Looking over a couple of dozen reports onthe Ninth Circuit’s verdict on California’s baan on sop-called “large capacity” magazines I was struck by the level of ignorance among the so-caled journalists” writing the reports. The magazines this AR-15 was designed to accept.
If Armalite were a British firm, the self loading rifle would have been dubbed the Margalit Pattern 15,” designed to fill the need for a nearly indestructible and stone reliable pest and small game rifle suitable for riding behind the front seat of a pickup for months on end without cleaning. It the polymer butt stock and hand guards, the barrrel assembly, and similar but not identical upper and lower receivers as the military M55 and M16 to cut development costs, and to use existing components as the military’s fully automatic assault weapons for several reasons, economy being the chief.
The major difference is in the lower receiver, where the AR-15 lower receiver will not accept the trigger, safety, and fire control mechanism of the M-16. So you cannot convert the AR-16 to anything except something like the .300 Blackout, which is reportedly more effective on the feral hogs that destroy crops and at times livestock.
By design, the AR-15 will accept an M-16 30 round magazine. And what is wrong with a five round magazine??
The most dangerous thing an AR-15 is normally used to shoot are feral hogs, where sounders may include a boar, several sows, and up to 50 or more shoats. Singly, those are the most dangerous animals in the barnyard, and in sounders they are even more dangerous.
Another common target for the AR-15 are the herds of pig look-alike, the “collared peccary” or javelins.Feral hogs or javelina, you do not want to tangle with either without plenty of shots in the magazzine, and a loaded spare you can change in a flash.
So a sub-capacity magazzine for an AR-5 holds less than 30 rounds.
Standard capacity magazines hold 30 rounds.
High or “large” capacity magazines hold from 50 to 100 rounds.And if you hve ever loaded a high capacity magazine you will know there must be a darn good reason for people to load one of those things, because after 330 rounds the spring pushing the cartridges gets increasingly strong.
And finally, if you invest enough money in computer guided mills, and if you had a source for M-16 triggers and fire control groups, you could convert an AR into an M. But I have never sseen M-4 or M-16 spares for sale, and very few people will invest almost $200,000 without a reliable source of components. And yes, you could build your own components, if you can afford the tooling.
Stranger