About 3 days after returning home upon being discharged in 1979 I both applied for my first LEO job and bought a brand-new-in-the-box SP1 AR15 from a local gunshop that was closing it's doors. The owner of the shop, Mr. Turner, had tolerated me every time we came to town since I was about 9 y/o and sold me the rifle at his cost plus tax, a princely sum of $312.00, and threw in a half a grocery sack of mags, ammo and other goodies, including a carry-handle scope mount. (what is this thing for???) I took it home and promptly field stripped and cleaned it and then spent the rest of the evening petting it and getting acquainted. (my wife of about 8 months complained about who/what was getting the most petting that night, she just didn't understand
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The next day I took it out to the home place to sight it in, Dad took one look at it and walked off grumbling something about our country's defense hanging on a plastic rifle, but he did come back and fire a couple of rounds thru it after I adjusted the sights, he wasn't real impressed or at least didn't show it. My first police chief was about same way, a Korean War vet, and an old school, shotgun carrying cop that was afraid of rifles in town. After seeing me shoot a B-27 pistol target in the head consistently at 200yds ( I had good eyesight back then) he consented to let me carry it in the trunk of the patrol car just in case the need for a rifle ever arose, along with strict orders that I was the only one to touch it and that things had better be bad if he saw it in my hands. He never complained on the few occasions it came out of the trunk tho. The only changes I ever made to the rifle was to put round hand-guards on it, a marked improvement over the original triangle-shaped ones. I tried mounting a scope on it and took it back off, too high for a good cheek weld and just didn't feel right. (I later had a scoped 700 Remington Varmint Master in .308 that I carried in a hard case in the trunk if that much precision was needed)
I carried that gun for about the next seven years as a full and part-time LEO, then employed as a deputy sheriff in a one-man car it was again a comfortable companion. One deputy, that was too stupid to wait on back-up most of the time, armed with a revolver wasn't too intimidating to the biker gangs that were traveling thru all the time back then, but the sight and sound of that AR being locked and loaded, or a shotgun at night, seemed to have a different effect on them. All I know is they never argued about ceasing any hostile actions and waiting until enough people showed up to handle the situation. The only warning shot I ever fired in my life was with that gun....straight up in the air, standing in the parking lot of a pretty rough rural tavern where about 10 or so bikers had decided to try on the local red necks for size. The effect was truly amazing. I really don't know who was winning the tussle but I do know that none of them had any problem with my suggestion that they all lie down and rest for a spell until some more deputies and the highway patrol could get there to help me sort it all out. Me and my rifle was leaned up against the front of my patrol car when the cavalry arrived...kinda like a shepherd watching his flock.
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Then Colt came out with the A2 and I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life....I traded my trusty companion in on one. Oh, me and the new rifle got along fine, I loved the heavier barrel (to be fair, I wasn't humping it for miles either) and the A2 sights and it was deadly accurate, more accurate than my SP1, even using the old 55gr FMJ ( the new 62gr stuff wasn't available thru my USAFR NCOIC range master buddy). But I sure wish I'd never have let go of my original SP1.
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I kept and shot that rifle, even used it on prairie dogs a time or two, until my first divorce in '95 when I had to part with it and all my other guns 'cept one pistol. The first guns I bought after I got back on my feet were another A2 and an 870. That one's in someone else's hands now too, but I've never been without an AR since. There are several M4orgery's in my safe and all my adult children have one in their homes. As much as I love the guns I grew up with, levers and pumps, the AR is my go-to gun when a rifle is called for at times when the bad guys are walking and the Reaper may be close. To me my AR is like a well broke-in pair of boots.....it fits, it's comfortable, and I don't have to look at it to put it on and make it work.
Right now I'm in the process of building my first AR pistol in .300 Blackout. I have another new, stripped lower in the safe for some future project too, I just haven't decided what it's going to be yet.
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Rob