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- [voiceover] hey guys,it's alex c. with tfb tv, and the topic of today'svideo is going to be five ar-15 m16 alternatives that failed. we're excluding guns thathave been banned by import. otherwise, there'd be some actually really good guns on the list like the beretta ar-70 and things like that. but, we're going to focus on guns that petered out forone reason or another.

and the free market basicallytook care of the problem, and that's why the gunsare no longer with us. so, we're going to kick the list off with perhaps the most coveted and most famous of the guns on the list. that's just going to be the ar-180 ar-18. you can tell how crude these are. they're basically stamped steel. you can see the weldsthere which is pretty ugly.

this is an originalarmalite costa mesa gun. it's also got patentspending written on there. it's kind of hard to film that roll mark because it's so shallow, but the ar-180s were designed in the early 60s, and theyenjoyed limited success, mostly in the civilian market actually. they feature things like a folding stock that were quite nice.

and realistically, they'reactually well put together guns so far as a stamped gun. they have proprietary 20and 30 round magazines. large capacities are also available. the reason they don't fit an m16 is because the magazine catchhole is slightly different, but they have areciprocating charging handle attached to the bolt directly. they also have a folding dust cover

that's very, very reminiscent of the ar-15 m16s. the safety is also ambidextrous, and the sights are also stamped. very crude here, but effectiveand easily adjustable. there's nothing inherently wrong with stampings in a firearm application, especially when you consider that this gun was designed basically

to give countries that couldn't stamp, or excuse me, milk aluminum and whatnot, the capability to produce 5.56 caliber more modern rifles. even the trigger group is stamped which is kind of interesting. very liberal use of stampings which resulted in an affordableplatform back then. now, this gun's true legacyis in it's gas system.

it's got a unique short-stroke gas piston that really has influenced a lot of guns like the british sa-80, the howa 89. you can even see some of it's influence in guns like the modern g36and acr and things like that. here's a nice closeup of the gas system so you can see the components here. there's basically a piston, a connector and then kind of an operating rod.

and you'll see this in allkinds of different firearms. but all in all, the ar-180 is a gun that should have taken off, and i've never really been able to figure out why. they enjoyed more success on the commercial side of things than actual military sales, but like i said, the gassystem soldiers on today in many platforms.

so next up is one that i wasn't sure whether to include or not, and that's going to be the acr. this is a bushmaster acr. these are still technically in production and for sale, but theyjust haven't gone anywhere. they've been on themarket for a long time, and it almost seems likeremington's forgotten product. you know, they promisedcaliber conversions.

they promised an msrp below $1500 and both of those things didn't happen. especially the caliber conversion. that's actually why i bought this is i was thinking it would be cool to have a rifle where i could, you know, have all of that kind of capability, but what i do like is ithas a non-reciprocating charging handle which is something i like

better than the star which has quite a slap around there. it is ambidextrous in pretty much every aspect of the firearm which is nice. it's also got a built-in cheek riser. and a nice adjustable folding stock which is pretty decent inthe way of folding stocks. they can always be a littleflimsy on some designs, but the acr actually did it quite well.

now, of course, you've got a bolt release in a very nice location, and then your magazine release is also ambidextrous. the controls of this gun are something that i would never complain about. they're actually quite good, and i also like that it hasthe setting for suppressed and one for unsuppressed. now, my favorite thing about the gun

actually is the way thatyou change the barrel. you just pop off the fore-end, and then it's basicallygot a built-in lever that allows you to torque the barrel right on there and remove it, and in theory put a 6.8sbc barrel on there, but it doesn't look like remington's going to deliver on that promise. so, until then i'll be very disappointed.

but, you know, it's kind of sad that this, this rifle didn't deliveron what was expected of it. i really like it. it looks cool. it shoots well. it just hasn't really been asuccess on the marketplace. hopefully the polishmsbs will fill the void as they do look similar andkind of function similar. but we'll see.

