AR7 survival rifle

ivanthehunter

Looks like a nice little gun but are the avaiable in Ireland.
Has any body ever owned one and if so how did the little brute shoot?

kowloon

If that's the little .22 backpacker rifle then I'd say you might have trouble getting a licence seeing as it's easy to hide. Probably too short assembled anyway.

ivanthehunter

What the regs on size of completed firearm.
And does some one have any links to the legislation handy

gunhappy_ie

Tim landes in tralee had a few of them at one stage. Last i heard he stopped importing them. But there small ! Put away and its no more than 12" so altogether id say its not much longer than 24". If your FO just thinks your gettin a .22 then your ok but if you mention survival rifle.... Big no no !

milkerman

I had an american book on .22 rimfires written by a guy called John LeChuck (Now lost in a house move). The AR7 was described purely as a survival gun and not particularly accurate. Good enough for a rabbit at 25 yards and better than nothing against a hungry bear! I think Duffy's in Galway have a similiar gun currently listed with their rimfires.

Rovi

The AR-7 is still being manufactured by Henry Repeating Arms, as the Henry U.S. Survival.

Some HISTORY on the firearm.

I don't know how big a deal the disassembly feature is, but it probably falls foul of the Restricted List (whether actual law or not) by virtue of its short overall length (35", 890mm) and its 'high capacity' (8 rounds! :eek:) magazine.
The barrel is 16", so it should be fine in that regard.

No more unlicensable than many other semi-auto rimfires, unless the disassembly feature is some cause for concern or the 'AR' in the name causes palpitations.


Marlin do a similar offering, the 70PSS 'Papoose'.

rrpc

Any rifle that seperates the barrel from the action has one major failing in that the sights are never lined up correctly after each re-assembly.

I had a Unique semi-auto many years ago with the same feature and it was an absolute pain having to reset the sights after I put it together. I got rid of it after a couple of years for a Brno bolt action which I still have.

gunhappy_ie

I wouldnt worry about the accuracy, a rebarrel would sort that out, while your at it .... thread it for a suppressor

rrpc

gunhappy_ie wrote: »

I wouldnt worry about the accuracy, a rebarrel would sort that out, while your at it .... thread it for a suppressor

I think you might have misunderstood me. When you remove the barrel from the receiver (which the sights are fixed to) and then replace it later, it never goes on exactly the same way, so the sights have to be set again. Because the difference is at the receiver, even the minutest variation in assembly will make a huge difference at the target.

That's why it's a pain.

gunhappy_ie

I could be wrong but..... :P:P:P (famous last words) this is just my opinion......


There are many firearms out there that allow for the removal of the barrel without re-zeroing. Admitably most that i can think of are for military applications but it still can be done.

The survival rifle I saw might not have been the same make but was a clone or copy of the AR-7. If I was to rebarrel it then id pick a barrel with a better twist for subsonic ammo. Im sure there are not many if any companies offering off the shelf barrels for this and its better off as:

1. The standard barrel I saw was .22 barrel insert with a plastic cover around it to reduce weight and to thread it would require shortening it to have enough "meat" to thread. A steel barrel while heavier would be better and more accurate but lets face it.. its still very light and your not actually usint it as a survival rifle after being shot down over hostile territory.

2. The tolerances that are required to achieve that kind of accuracy generally dont come off the shelf for a €200-300 rifle so it would be a totally custom job.

Now I know what your thinking... €€€€€€ and why spend all that money on such a cheap rifle... because (in my case) why not !! I love that stuff ... making something better. Then theres the rarity of the rifles. I do know that the DOJ has stopped the importation of them to a dealer I know.

Thats just my opinion. !

Sparks

gunhappy_ie wrote: »

There are many firearms out there that allow for the removal of the barrel without re-zeroing. Admitably most that i can think of are for military applications but it still can be done.

I can think of something similar that's decidedly not military:


Buttplate assembly and front sights/bloop tube assembly both detach. Granted the barrel stays attached, but the sights don't; and folks win world cups with these things...

ivanthehunter

gunhappy_ie wrote: »

I do know that the DOJ has stopped the importation of them to a dealer I know.

Thats just my opinion. !

Are you still talking about AR-7's here:eek:... and if the DOJ stopped the importation of these what was there reasoning to the actions, or did they even bother to have one...

When did this happen-(where hand guns available at this stage)

Mellor

Another example might of been the Sako Quad.



