in to battery. If you think of a bolt-action rifle, the shooter must manuallt lift the bolt to unlock the action lugs, pull it to the rear(to extract and eject the casing), move the bolt forward(to pickup a new cartridge from the magazine), and lower the bolt handle(to lock the lugs back into the action). This takes time and forces the shooter to break his/her grip and cheekweld on the stock.

Welp, lets look at shotguns, rifles, and handguns as different areas in which semiautomatic firearms are popular. They are all different tools for different jobs:

Shotguns: they are popular in hunting, sport, and defense. In hunting, semi-automatic shotguns are extremely valuable when there are a dozen or so waterfowl over you, flying away. If you had a break-action or pump-action shotgun, you wouldn't have the opportunity to be as successful when hunting. Pumping a shotgun breaks your sight picture and takes time. By then, many of the birds have flown away too far to take a humane shot. Semi-automatics are also very popular in sporting clays. Clay games originated like all shooting sports, as training to make you a better hunter/defensive user of your firearm. In many clay games, 2 or more clays are in the air or on the ground at a time. Having a semi-automatic shotgun is extremely important for success in these sports. Without the ability to make rapid aimed shots on the clays, you're just going to miss to many to be competitive. There's also 3-gun and steel competitions focused more on tactical use of the shotgun. In these, the shooter must make accurate hits on multiple targets, usually while moving and using concealment. Semi-automatics again are extremely useful here. Semi-autos also recoil SUBSTANTIALLY less than pump or break action shotguns. This enables smaller and younger shooters to compete with the more effective 12 ga, instead of the 20 ga.

Defense is a big enough use to require a little more space. Defensive shotguns are extremely useful due to their power and flexibility. Shotguns can shoot slugs, buckshot, and less-than lethal munitions(even a taser round). A single shot from a shotgun with 3" 00 buckshot delivers 15 projectiles traveling about 1300fps. Another way of thinking of it is this...that handgun of mine up above...it holds 15 shots. One pull of a shotgun trigger is the same as completely unloading the entire magazine from the handgun all at once. You can see the defensive effectiveness of a semi-automatic shotgun holding 8 of these shells. It may have only 8 trigger presses before you must reload, but you get 120 projectiles in those 8 shots. Shotguns also operate at low pressures and are relatively quiet and safe on your ears for indoors home-defense shooting. They're powerful because they're extremely efficient at these low pressures. 13,000 psi pushing on the total sq. inches of a 12 ga wad transfers much more energy than the 35,000 psi pushing on the base of a 9mm bullet.

Rifles: There are lots of sporting events for rifles. They are also extremely useful for hunting essentially everything. They can also be one of the best, and surprising safest home defense weapons(I'll get to this in a bit...it sounds silly, but i'll explain...for realz).
rifle sport- there's all kinds of sports involving semiautomatic rifles. Sports have some main categories. There's casual shooting, long distance precision, and tactical. The casual shooter typically shoots as a past-time and rarely shoots over 200 yds. Their goal is to have a good time with friends and family, while putting the smallest group on the relatively close target. The long distance precision shooters used to almost entirely use bolt-actions. Bolt actions are simple and can be made to be very consistent(accurate) because they don't have many moving parts. The AR-15 changed this. Because of it's direct-impingement, and the multiple lugs on the bolt, ar's can be capable of nearly the same accuracy as a bolt action. The big advantage is that with a semi-automatic rifle, you don't need to completely change your shooting position and break your cheekweld/grip every shot. As I said, consistency is accuracy. This means everything to how the gun mechanically locks from shot to shot, the consistency of the cartridge(powder/bullet weight/bullet concentricity/ case volume/crimp pressure...), the temperature of the barrel(metal expands as it heats and can move groups), and the pressure the shooter puts against the rifle under recoil. Not having to break your shooting position to take a follow-up shot means the shooter can concentrate more on trigger control and breathing.

