UPDATE:
The Gunblast.com Limited-Edition Anderson
rifles have sold out, and are no longer available.
Ar-15 style semi-automatic rifles are the
most popular style of centerfire rifles in the free world right
now, and for good reason. It helps that the AR-15 is very close
in design and use to our nation’s military main fighting
rifle, but the AR-15 is also a very good design. Often degraded
and despised by armchair commandos who have never put an AR to
their shoulder, the fifty year old design seems to work very
well for those who use it. The AR family of rifles is easy to
shoot, and easy to shoot well. The straight-back stock design
and pistol grip makes the rifles handle very well, for
comfortable all-day shooting. The AR-15 style rifle is available
chambered for many different cartridges, from seventeen to fifty
caliber, covering every possible use that one might have for
a hand-held rifle or carbine. Primarily chambered for the
5.56x45mm NATO cartridge, the rifle serves pretty well in the
field and in combat. Today, there are more makers of AR-15 style
rifles than ever before, and each manufacturer has something
that seems to differentiate his rifles from those of other
manufacturers.
One of the latest manufacturers to enter the
AR market is Anderson Manufacturing of Hebron, Kentucky.
Anderson has been making AR-15 receivers and additional parts
for other AR builders for several years, but are now selling
complete rifles bearing their own brand. Anderson uses high
quality components, such as Shaw and Walther barrels, along with
Magpul stocks and magazines, to assemble some very high quality,
accurate rifles. More on that accuracy later. What intrigued me
the most and really piqued my interest is the RF-85 metal
conditioning treatment applied to the Anderson rifles, allowing
them to run without any liquid lubrication at all. Anyone who
has ever tried to keep an AR running smoothly in a dusty or
sandy environment knows the problems that can occur when blowing
silt and sand enter into the action of a rifle which is coated
with oil. Again, I will get more detailed on this metal
conditioning later into this review.
These new Anderson rifles featured here bear
their brand on one side, and the Gunblast.com logo on the other.
I want to make it clear at this point that Gunblast.com is not
selling rifles. We can’t do that and retain our objectivity.
Selling Gunblast branded rifles, scopes, shotguns, handguns,
leather, ammo, and other products would be pretty easy to do,
but in my opinion doing so would severely do harm to our
credibility, and our integrity is not for sale. Our readers
depend upon us for honest, unbiased reviews, and I would rather
die penniless than to sell our reputation. However, I
was really impressed with the first Anderson rifle that I shot a
few weeks ago on a prairie dog shoot out in South Dakota,
and we have entered into a licensing agreement with Anderson to
produce a limited number of Gunblast.com branded rifles, for our
readers who would like to have one. This is the first time that
we have allowed our name to be branded upon an AR, but we think
that the Anderson rifles are that good. The rifles will not be
sold by Gunblast.com, but our readers can order directly from
Anderson Manufacturing to get the Gunblast.com branded rifles
and carbines. See details on how to order at the end of this
review. This logo is available on any AM-15 that Anderson
produces, and for purposes of this review, I fired two of my
favorites, the Counter Sniper rifle and the M-4 style carbine.
The Counter Sniper is my favorite of the two.
It has a free-floated heavy twenty inch barrel with an excellent
Micor flash suppressor/muzzle brake.. It also has the superb
Magpul Precision Adjustable buttstock and an aluminum railed
hand guard. The Counter Sniper weighs in at just a hair under
nine pounds without magazine, and came supplied with two
thirty-round Magpul P-Mag magazines and a hard plastic case. The
M-4 wears a sixteen inch free-floated M-4 style barrel that is
contoured to accept a grenade launcher, if you happen to have
one handy, and has a wicked-looking flash suppressor/muzzle
brake that is a weapon in itself. It wears a shorter version of
the aluminum railed hand guard, a Magpul adjustable buttstock,
and weighs six and one-quarter pounds without magazine. Like the
Counter Sniper, it also came with two thirty-round Magpul P-Mag
magazines in a hard case. Both rifles have very good trigger
pulls, with pull weights in the five to five and one-half pound
range. The hand guards are drilled and tapped to add as many
sections of Picatinny rail as anyone would ever need.
