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AR-15 in .30 Carbine?
ammo guy
Member Posts: 810 ✭✭✭
Any of you know of the existence of a AR-15 that is factory chambered in .30 Carbine. I have been told that Olympic Arms made some in the early 90's for Brazil. About 50-60 were not shipped there and are in the US.
Comments
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2012/01/20/excel-arms-x-30r-rifle-in-30-carbine/
and info on upper conversions. Google them [;)]
No one really knows how many of the 50 actually exist. I've never seen one sell on a public site, so we really don't have enough sales data for anyone to give you a "value" estimate. The "value" is - what it is worth to you.
The gun in question is an AR-type, not an AR-15. (The name AR-15 is copyrighted by Colt Firearms.) If the gun had been made by Colt, it would have substantial collector value. But Olympic? Much less, maybe none.
Planning to shoot it? The AR platform is a lot more complex than the USGI M1 carbine design. If you have problems with the Oly, there will be no parts & no one willing to work on it.
But, it's your money; do what you want. I might buy one if I had the chance --- but only if it were dirt cheap.
Neal
"Believe nothing you hear, & only half of what you see."
Any of you know of the existence of a AR-15 that is factory chambered in .30 Carbine. I have been told that Olympic Arms made some in the early 90's for Brazil. About 50-60 were not shipped there and are in the US.
You know these exist, so you have your answer.
I think I saw that Olympic had these as a production item for one year. If Olympic itself has confirmed your story with respect to total production numbers, then that's the bottom line.
If the question is what are they worth. . .that's hard to say. Demand for these is pretty low, and supply is low, so its hard to come up with a fair market price. I'd say the price of a regular AR-15 is probably reasonable as a place to start the discussion. I certainly wouldn't pay much more than that for one. If this guy thinks he's got some sort of super-valuable collectors piece. . .he probably needs to think again.
If you're asking if you should buy it, that depends on how badly you want this, but personally, I wouldn't unless the price was VERY attractive.
As a collectors piece, there are probably other guns that are more suitable in the sense that the price of entry will be similar, they're likely to appreciate more, and it will be much easier to sell one on the other end if/when you want to get rid of it.
There's a reason why nobody makes AR-15s in .30 carbine. . .nobody wants these. Why not? Because there is already another handy, durable, and well-liked carbine available in that caliber!
I'm not quite so pessimistic about this as nmyers. . .Olympic isn't some fly-by-night operation and if they built this for a Brazillian police outfit one would hope the gun "should" be durable. Many of the parts should be standard AR-15 parts, and its possible (though not likely) that Olympic may have some spare parts available. Perhaps if you had problems they could repair the gun, or otherwise make it right for you. . .don't know.
But despite all that, if you just want a "shooter", IMO for the same money you can probably pick up a nice legit M1 carbine, and it will basically do everything the AR will, but with more character, potentially more collector appreciation, easier availability of replacement parts, and easier resale.