Picked up a new AR today. I’d been wanting a slightly ‘upper tier’ AR for a while now. I’ve a stack of Palmettos, Stags, Bushmasters, Rugers, etc. but I kinda wanted something with a little more high-end quality. You can spend a lot in the AR world for a Noveske or an LMT or some other top-tier brand and I wouldn’t mind having one. But…I’m not quite there yet. I did want to get something, though, a bit better than what I have. One of my vendors was having a sale and I decided that the folks at FN have been stamping out guns for the better part of over 100 years…let’s get one of their AR’s.

Nothing terribly fancy. Its an FN TAC3 which is what the pattern for most AR carbines seems to be these days – M-lok handguard, telestock, no front sight tower, lotsa pic rail. I’m throwing an Eotech on there, some BUIS, swapping out the muzzle device for a quick mount for a suppressor, adding a light, and calling it a day.

I’ve been shooting AR’s since…mmm…the late 80’s. I think I’ve owned every brand that was extant back then and have seen some weird ones come and go. Back in the day, you didn’t have M4geries…they were called CAR-15’s. If you had an AR you most likely had a full size 20″ rifle. Back then it was Colt, Bushmaster, Olympic, and DPMS. There might have been a few outliers but those were the main brands.

Pic rail wasn’t a thing yet, and attaching a flashlight to your gun never really occurred to us. Flattops were definitely not a thing….AR’s all had carry handles. If you were tacticool you might have the Colt carry-handle scope or an Armson OEG on there. If it was a CAR-15, odds are good you had about 4″ of flash suppressor hanging off the front of your gun to make it legal length,

Mags were aluminum from Okay, Adventureline, Colt, Sierra, and a handful of other makers. If you wanted a drum there was a massive plastic 90-round monstrosity you could buy. If you wanted to really go off the deep end, the guys at LL Baston made mounts to mount an underbarrel shotgun like it was an M203. … an idea that is yet to die. I have never seen one in real life.

As time went on, the ‘rankings’ of manufacturers waxed and waned. The “ABC’s” (Armalite, Bushmaster, Colt) were the highly regarded top-tier guns (mind you this was damn near 40 years ago), and things like Olympic and DPMS were the ‘budget’ guns…much like Anderson/Palmetto today.

Also, way back then (late 80’s), Vietnam was still a relatively fresh memory. You could have a guy who had seen the elephant over there who was still less than 40 years old. The stories about the reliability issues of early M16’s were still being loudly preached. In fact, I know a guy here in town, former crew chief on a Chinook, who has nothing but venomous spite for the gun.

Calibers were strictly .223 and the flavor of the day was 55 gr. ball. Maybe 52 in some batches. Ar’s in other calibers wouldn’t be a readily available thing for a number of years.

Accessories were limited…you could buy surplus USGI 3-mag ALICE pouches and that was pretty much it.  You had a GI cleaning kit in the buttstock. A GI sling finished the ensemble.

Nowadays, of course, its a different story. The AR is a ubiquitous platform with dozens of manufacturers, hundreds of third-party accessory manufacturers, a dozen calibers, and the modualr aspect of the rifle has been amplified and improved over the sixty years this thing has been around.

Which brings me to my new FN. It’s as far a cry from one of my early CAR-15’s as you can imagine. It’s more adaptable to things like lights and optics, is probably more reliable, has a freefloated barrel, and is probably more accurate with its heavier profile.

So, long story to simply say that I’m getting to be an old dude who can say “I remember when…”.

But..new toy, so yay!