As in shotgun tactical competition, in rifle competition accuracy and speed on multiple targets is important. There's a reason the sniper community has moved away from bolt actions in favor of designated marksman setups with accurized semi-automatics. In tactical shooting competitions, you must have a semi-auto to be competitive. Imagine my brother in the video above trying to run the same stage with a bolt-action rifle.

In hunting, semi-automatics are VERY popular. I mentioned all the accuracy reasons why they are popular(reduced recoil, consistent shooting position...), but now you've got the element of shooting numerous animals, or delivering a quick follow-up shot to a wounded animal to more humanely harvest them. Occasionally there is a branch you didn't see, or buck-fever makes you shakey and push a shot, or the animal moves at the last moment. In this worst-case scenario(to responsible hunters, wounding an animal is terrible. They would rather miss than cause an animal undue suffering), having the ability to get the crosshairs back on the creature to place a follow-up shot on them is extremely important. You don't want an animal getting away, only to suffer and die of infection 3 days later. Also, depending on the type of hunting, you may need to take many animals all within a narrow time frame. Feril hogs are an ENORMOUS problem in the south. Texas has a year-round hunting season with no bag limit on them. They cause MILLIONS of dollars of damage to crops. Many farmers contract hunters to act as pest control and get rid of them, but the hogs breed too much and they are overwhelmed. When hunting hogs, you may kill a dozen or more in a short time frame(like within 30 seconds short). The BEST current tool for that job is an AR-15 in a cartridge like 450 bushmaster, 6.5 grendel, 300 blk, or 30AR. An alternative is the larger .308-based AR-10 in .308, .243, or somthing like that.

Other hunting is varmint hunting. On my uncles dairy-farm, groundhogs pose a large threat to his cows. They dig holes that the cows break their legs in and must be put down. From time to time, we used to go out(when i visited him up in NY) on a quad and watch a field. When we saw a groundhog or two, we'd pop them. I don't know if you've ever tried shooting something the size of your purse, while it's running 300 yards away, but it's tricky. Follow-up shots are essential. AR's are perfect for the job.

WHY the AR-15 is a popular modern sporting/defensive rifle:
It's familiar- It's similar to the m16/m4 family of rifles our servicemen have used since vietnam. When they get out of service, they want to take their military rifle they are familiar with and trusted their life with along with them. Soldiers in WWII did the same thing with the m1 garand and m1 carbine.

It's modular- The cotton gin was nice, but Eli Whitney was most known for his concept of interchangeable parts in firearms that he introduced. The AR family takes this to the extreme. There is a HUUUUGE aftermarket support system for AR's. I can completely adapt every single part of my AR to fit what need I have. Go to a gun forum and look at their AR photography thread. You will see hundreds of AR's and no two will look the same. It is the most ergonomic rifle to use of anything out there. No matter your size or preferences(they even make left-handed models), there is an AR that will be completely comfortable for you to shoot. They also accept essentially any caliber. With an AR, you remove two pins and you can toss a new upper on it. The registered part is the lower reciever that holds the stock, buffer assembly, grip, fire control group and magazine well. You can put any upper half you want on the lower and shoot .22lr rimfire all the way up to .50 bmg. I can also just set up multiple uppers for different jobs. If I'm going varmint hunting, I'm going to put a long, heavy barreled upper on with a powerful scope in something like 5.56 or .204 ruger. If I'm using it for defense, I'm going for something short, light, and with a red-dot sight and iron backups(in case the red dot fails, I can still use the iron sights in a pinch). If I'm hunting moose in alaska with sarah palin's trashy daughter, I'm taking .50 beowulf upper with a 3-9x40 scope on top and canted mini-holo sight for up-close(in case a bear surprises us). The gun-world uses the joke, "ar's are barbies for men", or "they're legos for grown-ups". It's very true, they are so adaptable that they are the perfect tool for any shooting job...but back to automatics now that we've taken this detour...