For accuracy testing, I mounted my mule, the
Leupold Mark 4 8.5 to 25 power target scope using an ArmaLite
one-piece mount. Accuracy testing was done at 100 yards, with
the results shown in the chart below. Group sizes are the
average of three-shot groups at that distance. Group sizes are
listed in inches. Velocity testing was done with the chronograph
twelve feet from the muzzle at an elevation of 541 feet above
sea level, approximately. Temperatures hovered around the
seventy-five degree Fahrenheit mark during all testing. Velocity
readings are the average of several shots fired, and the results
are listed in the chart below. Velocity readings are listed in
feet-per-second (fps). Bullet weights are listed in grains. FMJ
is a full metal jacket bullet. HP is hollowpoint. SRT is a load
using specialized bullets as loaded into ammo produced by Extreme
Shock Ammunition. TSX is a Barnes Triple Shock homogenous
copper hollowpoint bullet. The handload listed uses the TSX
bullet with 24.5 grains of Ramshot TAC powder, a Remington small
rifle primer, and Winchester commercial .223 Remington cases.
| Ammunition |
Bullet Weight |
Velocity (Counter
Sniper) |
Velocity (M-4) |
| Hand Load TSX |
62 |
2864 |
2757 |
| Winchester USA FMJ |
62 |
2975 |
2834 |
| Buffalo Bore HP |
77 |
2777 |
2628 |
| Extreme Shock SRT |
55 |
2666 |
2408 |
| Black Hills HP |
69 |
2754 |
2531 |
| Wolf Gold HP |
75 |
2602 |
2433 |
Accuracy Results at 100 Yards
| Ammunition |
Bullet Weight |
Group Size (Counter
Sniper) |
Group Size (M-4) |
| Hand Load TSX |
62 |
0.625" |
0.750" |
| Winchester USA FMJ |
62 |
0.750" |
0.825" |
| Buffalo Bore HP |
77 |
0.750" |
0.825" |
| Extreme Shock SRT |
55 |
0.750" |
0.375" |
| Black Hills HP |
69 |
0.188" |
0.625" |
| Wolf Gold HP |
75 |
0.437" |
0.625" |
As can be seen in the chart, the accuracy of
these two Anderson rifles was superb. Everything tested shot
well under one inch at 100 yards, and a couple of loads would do
less than half that. The Black Hills Match King load would keep
shooting into a ragged hole from the Counter Sniper rifle. Both
rifles had barrels with one-in-nine inch twists, and both
exhibited fine accuracy, even with the long 69 and 77 grain
Sierra Match King bullets as loaded by Buffalo Bore and Black
Hills. A one-in-eight barrel twist is available as well, for
those who prefer that faster twist.
Throughout all testing, functioning was
one-hundred percent in both rifles. There were no failures or
malfunctions of any kind. Every cartridge fed, fired, and
ejected perfectly. No lubrication was used at all on the rifles.
They started out dry, and were left dry throughout the firing of
both rifles. Both rifles also concluded the tests with very
little residue in the chamber and bolt area. With no lube in the
rifle, there is nothing to collect and retain the firing
residue, leaving the weapon much cleaner than had there been oil
present. This metal treatment should be a great benefit to
reliability in a harsh environment, such as the deserts in which
we are now at war. If there was no oil in the rifle, it would
not be nearly as prone to collecting the fine-powder-like silt
that blows around and gets into every crevice in the deserts of
the Middle East. I think that the US Military should look very
closely at the RF-85 metal treatment, and I have heard
unofficial reports that they are doing just that, but the
information is classified at this time. I have seen a report
from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in which they tested
Anderson Manufacturing weapons that were treated with RF-85
against identical weapons that were untreated, but lubed with
standard CLP lubricant. The RF-85 weapons ran cooler, faster,
and slicker, indicating a lower coefficient of friction in the
non-lubricated RF-85 treated weapons as compared to the
normally-lubricated weapons. The RF-85 seems to be some very
good stuff, and has applications for other mechanical devices as
well in the performance automotive and medical fields, but as
far as I can determine, Anderson is the only manufacturer using
the RF-85 in any weapons that are available for civilian sales,
and it seems to be very good stuff. It is not a coating, but a
treatment that changes the structure of the surface of the
metal, greatly reducing friction, heat, and wear.
