Arsenal Stops Production of SLR-106 Rifles
This was bound to happen.
For those of you who don’t know what an SLR-106 is, it is basically an AK-47 pattern rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm (what the majority of AR-15s use). The VAST majority of AKs in the United States are chambered in 7.62x39mm.
I’ve always considered the AK47 in 5.56 a dead end platform for a few reasons.
Magazines are proprietary and often expensive and just hard to find
This was a huge deal-breaker for me. Just about every 5.56mm AK out there had its own particular magazine.
- Arsenal 5.56mm used these polymer magazines with a yellowish-clear tint
- Norincos in 5.56mm had their own proprietary steel magazines
- VEPRs used AK74 magazines with dremeled feedlips and a new follower.
- Romanian SAR-3s had their own magazines.
See what I mean?
What is the point of owning a 5.56mm rifle if it doesn’t use the ubiquitous Magpul PMAGs?
No noticeable weight reduction even with a cartridge swap
For what you give up in cover penetration when switching from 7.62x39mm to 5.56x45mm, you may as well get the weight reduction that comes with an AR-15.
Parts are not 100% compatible with the AK-47 or the AK-74 pattern rifles.
Even AKs run the risk of parts breakage. That is a fact of life for anything manmade.
I’m not broken up at all about Arsenal Inc. stopping production on this rifle simply because there are much better guns than the SLR-106 out there.