Back in the Stone Age, you had two choices when it came to a .30-caliber AR. DPMS and Armalite battled for supremacy in the civilian market, while Knight’s Armament did their thing in support of our military, largely ignoring the American public. When you have a limited production capacity and a rich uncle in Washington, business decisions come a little easier.
For a while, the two civvy companies were neck-and-neck in the marketplace, despite using different magazines. Then, the SR-25 was adopted by the Army, and the decision as to which mag pattern would win out became a no-brainer, with Armalite belatedly forced to join the party and abandon their M14-based bullet box. After the dust settled, consumers were still faced with a decision regarding upper and lower receiver geometry. Neither company’s products were compatible with the other — a stark contrast to the situation in the small-frame AR
