Original "Armalite" AR-7 with steel lined aluminum barrel : I owned the first production series from Armalite back in '64 when Col. Burton T. Miller hunting buddy of SAC chief Curtis Lemay worked at the Costa Mesa, CA plant. I took that gem everywhere I flew, canoed or hiked in Canada as insurance. The barrel had to be refinished time to time because the soft metal got beat up in the bush. The rifle had a tendency to jam with high load magnum rounds, so I fed them manually. The chamber required lapping to avoid jamming and a stronger magazine spring helped. Later I put a Bushnell 4X scope & mount, but found out that there was creep after sighting in a few rounds, the mounting ring would loosten and throw your pattern off. Since everything fitted in the butt, I filed a space for the scope mount and siliconed the cavity. Light, compact, quiet and economical with high short distance accuracy. Forget those long shots, I was always lucky getting ground hogs or crows. Until they develop a nuclear .22 stay away from large game. To show you how stupid I was, Armalite was about to LICENCE Colt for the M-16, so I took my leave money from the RCAF and blew it on whiskey and women in Hawaii..I should have bought stock in Colt and I would be writing this on my private island instead of freezing my ^$#@ in Canada .