It's safer- This is going to be a bit odd and technical so bear with me. The AR-15 in 5.56 is one of the best home-defense options you have. You've got something with nearly no recoil, with 30 rounds in a standard magazine(super-high capacity mags hinder movement so much they're really not worth it. they hang way too much weight up front and make it hard to swing the muzzle to control it), and lots of "stopping power" that's capable of sub MOA(think 1 inch at 100 yds, 2 inches at 200...3 at 300...in a cone radiating out from the shooter) accuracy. What this means is you're more able to place accurate hits on a target. Being shoulder-mounted, movement in your wrist, elbow, and shoulder that hinders accuracy in a handgun, is taken out of the equation. The longer sight radius and use of optics makes it faster and more precise to aim. So the people in the background are less likely to have a bullet miss the badguy and come heading their way. You're also less likely to send a ton of shots their way, since the 5.56 is MUCH more effective than pretty much any handgun cartridge. This means you're less likely to have to keep pressing the trigger(potentially sending misses towards a background) to get a threat to stop(note I didn't say DIE, I said STOP. Responsible gun owners shoot to stop, not kill). If you DO miss and send a bullet in to the wall, the AR is still the best option.

The 5.56 sends a 55 grain bullet out at around 3,000 fps. When that little guy hits pretty much anything, the metallurgy can't support the sudden forces acting on it and the bullet breaks apart. It's part of why it's so successful. In ballistics gel/person, the m193(old military standard) tumbles sideways as it loses stability and then breaks in half at the cannelure, dumping it's energy and increasing the wounding from the stretch cavity by ripping the walls while they are stretched with fragments. The bullet also breaks apart when it hits walls when the proper bullet design is considered. If overpenetration is a concern(like if you live in an apt/townhouse), ballistic-tipped varmint hollow-points are great choices. They tend to start fragmenting after the first wall and lose velocity quickly as the fragments must push through air as they have lost energy like a formula 1 car breaking apart after hitting a wall. In compasion, buckshot and handgun projectiles aren't going fast enough for the bullet to fragment and dump energy when they hit walls. A 9mm will go through 9 5/8' thick sheets of drywall. That's quite a few walls in your house.

In summary, the 5.56 is more lethal to the threat, and less lethal to innocents in the background. It's a great choice for defense.

Handguns:
Just as with rifles and shotguns, handguns are used in sport, defense, and yup, even hunting. Typically revolvers are used for hunting, as they come in absurdly powerful cartridges like the .460 s&w, and 500 s&w magnum(look them up, they're amazing). Some still do use guns like the 10mm g20(used in CT) or the .460 rowland 1911/m&p/glock kit to hunt hogs and deer. Once you get really good at hunting, you look to challenge yourself, and handguns are challenging to hunt with. You saw some videos of me engaged in handgun sport above if you clicked on the links. It's just plain cathartic and fun for all ages...and I mean all ages...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei_m1mesIo4

...For defense, handguns aren't the cat's meow. They give up lots of energy and capacity to the rifle in order to make them small enough to comfortably carry on your hip. With modern hollow-points, they poke holes around .5-.7" in diameted about 12-16" deep. The human body is amazingly reslilient and takes one of these holes to go through something that bleeds a lot in order for blood pressure to drop enough to stop the threat. In other words, they're not going to drop someone in one shot like you see in the movies. they're also much harder to aim since your wrist, elbow, and shoulder are all fluidly moving and not locked as in with a shoulder-mounted weapon. They also have craptastic sights in comparison to rifles and shotguns. But again...they're REALLLLLY easy to carry with a good holster and belt. So their strong suit is that you can always have one on you to respond to a threat immediately...well....where legal at least.

