Alright, I jumped in an AR pistol thread on another gun forum, and for the life of me can not see why anyone would use an AR pistol for serious social purposes, other than a novelty item at the range, or an interim step to an SBR.
So, in M4Carbine style, let’s talk about AR pistols. I don’t need to know about ballistics of a 5"-10" barrel, as I’ve read quite a bit about SBR ammo selection.
I want folks to talk about positive and negatives of an AR pistol in shooting, concealment, split times, etc…
OK, here’s my opinion. I love AR’s and I think the pistols look cool. I would buy one if the price was more set to being a weapon that would see little use. They are way overpriced, in my opinion. I can’t justify buying one when I can get another AR rifle for just a bit more.
My experience (Bushmaster Carbon 15 Type 97S) was nothing but good training for malfunction clearing. Seriously, I had so many malfunctions, consecutively, that it was absurd.
Unweildy
With no butt-stock, the only way to support the weapon is with a single-point sling extended with a lot of exertion outward.
Aiming is difficult
A red dot is MANDATORY in order to be able to hit targets.
Recoil
The cartridge isn’t widely known for its recoil, but on a pistol it really comes out.
Noise
Earpro-busting loudness. I still got “Star Wars Radio” sound effects in my ears through my earpro.
Severely reduced muzzle velocity
Self-explanatory
I see infinitely more drawbacks to pluses on the AR pistol. YMMV. For me, once bitten, twice shy. The Carbon-15 is one of those “great in theory” “sounds good on paper” sort of ideas, but the reality is 180 from that little fantasy. It sucked. It sucked majorly.
The ONLY reason why I keep a pistol lower around is to be able to have short barreled uppers, WA state isn’t a free state. That being said, I don’t actually build any pistols with it anymore because I hated shooting it with a very nice BCM 11.5" upper so much. The longer I own it, the less I like having a “pistol” that gathers dust.
If you don’t want to jump thru the SBR route you have a weapon that can penetrate car doors / mild steel and can also send a round several hundred feet down range. Think of it as a “super pistol”. I don’t own one but that is the best I could come up with.
They look too cumbersome to serve any real purpose in my opinion. I will state that I have not handled or fired one. I have seen them at gunshops and gunshows. If I owned one I could not help put submit to the NFA registry for an SBR. In which case I would want an LMT (just throwing that out there) complete lower over Oly, BM, RRA, etc. to have a better total SBR package. The lack of a buttstock would drive me nuts.
I built my first AR pistol a little over a year ago, and now have three. One is chambered in a wildcat cartridge 7.62 ARk which is a stretched 300 whisper, the other two are 5.56mm chambers. I live in Michigan so cannot have a SBR and not so sure if I would want to go through the paper work and tax to get one anyway. A AR pistol gives me everything a SBR has just no butt stock.
There is so much good info on the net to help you make good choices in building a AR pistol it is pretty easy to get a reliable build the first time. I went with ACE and Spikes pistol buffer tubes, standard carbine recoil springs and T2 buffers on all of my pistols. Also used a M16 bolt carrier, more mass for cycling during firing. Gas port position and size are important also for proper cycling with the barrel length you choose, my barrels are 10.5 and 11.5 inch. The point is there is no reason a AR pistol should be any less reliable than a SBR.
As far as best times and control, it is more a training issue than anything. I use the cheek weld method with nose to charging handle and do not try to shoulder it as it would make me shift my shoulder in an unnatural position. In other words I bring the pistol to point just like I would a rifle it just does not contact my shoulder (about 1" inch away). I use a two point sling and it to helps with stability and control for the longer shots. The use of a good muzzle device like a recoil compensator can also help with follow up shots, I have been using the PWS FSC models in 556 and 30 bores.
You can look at the AR pistol and say what good is it in which case you will probably never try one or you can say this looks promising what can I do with it.
