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Believe me, I wasn't looking to buy the weirdest shotgun ever made. Still, somehow, an ArmaLite AR-17 came home with me from a recent auction. Here's my report …
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It's difficult even to explain what the ArmaLite AR-17 is. The closest comparable gun I can think of is the Browning Double Auto, and for a while, the analogy works.
Both are semi-auto, 12-gauge shotguns that work using a short-recoil (aka "inertia") system. Both hold just two shells, one in the chamber and one underneath. Browning offered the Double Auto from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. ArmaLite offered the AR-17 over a much shorter, but overlapping, period - 1964 to 1965. Both were lightweight guns created by famous designers, Browning's Val Browning and ArmaLite's Eugene Stoner.
But there, the comparison ends.
The Double Auto was a finely finished, otherwise traditional gun with lovely wood stocks and polished steel bits.
The AR-17? Well, you have to remember its maker was the original ArmaLite, the innovative but oft-troubled firearms engineering firm. And the AR-17's designer was Eugene Stoner, the genius behind the AR-10/AR-15, the guns that begat all the AR-pattern guns adopted by U.S. military and now beloved by American civilians.
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And if the AR-15 was a "rifle by Mattel," the AR-17 is a "shotgun by Tyco." The AR-17 does make a few, feeble attempts to hide its true nature. However, it's plainly plastic, high-quality "engineering" plastic to be sure, but plastic none the less. The forearm is plastic. The stock is plastic. Key internal parts are plastic. Oh, some of them are brown, but there's no mistaking any of them for wood.
Like the AR-15, the AR-17's metal bits -- except for the barrel, bolt head and various pins - are aluminum alloy. Most are anodized. Even if you hate the pale gold tone, you have to respect the durability of the thing. The result? An extremely lightweight, yet extremely rugged gun. The weight? A fabulously slim 5 pounds, 4 ounces without the recoil pad (which we'll get back to in a moment).
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Also like the AR-15, the AR-17 has a distinctive engineering feature: The bolt locks directly into the barrel. In fact, the bolt faces of the AR-15 and AR-17 are clearly cousins, both creations of Eugene Stoner. In each case, the bolt-in-barrel design allows a lighter receiver, simpler construction and the potential for greater accuracy. (Please forgive the punch obscuring the photo here. I didn't have a third hand available to hold the bolt in a good position.)
How does the AR-17 work? Loading is the first challenge. I have no owners manual, and the process is not obvious. However, after a lot of fumbling, I figured out everything happens at the bottom of the receiver …
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- Start with the bolt locked back.
- Look for the large, brown plastic block on the front of the opening.
- Use the front of the shell to push the brown block forward.
- Tip the back of the shell against the black block on the back of the opening.
- Push the shell up into the receiver until it stops. (The "until it stops" is important. The bolt will not catch the shell and push it into the chamber if you don't.)
- Close the bolt by pulling the bolt handle back. Let the bolt go, and it will feed the first shell into the chamber.
- Load the second shell into the bottom of the receiver using the same technique as the first.
The process sounds a bit fiddly, and it is. (It's not nearly as nice as Val Browning's "Quick Load" feature on the Double Auto.) Still, it does work, and it helps if you recall the Stoner connection. Experienced AR-15/M-16/M-4 users will tell you those Stoner guns like to "run wet," that is, heavily lubricated, and my AR-17 example exhibited the same behavior.
When dry, cycling was slow and unreliable, even with game loads. When wet, cycling was fast and reliable, even with light target loads. Combine that load flexibility with interchangeable, Lyman-style choke tubes and you have a truly versatile, portable gun.
So, what are the flaws? Well, the mushy, heavy trigger is an annoyance, but you can get used to that.
But the recoil? Well, that's harder to handle. Unfortunately, my example did not come with the factory recoil pad. (At the auction, I just didn't notice. I was blinded by the gun's other oddities.) However, the pad is a simple, snap-on affair, similar to the one used on another Stoner creation, the AR-7 survival gun.
So for testing, I used a slip-on recoil pad, and indeed, one of the brown, rubber Pachmayr slip-ons might actually look good on the AR-17.
But still, you can't get around the physics of a 5.5 pound gun being launched at your shoulder at more than 1,000 feet per second. With target loads, it's no big problem. With game loads, well, two shots will be plenty. Of course, for many uses, two shots are plenty, and thus, I could see a role for this gun as a walking, hiking, upland-game-hunting gun.
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However, it's real role is as a golden example of the creativity of ArmaLite and Eugene Stoner.
Enjoy!
Dave
A few minor notes ...
- The AR-17 has earned a coveted spot in the National Firearms Museum. See http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/the ... otgun.aspx
- For another view of the AR-17, see http://www.chuckhawks.com/ArmaLite_AR-17.htm
- To polish the plastic, use Armor All. The same stuff that's already in your garage. Really.