"I'm scared of firearms"- Yeahhhhh, that's pretty normal. Guns have been elevated to some mysterious and powerful status by basically all forms of media. There's lots of culture surrounding guns that makes them something powerful. In reality, they are. For new shooters that are scared of guns, I liken it to their experience learning to drive a car. A car can kill when not used responsibly(and in fact do, often. Automobile deaths are much, much higher every year than gun related deaths). For this reason, when you aren't familiar with a car, you are scared. The first time behind a wheel, you were probably nervous, unsure of yourself, and hyper-observant. As you got lessons, became familiar with the operation of the car and the safety rules, and practiced with it...your fear was replaced with respect. You understand what it's capable of, but feel confident in your ability to control it. Guns are the same way. Once you get lessons and become familiar with safety rules and operation of the various types of firearm, fear is replaced with respect. I'd be happy to take you out sometime and give you one-on-one lessons with some of my guns if you're interested in learning more about them. It may not change anything about how you feel about guns one way or the other, but you'll have some valuable life experience that could come in handy one day.

Anyway, I'm gettin sleepy and I've already gone on for too long in this thing(i get carried away sometimes...I'm an overachiever). I hope this gives you some information you didn't have before to consider. As for your questions on the nature of man and it's inherent potential for evil....can't help there. I will say that the mental health system here is failing those with mental disorders. People living with mental disorders are stigmatized and often face the loss of their rights, and becomming a social outcast for seeking help. Many choose to try to cope on their own and either self-medicate with drugs or just get worse until they're processed through the prison system. As a society, we need to become more compassionate to the mentally ill the same way we are compassionate to those physically ill with cancer or aids. Until we make that investment in time and money, I don't think these threats are going anywhere. We can only prepare to be our own defense if a threat pops up somewhere.

Take care.

 

[Indiana Jones]

Actually, I'd say the Russian Spetsnaz is one of the best military forces in the world! They are crazy insane during training. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAHrHd2lcw


Awesome song.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlQ6KqTlyfk

I don't know how to get videos to display.

They're even better when they accidentally shoot civilians in their own training courses.

So actually, I'd say the Russian Spetsnaz are antiquated.

 

[mvee]

Nice write up, Smokey

 

[mdoffroad]

Iamgine they are like LEGOS... build to your hearts content!

 

[rol716]

Smokey, thanks for sharing that. Very well written. I may have to quote you to some of my friends who are unfamiliar with firearms.

 

[bboyneko]

I think another factor to their popularity is the demonization by the media and repeated attempts by politicians to ban them. Owning one is a symbolic protest.

 

[BenL]

The problem is that many liberals don't consider self-defense a legitimate reason for firearms ownership. As sad as it sounds, they would rather be a victim with dignity than be responsible for their own well-being.

 

[wilcam47]

The problem is that many liberals don't consider self-defense a legitimate reason for firearms ownership. As sad as it sounds, they would rather be a victim with dignity than be responsible for their own well-being.

And media wants victims so they can get ratings..

 

[04RWon]

They're even better when they accidentally shoot civilians in their own training courses.

So actually, I'd say the Russian Spetsnaz are antiquated.

Arent the spetsnaz different than the paratroopers in he video?


Heres some spetsnaz. Pretty wild. I do see the same berets so maybe i was wrong.

http://youtu.be/cSDh0UcKgU8

 

[Biggfoot44]

For my first ( mumble ) years , I had no great intrest in ARs ( then primarily Colt SPs in A1 configuration ). I'd seen them , fired once occasionally , but I was more inclined to real guns instead of unreliable plastic Mattel crap chambered for a poodle shooting round.

Until "theyL tried to say I couldn't have one ! Not having any of that ! An atttack on any type of gun is only an incremental attack on all guns, and must all be defended regardless of which ones you personally prefer.

Modularity , and user adaptability is a good thing . But sometimes it's kinda humorous over all the one upsmanship of " my Brand X NiB widget can beat up your Brand Y tiatanium wingnut " .

Not that we should throw any platform under the bus but for quasi-parallel choices Mini-14 and CETME suit me ( the H&K is a knockoff of the CETME not the other way ). FALs and AK have their followers also, more power to them too.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Not to be overlooked : They're cool. All the other cool kids have them. Chicks dig it .