Until a couple of months ago, I had never
heard of Anderson manufacturing, but after firing these two
AR-15 rifles, and examining a few others, I am impressed.
Anderson has been building AR-15 receivers and other parts for
AR-15 manufacturers for a while now, but are just entering the
complete rifle market at this time, and they seem to be jumping
in with both feet, offering high quality rifles that can shoot
along side rifles costing over twice as much, and none others
have the RF-85 treatment at this time. We are pretty guarded
with our Gunblast.com name, and Anderson is the only rifle maker
to which we have ever licensed our logo.
To view the complete line of Anderson rifles
online, go to www.atdmachineshop.com.
For our readers who want to order an Anderson
AM-15 with the Gunblast.com logo and at a deeply discounted
price for Gunblast.com readers, we have formed an exclusive
relationship with Anderson Manufacturing to provide the brand
new Anderson Gunblast.com 10th Anniversary Models.
Again, these are exclusive to Gunblast.com readers, and are
available directly from Anderson Manufacturing.
Anderson features three models in the
Gunblast.com 10th Anniversary editions. Their HBAR
carbine, their M4, and their top-line tack-driver Counter
Sniper.
Their HBAR carbine features a 16” barrel,
forged receiver, and many other extras. Like all Gunblast.com 10th
Anniversary models, it features the Gunblast.com logo on the
receiver. MSRP on the HBAR is $1699. The Gunblast.com
HBAR (Model number AM15AOR16GB) is sold directly by Anderson to
Gunblast.com readers for an introductory price of $1062, a
discount of $637. PLEASE NOTE: this discount applies only
to the first fifty rifles sold; after the first fifty, pricing
will be at full MSRP.
The M4 Gunblast edition (model number
AM15M416GB) features a 16” barrel, forged receiver, and many
other extras as previously mentioned. A great little carbine at
a great price, MSRP is $1799. The Gunblast 10th
Anniversary M4 sells direct from Anderson to Gunblast readers at
a discounted price of $1186, a savings of $613. PLEASE
NOTE: this discount applies only to the first fifty rifles sold;
after the first fifty, pricing will be at full MSRP.
The Counter Sniper model (number
AM15HBOR16GB) features top line components as previously
indicated, and like all Gunblast models, features forged receiver, excellent trigger, Gunblast logo, and a 20” barrel.
MSRP is $2899. Gunblast.com readers get a huge
discount of $1041 for a limited time, making this gun available
to Gunblast readers direct from Anderson for a cost of only
$1858. PLEASE NOTE: this discount applies only to the
first fifty rifles sold; after the first fifty, pricing will be
at full MSRP.
Each Anderson Gunblast edition is available
in a black/gray digital camo version for an additional $150.
To order, contact Anderson Manufacturing
directly via email. Tom Steffner will take your order and get
back to you to coordinate delivery to your approved FFL-holding
dealer. Tom can be contacted at tsteffner@atdmachineshop.com.
You must tell him you are ordering the Gunblast edition, and
provide the model numbers indicated herein.
Prices do not include shipping and handling
and your dealer’s processing fees.
Also, we are going to be giving away a brand
new Anderson AM-15 H-BAR rifle December 15th, 2010,
just in time for Christmas! This rifle has an oval hand guard,
flattop receiver with integral Picatinny rail, sixteen inch
heavy one-in-nine twist barrel, telescopic buttstock, and wears
the Gunblast.com logo. Best of all, some lucky Gunblast member
will receive it free! The rifle will be shipped directly to the
winner’s licensed gun dealer of choice; it will only be
shipped to where it can be legally owned, and the winner must be
able to legally own a firearm. All local, state, and federal
laws will be followed in the transfer of this fine rifle. Click
HERE for details on how get signed up to win.
Jeff Quinn
|
H-BAR rifle to be given away on December 15th, 2010.
|
