The SAR-80 was a design by Frank Waters at Sterling in the UK, but was not actually put into production by Sterling. Instead, it was licensed to Chartered Industries of Singapore in 1977, who eventually made about 80,000 of them for Singapore, Slovenia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and the Central African Republic. This is a thoroughly simplified and stripped-down version of the AR-180 with no frills at all.
A small batch of SAR-80 kits came into the US a number of years ago, but not much actually happened with them. Today, however, TTE Precision Metalwerks has a small batch of really nice semiauto rifles from them.
Disclosure: I bought this rifle with my own funds; I just want to support and encourage the small companies making unusual historic rifles like this.
Slovenian SAR-80 video: https://youtu.be/CQOpP1AI4qY
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At Forgotten Weapons I think the most interesting guns out there are the most obscure ones. I try to search out experimental and prototype weapons and show you how they work, in addition to more conventional guns that you may not have heard of before. You’re much more likely to find a video on the Cei Rigotti or Webley-Fosbery here than an AR or Glock. So, do you want to learn about something new today? Then stick around!
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