Okay, so let’s talk about one of the most fun, loud, and
obnoxious things out there. I don’t care if your name is Paul, you wear your
hat crooked, and you are the life of the party every Saturday night. You will
still never be more fun, loud, or obnoxious than an AR-15 Pistol (aka MI Pistol
or AR Pistol). For legal purposes, I will clarify that AR-15 Pistols are legal
in the state of Michigan as long as they adhere to a few guidelines, the
biggest being it cannot have a stock. So to say the least, we are reviewing a
weapon that is legal in our state. Please review your state laws if you have
interest in this type of weapon before making plans to build or purchase.
To start off, there are a great deal of benefits to having
one of these little guys. One of them is the carry facet. I know it may sound
ludicrous to carry one of these things, but since they are required to be
registered as pistols in the state of MI they receive all of the same rights
and privileges as a pistol. I, personally, every now and then carry my AR
Pistol under my knee length trench coat with a BlackHawk single-point sling.
With either my 7” or 7.5” barrel I can still carry this thing without it being
noticed. With its legal versatility as a pistol you can also use it as a “truck
gun” or in my case a “four-door sedan gun”. This also makes it easier to take
it to the range since you can keep it loaded.
The next best thing about AR Pistols is shooting them. Getting
the right sights for them is quite the pain, which we will discuss later, but
target/scenario shooting is a blast, quite literally. If shooting one handed,
which makes even the scroniest of a man feel like Gaston, you do have a liberal
amount a muzzle lift, even with special muzzle brakes. Yet, the weight of the
gun and AR-15 trigger pull does allow you enough time to fire somewhat rapidly
and still be on target. You aren’t shooting a tournament 1911, but for
one-handed shooting, with a weapon not originally designed for one-handed
shooting, it does fairly decent. Now, two-handed shooting makes you feel a
little like Tony Montana. I can’t tell you how many times I have introduced
mine by saying, “Say hello to my little friend.” I know, I know, he used an A2
style M-16 with a M203, but I can’t help myself.
Recoil wise, they are basically like shooting a short AR-15,
which ironically enough is what they are. Accuracy wise, I would say at
twenty-five yards they are as accurate as any other handgun I have fired from a
standing position. I do not know how these weapons perform at long distances.
Mainly because I treat it as a pistol and I would not call upon my pistol to
make one-hundred yard shots unless I was left without the option of using my
rifle. One day I may see how it does with long range shots, but then again,
what did I buy my LR-308 for? I my opinion, in a tactical scenario these things
work best at providing short range suppressive fire, but one can’t forget about
the long range capabilities of the 5.56.
With these weapons having all of their good sides, why don’t
we take a stroll down to the bad and the ugly. First of all, price, price, and
price. Without giving you the rundown of a parts list and prices, which don’t
fret, I will waste your time with that later, I will just say that for a basic
model using new parts you are going to spend about $850 to build an AR Pistol.
For those of you who build AR-15s, myself included, that is clearly more than
building a full size rifle. However, I must say that building an AR Pistol,
like building an AR-15, will in most cases save you money, which leads me to my
next point.
Getting the chance to build one of these is also a great
experience, but frustrating at the same time. I have built ARs before, but AR
Pistols have a little more complexity to them. The hand guard is somewhat of a
concern for 7” barrels. The 10.5” barrel use carbine length gas tubes and hand
guards so those are not a problem, but the shorter ones require slightly more
expensive parts. On the AR Pistol upper I built I used a Yankee Hill Machine Pistol
Length Quad Rail Free-float Handguard. This added enough weight to keep the
pistol somewhat balanced and made my sight conundrum slightly easier to solve. The
biggest issue with sights for an AR Pistol is that no manufacture has made AR
sights that work as well as standard pistol sights. My choice, or rather choices,
ended up being an EOTech EXPS3 on my Rock River Arms upper and MagPul flip
sights for my Palmetto State Armory/DPMS upper. Both have worked out great so
far as sights and serve their purpose for the pistol they are on.
Along with finding the right sights to fit your purposes,
there are other issues to be addressed in the construction of an AR Pistol.
These are functioning dilemmas. Now, that is not to say that AR Pistols are
inherently problematic, so don’t get it twisted. However, there are problems
that should be addressed. First and foremost is the buffer tube. If you take
your collapsible AR stock, pull down on the adjustment lever, and remove it you
will have a well functioning AR pistol buffer tube (although one must consider
the possible legal pitfall of having a buffer tube that could so readily accept
a stock). Ace makes a full length buffer tube that has worked flawlessly with
my AR pistol. The problem comes with the shorter tubes that some manufactures
have created. These look better and make the AR Pistol much shorter, but have
been reported to have many feeding issues due to the short amount of travel
that the bolt carrier has in between shots. The easiest way to put it is that
the more your buffer tube meets the standard length, the more reliable it will
be.
The next issue is that of business end of the barrel: the
muzzle brake. Many people will swear that the 7” barrels have feeding issues
due to the lack of backpressure created from the short length of the barrel.
Although I have used a standard “birdcage” A2 style flash hider with no feeding
issues, I had looked into a flash hider that would work to solve three
problems: low backpressure, high decibels, and muzzle flash. The device I used
was the DPMS Levang Compensator. I won’t give this item the same be-all end-all
rating that others have because every now and then you do get some muzzle flash
and it didn’t seem to “send the sound downrange” to the high extent that others
have reported, but with it I haven’t had any feeding problems and the muzzle
flash is not as extreme as with other flash hiders. For $30, I won’t down-talk
the item as it performed adequately. So far, nothing short of a silencer will
tame the excessive roar of these weapons, but with hearing protection, from my
perspective as the shooter, it didn’t sound any louder than your standard AR-15
while wearing proper hearing protection.
In short, considering the good, the bad, and the ugly, AR
Pistols are in my opinion great additions to any gun collection. With their
legal flexibility they make great vehicle weapons as well as intimidating carry
pieces whether you decide to CC or OC. Keep in mind, some states have odd laws
about these weapons, MI’s is odd, but benefiting to gun owners like me, but if one’s
state does not frown on them they will make their owner quite happy. They have
always been of interest to other shooters at the gun range and have made a few
of my buddies quite jealous. Below you will find the list of parts that went
into build each AR Pistol and feel free to email us with any question you may
have about your AR Pistol build. We may not know everything, but if you are
just starting out with your build we can most likely get your questions answered
and get you to the range.
- Ace Pistol Buffer Tube
- DPMS Bolt Carrier Assembly
- DPMS Crush Washer
- DPMS Levang Compensator
- DPMS Pistol Length Gas Tube
- DPMS Railed Gas Block
- DPMS Trigger Kit
- DPMS 7” Barrel
- Palmetto State Armory Assembled Upper Receiver and Charging handle
- Rock River Arms Stripped Lower Receiver
- Rock River Arms Upper Receiver Assembly (2nd AR Pistol upper)
- Yankee Hill Machine Pistol Length Quad Rail Free-float Handguard
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