now, next up is going tobe the original bushmaster. this is gwinn firearms bushmaster rifle. not the most handsome firearm on the list. i would say it's actually probably one of the uglier guns i own. it essentially justmilled slap-side aluminum with a stainless steel barrel, but you know, form follows function. so, to understand the history of the

modern bushmaster company, you kind of look at stuff like this andthe bushmaster arn pistol, and they actually had some native, unique, if not bizarre designs. this being one of them. it is a long-stroke piston gun, and this whole topassembly's how you charge it, and it reciprocates which is, i can see that causing a problem

for a multitude of reasons, but the folding stock's actually quite nice. that is actual wood on thefore-end for whatever reason. and it's even got a lot of components in common with the m16 ar-15 including the take-down pins and so on and so forth. and then it just clam-shells open which is nice for cleaning.

now you can see it's got an ar-15 m16 basically trigger groove with a m16 hammer which is weird. kind of unusual to seealthough not illegal. and the rear sight removesto field strip the gun which is strange. now, to pull out the pistonbolt carrier and bolt assembly, remove that little piece, and then it all slides out from the rear

which is pretty cool actually. it's a very heavy bit of mass that reciprocates inside the gun. and it is a long stroke piston. looks a lot like an, kind of american-ized ak bolt and carrier, i guess. and all in all, it's not a bad gun. pretty decent actually. not attractive, but they work.

they shoot well, and i don't see this being a high cost firearm. everything's quite simple. and in the 80s when these were introduced, i'm not quite sure why they took off or why they didn't take off rather, but who knows? so, this next one is another one that definitely has failed onthe american marketplace.

this is a benelli mr1. these are gas-breathing rifles with a rotating bolt. they seem to be a little bit more popular in europe and canada, but i can't even find these for sale newanywhere in the u.s. i checked before makingthis video to verify that, and i only found used ones for sale. so, it seems like benelli almost has

just given up entirely. now, there are hunting rifles that use the same action and gas system and everything, but this is the mr1 tactical version, marketed as a home defense gun. one of the reason's i think it fails the controls are terrible. i have very large hands. you can see i have troubleactuating the bolt release.

the safety's somewhat intuitive, but i can't even reach the magazine release with my pointer finger. i have to actually removemy hand from the grip which to me in this day and age is absolutely unacceptable when you have every other gun on the market where you are basically able to do that. it also doesn't shoulder very well.

you can see, to put your, you naturally want to put your eyes as closetto the sight as possible, but it's configured with essentially a shot gun stock thatdoesn't allow you to do that. the sights leave alittle bit to be desired. there's a not very adjustable rear one and a front sight post, but i think i would say that i'm kind of glad that the mr1 isn't that prolific.

they're not terrible, butthey're not good guns. realistically, i would eventake a mini 14 over this. these are a nightmare todisassemble and clean. the controls aren't that great, and yeah, i wouldn't really recommend that you guys buy one, but they're not the worst option youcould take, i suppose. so lastly, we have probablymy favorite gun on the list, the fn tactical tuna.

i'm just kidding, this is fs2000 rifle. it is a bullpup rifle, chambered in 5.56 like the other rifles on this list. and, you know, they look very strange, but they're probably the bestshooting gun on the list. they're very cool. they handle oddly, butnothing that you can't get accustomed to afterone day at the range or so. and they look really bulky when

you see a picture of one, butthey're really not that bad. the thing most people have trouble getting accustomed to is how you check the chamber bylifting the toilet seat and visually inspecting it. not ideal, but at least it's there. the safety is nice. it's ambidextrous because it's mounted where your trigger fingeris inside the trigger guard

which is pretty nice. now, they eject out the front or you can store about four or five shots in there with the door closed before they eject which is kind of a neat feature actually. so, they're kind ofweird, the older models, in that they have an opticthat's hidden under the shroud. and you're going tolaugh when i take it off.

it looks like a cheap bb gun optic, but it's actually quite decent. now, of course you can remove that and mount an acog or whatever eotech if you're into that. and then go with it. i just think it looksso cool with the shroud and the old optic on there. and then of course, it also has

an adjustable gas regulator, making this a very modern, very cool gun. so this was a tough one to list because while the fs2000is on fn's website, they haven't really produced them or imported any in a while, although they kind of insist that it's not down and out, however it does seem like they have

turned their back to it. and when you click the link, it actually goes to the military version. so, i'm pretty sure thatthey've given up on this, but hopefully i'm wrongbecause they're very cool. anyways guys, big thanksto ventura munitions. big thanks to you for watching. i really hope you enjoyed this. hope to see you next time.