Interesting fact about the AR-7.
James bond had one of these in From russia with love. Although they refered to it as a "point two five", and not a .22

Sparks

No, he had a beretta .25 pistol (a 418 I think). Ian Fleming never was very well-informed about firearms though - the character Q is based on Geoffrey Boothroyd, a gun collector who wrote to Fleming about the gun he had Bond using (the beretta) to say it was a wussies' gun Fleming so took his advice to heart, he put Boothroyd in the novels as Major Boothroyd (later known just as Q) and gave Bond the Walther PPK from then on (ironically up to that point best known as the standard issue pistol for Nazi officers).

Rovi

Mellor wrote: »

Interesting fact about the AR-7.
James bond had one of these in From russia with love. Although they refered to it as a "point two five", and not a .22

Correct!-
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=From_Russia_with_Love#Armalite_AR-7

It's appeared in a bunch of stuff-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-7#The_AR-7_in_popular_culture

ivanthehunter

Looks like the manufactures took a great step by producing a barrel that only had walls about 1mm++ thick and then coating the whole in ridged nylon.

Are there any similar designs today where the barrel is purely a functional sleeve.

gunhappy_ie

iwant. Its pretty much a barrel liner that they use. You can get it in lengths for relining .22 barrels of old odd shot out firearms. Rather than make a new barrel, the barrel is drilled out and the liner is fixed in place before final work is done on it.

Grizzly 45

It's a fine little rifle ,within it's tolerances.It is NOT a tack driver target rifle.But a fine little bunny buster.The idea was a cheap little rifle for aircrews and for what is called in the US a "pickup truck gun"Somthing you chuck in the cab and have for shooting the odd vermin or rabbit[Again different firearms laws over there,that would give our Gardai FAO's screaming fits].The best are the Armalite model and the most expensive,Charter arms were very hit and miss in quality control[had one in the US years ago] Henry arms,have cleaned up the rifle's glitches abit and have now most of the "tart up" bits as well. The trigger mech is simple but as smooth as a barn door latch!Get it polished and you do have a nice IMO handy rifle,if you have a boat or want a compact little piece.
It should be no more restricted than a ruger 10/22 with 10 shot mag as std.

Also,if you dont really need the storage facility in the buttstock.This is one easy rifle to get a totally integrated into the barrel suppressor,which is the canine testicular matter.A good suppressed AR7 barrel job looks like a bull barrel in size.Also if done properly,it will cycle the action no problem with subsonics.


Sparks,was slightly out on his gun trivia.:D The Walther PPK was not issued alot to officers of the SS or Wehrmacht.They were issued anything and everything from Imperial German Army revolvers to mostly in the end Walther P38's,via Polish Radoms to FN Hi power P35s.There was a chronic shortage of sidearms in the German war machine in ww2.The most notorious users of the PPK were the German secret police[GESTAPO] or the high ranking Nazi party members.
Fleming was pretty good with firearms,he was one of the better SOE operatives that the UK had in Europe.
He just preffered small calibres for concealbility and close in termination work.Hence the reason Bond had the .25 cal first off.Ironically the Bond choice of the PPK ,influenced the REAL Bonds of the British intelligence servive to purchase the PPK.That is untill the attempted abduction of princess Mags in the 1970s where one BGs pistol main spring broke.:eek:
Apprently they were the French copies,not the German quality workmanship jobs:D
The joke was in the Gulf War with the RAF pilots who were issued them.That there five good rounds in it.Disassemble,and throw the slide,barrel,the frame and mag,and grips at the enemy,then run like Hell.:eek::D

Mellor

Sparks wrote: »

No, he had a beretta .25 pistol (a 418 I think). Ian Fleming never was very well-informed about firearms though - the character Q is based on Geoffrey Boothroyd, a gun collector who wrote to Fleming about the gun he had Bond using (the beretta) to say it was a wussies' gun Fleming so took his advice to heart, he put Boothroyd in the novels as Major Boothroyd (later known just as Q) and gave Bond the Walther PPK from then on (ironically up to that point best known as the standard issue pistol for Nazi officers).

Afraid not sparks. He had an AR7 in from russia with love. I was 100% sure of this, and has been confirmed by Rovi.
As for Boothroyd, you're right he did right to fleming regarding the Beretta that Bond used. (It was a Beretta 950 Jetfire I believe).