What Makes The AR-15 ‘America’s Gun’? You Can Make It Your Own With Customization

Corbet was also an amateur machinist and firearms enthusiast and he noticed fellow shooters gravitating toward one semi-automatic rifle in particular – the AR-15. So he set up shop in his garage and started tinkering with designs.

Eight years later, his business, Unique ARs, employs 10 people at a warehouse factory that churns out thousands of AR-15 rifles and accessories each year destined for customers all over the country and the world. It’s one of the scores of companies, large and small, that have helped make the AR the most popular rifle in America. As the name suggests, Corbet’s company specializes in custom rifles built to individual specifications.

An AR-15 at Unique ARs in McCall, Idaho. The AR-15 has become the most popular rifle in America largely due to its flexible platform, which allows owners to mix and match parts and personalize their guns. CREDIT: HEATH DRUZIN/BSPR

“It’s the most universal rifle platform that’s ever been manufactured,” Corbet said. “Because there is such a standardized way it’s been built, it can be reconfigured very easily.”

‘The Harley Of Rifles’

There’s no more beloved gun in the country than the AR. Dubbed “America’s Rifle” by the NRA, it’s inexpensive, easy to use, deadly accurate and, perhaps most importantly, customizable.

Corbet likens the AR to a Harley Davidson – the first thing people do when they get one is start adding and swapping accessories to make it their own. Each piece of an AR-15 — the magazine, the upper, the lower, the receiver, the stock — can be swapped out or given a new paint job. He said he gets requests for homages to dead friends, dead pets, even one design that incorporated knitting needles.

“Every time I think, ‘This is the most ridiculous thing,’ somebody ups the ante,” he said.

AR owners seem eager to keep pushing the boundaries of wild designs.

A trip down the rabbit hole of Instagram’s #ar15build hashtag reveals some wild designs, from a rainbow hued He-Man skin to a magazine painted with a Gatorade logo that reads “Haterade” and clips into a skull.

Idahoan Jerry Frederick owns two custom rifles from Unique ARs that are unlike any others in the world. The former drill sergeant and retired police officer points to a pair of black rifles, an AR-15 and an AR-10, with similar designs featuring Frederick’s last name engraved on the handguard in a classic, stylized font.

“This is one I designed,” Frederick explained. Pointing to an image of a torch and a breastplate on the barrel, he continued “There’s only a few people in the United States Army that get issued that patch. That’s a drill sergeant patch.”

A series of Space Force-themed hand guards at Unique ARs, an Idaho company that specializes in custom AR rifles. An estimated 16 million AR rifles are in civilian hands in America. CREDIT: HEATH DRUZIN/BSPR

Each one of Frederick’s rifles has a serial number ending in “01” — meaning it’s one of very few made — a fact he’s quick to point out. They’re engraved with a waving American flag design and a gold oval seal with the drill sergeant’s symbol etched into the metal.

Even the grip is special – it forms to Frederick’s hand and can instantly be reshaped to form to another hand. One gun dealer told Frederick the set could be worth $100,000 because of all of the customizations, but he says he’s not in the market to sell.

“It’s the only one like this. I’m really proud of that and obviously I’m not going to sell them,” Frederick said. “It will go to someone in my family.”

‘America’s Gun’

David Yamane is a sociology professor at Wake Forest University who studies American gun culture. Speaking from the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, the gun industry’s largest annual showcase, he said the AR’s impact was clear.

“I don’t think there’s any single product category that is more represented at the SHOT Show,” he said. “So when people say it’s ‘America’s gun’ at least [from] what’s represented at the gun industry’s trade show, that seems to be clearly the case.”

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the gun industry, Americans own up to 16 million ARs and similar “modern sporting rifles,” as the foundation calls that class of gun. Production has exploded in the past few years, hitting an estimated 2.1 million in 2016, excluding exports.

And while gun sales often spike during election years, 2016 sales represented nearly a two-fold increase over the year before.

Contrary to popular belief, AR stands for Armalite Rifle, not “assault rifle.” TheArmalite company first developed the rifle in the 1950s to sell to the military but eventually sold the design to Colt. The 15 stands for model 15. There are also AR-10s, which are essentially the same gun with a different caliber.

The AR-15 as we know it, developed as the semi-automatic version of the military’s automatic M16.

It’s the most popular civilian rifle in America. That is partly due to its accuracy and lack of recoil; the rifle barely moves when you pull the trigger, unlike many other rifles that kick back hard against a shooter’s shoulder.

But what really sets it apart from other guns is that owners can add just about anything to it: a flashlight, a suppressor, custom grips. Even AR pistols are popular, though there are specific modifications needed to keep them legal. Add custom engraving, a specialty of Corbet’s company, and the guns start to resemble a fashion statement as much as a weapon.

“We wanted it to be so custom that you can have your name on it, your logo on it, your tattoo that you have on your arm, we can do that,” he said. “That’s what we set out to do, to make it as personal as you want it.”

ARs In The Crosshairs Again