Anderson Manufacturing Rolling Out Five New AR-style Rifles

Buckling under the effects of a lagging economy and with most of their clients in the aerospace and automotive industries, Anderson Manufacturing, machinists from Hebron, Kentucky, resuscitated their nearly fifty-year old business about a year ago by wisely jumping on the AR-15 bandwagon.  A year hence and they are expanding their AR line with five new models of rifles, each geared towards a major shooting genre: target shooting, hunting, and military/police applications.

And it looks like Anderson has no intention of leaving the gun business anytime soon, stamping their rifles with “AM” to distinguish themselves (though not by too much) from Armalite’s “AR” moniker.

AM rifles’ trademark is called RF-85 (which stands for Reduce Friction 85 percent), a proprietary metal treatment featured on every rifles that passes through AM’s machine shop.  The final treatment reduces friction on all the steel surfaces by 85 percent when compared to untreated stainless steel on competing models. What do smoother components translate into? Cooler temperatures and faster cycling, for starters.  It also means less weathering to the weapon components that you would associate with the normal wear and tear of operating the gun to the point that AM claims you can shelve the gun lubricants.  And as such, a smoother running rifle should attract less excess dirt and carbon fouling in the action, decreasing the likelihood of failures to feed or fire.

The guns in question are all chambered in .223 swift/5.56mm NATO save a M4 style Carbine which they are also offering in the little more umpf, little more exotic 6.8 SPC.   The other guns come in Varminter, heavy barrel carbine and Sniper models.  The company also sells a full line of gadgets and gizmos along with spare parts.  Chief among these are Anderson’s Picatinny rails and free float forearm kits with low profile gas blocks.