And all those are absolutely legimite reasons.

 

[ridethemessiah]

it's (close to) what soldiers have. Bringing out the mall ninja in all of us.

 

[jr88]

While I agree with most points, there is one missing that really stands out to me. Perhaps this reason is not pc but it my strongest reason for private ownership of ARs. The single biggest purpose of private gun ownerships is to protect against a tyrannical government.
If you look around, LEOs all over our country now carry AR's, as do our military; there is a reason for this. God forbid the day would come that we need to protect our families from our government, shouldn't we try to be on equal ground? The .gov took away FA rifles from citizens, but feel the need to arm our LEO's with them. In order to attempt to defend yourself and family, ARs (with high cap mags!) have become the intelligent and necessary choice among available rifles. The second amendment intended citizens to have the same rifles the military uses for a reason, this would be the AR-15.

 

[johnnyb2]

I don't think that they ( Gov't ) would/could get rid of the ar, they would require that the lower be changed to only accept new, proprietary magazines that only hold 10 rounds in them. Doing away with the whole platform would cost thousands and thousands of jobs.

The whold situation lately has gone crazy. I must have visitied 25 websites last night looking for a lower, and could not find one. One that is not $3-500 that is. I had and still want to build a SBR for myself, then maybe a 9mm in the future ( yr down the road ), the maybe a dedicated 5.45x39. I KNEW I should have bought a couple lowers receivers before and after the election. If money was not an issue I would have!!! :-(

 

[MikeSP]

Anyone notice there have been a few low post count posters starting threads like this and not responding?

I clicked on this thread because I keep seeing the questions on FB and stupid news people, etc. Wanted to see some rational responses.

 

[johnnyb2]

TO: jr88

Most people do not realize that the 2nd amendment is YES..... protection...... FROM OUR GOVERNMENT!! Hahahahahahaha This country is very unique when compared to democracies around the world. And people from all over want to come and live here and say NOTHING about..OH....THE GUNS......MAYBE I SHOULDN'T GO LIVE THERE...Maybe I should go to.........MEXICO....or LATIN AMERICA.....or RUSSIA...or BRITAIN....NOPE@!...They all want to come here.

One thing is..whenever these killings occur...no one in the media wants to state the facts of the case. In this latest incident, this woman in Conneticutt, should have NEVER allowed her son access to her weapons. Should not have allowed him to take them to the range and practice on them. If you have a mental health disorder, you cannot purchase a gun or firearm. So I do not think that an indicvidual who suffers from a malady like this should have acciss to them. But you do not hear anything about that. This woman is dead now though... .so she cannot be prosecuted. I guarantee if she were a man, and still alive, HE would be in JAIL right now!

 

[johnnyb2]

I don't think that they ( Gov't ) would/could get rid of the ar, they would require that the lower be changed to only accept new, proprietary magazines that only hold 10 rounds in them. Doing away with the whole platform would cost thousands and thousands of jobs.

The whold situation lately has gone crazy. I must have visitied 25 websites last night looking for a lower, and could not find one. One that is not $3-500 that is. I had and still want to build a SBR for myself, then maybe a 9mm in the future ( yr down the road ), the maybe a dedicated 5.45x39. I KNEW I should have bought a couple lowers receivers before and after the election. If money was not an issue I would have!!! :-(

 

[RUOMO10]

Sorry if this is off topic, but I heard today that Bushmaster is stopping the manufacture of ARs since their gun was used in the CT shooting and a big investor of the company pulled out on them. I tried searching on the net but did not find anything. Anybody have an idea of where this came from?

 

[Hol3shot]

Idiots are a dime a dozen.

It is amazing how many idiots are out there buying up AR's.

If you are one of them - I don't apologize.

You didn't need one in the first place, nor do you deserve one now; except at a premium.