It's difficult even to explain what the ArmaLite AR-17 is. The closest comparable gun I can think of is the Browning Double Auto, and for a while, the analogy works.
Both are semi-auto, 12-gauge shotguns that work using a short-recoil (aka "inertia") system. Both hold just two shells, one in the chamber and one underneath. Browning offered the Double Auto from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. ArmaLite offered the AR-17 over a much shorter, but overlapping, period - 1964 to 1965. Both were lightweight guns created by famous designers, Browning's Val Browning and ArmaLite's Eugene Stoner.
But there, the comparison ends.
The Double Auto was a finely finished, otherwise traditional gun with lovely wood stocks and polished steel bits.
The AR-17? Well, you have to remember its maker was the original ArmaLite, the innovative but oft-troubled firearms engineering firm. And the AR-17's designer was Eugene Stoner, the genius behind the AR-10/AR-15, the guns that begat all the AR-pattern guns adopted by U.S. military and now beloved by American civilians.
And if the AR-15 was a "rifle by Mattel," the AR-17 is a "shotgun by Tyco." The AR-17 does make a few, feeble attempts to hide its true nature. However, it's plainly plastic, high-quality "engineering" plastic to be sure, but plastic none the less. The forearm is plastic. The stock is plastic. Key internal parts are plastic. Oh, some of them are brown, but there's no mistaking any of them for wood.
Like the AR-15, the AR-17's metal bits -- except for the barrel, bolt head and various pins - are aluminum alloy. Most are anodized. Even if you hate the pale gold tone, you have to respect the durability of the thing. The result? An extremely lightweight, yet extremely rugged gun. The weight? A fabulously slim 5 pounds, 4 ounces without the recoil pad (which we'll get back to in a moment).
Also like the AR-15, the AR-17 has a distinctive engineering feature: The bolt locks directly into the barrel. In fact, the bolt faces of the AR-15 and AR-17 are clearly cousins, both creations of Eugene Stoner. In each case, the bolt-in-barrel design allows a lighter receiver, simpler construction and the potential for greater accuracy. (Please forgive the punch obscuring the photo here. I didn't have a third hand available to hold the bolt in a good position.)
How does the AR-17 work? Loading is the first challenge. I have no owners manual, and the process is not obvious. However, after a lot of fumbling, I figured out everything happens at the bottom of the receiver …
- Start with the bolt locked back.
- Look for the large, brown plastic block on the front of the opening.
- Use the front of the shell to push the brown block forward.
- Tip the back of the shell against the black block on the back of the opening.
- Push the shell up into the receiver until it stops. (The "until it stops" is important. The bolt will not catch the shell and push it into the chamber if you don't.)
- Close the bolt by pulling the bolt handle back. Let the bolt go, and it will feed the first shell into the chamber.
- Load the second shell into the bottom of the receiver using the same technique as the first.
The process sounds a bit fiddly, and it is. (It's not nearly as nice as Val Browning's "Quick Load" feature on the Double Auto.) Still, it does work, and it helps if you recall the Stoner connection. Experienced AR-15/M-16/M-4 users will tell you those Stoner guns like to "run wet," that is, heavily lubricated, and my AR-17 example exhibited the same behavior.
When dry, cycling was slow and unreliable, even with game loads. When wet, cycling was fast and reliable, even with light target loads. Combine that load flexibility with interchangeable, Lyman-style choke tubes and you have a truly versatile, portable gun.
So, what are the flaws? Well, the mushy, heavy trigger is an annoyance, but you can get used to that.
But the recoil? Well, that's harder to handle. Unfortunately, my example did not come with the factory recoil pad. (At the auction, I just didn't notice. I was blinded by the gun's other oddities.) However, the pad is a simple, snap-on affair, similar to the one used on another Stoner creation, the AR-7 survival gun.
So for testing, I used a slip-on recoil pad, and indeed, one of the brown, rubber Pachmayr slip-ons might actually look good on the AR-17.
But still, you can't get around the physics of a 5.5 pound gun being launched at your shoulder at more than 1,000 feet per second. With target loads, it's no big problem. With game loads, well, two shots will be plenty. Of course, for many uses, two shots are plenty, and thus, I could see a role for this gun as a walking, hiking, upland-game-hunting gun.
However, it's real role is as a golden example of the creativity of ArmaLite and Eugene Stoner.
Enjoy!
Dave
A few minor notes ...
- The AR-17 has earned a coveted spot in the National Firearms Museum. See http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/the ... otgun.aspx
- For another view of the AR-17, see http://www.chuckhawks.com/ArmaLite_AR-17.htm
- To polish the plastic, use Armor All. The same stuff that's already in your garage. Really.
