The Jard J180 is an American-made upper&lower kit for making an AR180-style rifle. Unlike many 180’s, this one uses direct impingement, just like the AR15. Why does this matter? Because it makes it easy to replace barrels with AR-compatible barrels. Most other 180’s require you to use a specific gas tube length: most are carbine length, and that limits your barrel selection. The J180 also has a very interesting takedown. Is it better than the more popular WK180C or WS-MCRs?
Note: these are sold as upper+lower kits, so accuracy and ergonomics will largely be what you make of it. Thanks to Dave from Foothills Firearms Training for loaning me his rifle for this review.
Given that the Jard J180 is coming into a market with other AR180 clones, lets do this review in terms of pros and cons:
Pros of the Jard J180
The flat-faced Jard trigger it comes with is really nice. That’s saying something, as most of the 180’s on the market come with triggers that are pretty bad.
It uses a standard AR gas system: gas block and gas tube, so you can use any AR barrel you want and you could even use an adjustable gas block if you want.
None of the parts that commonly break on an WK180 are going to break or are even present here. No gas piston to snap and the charging handle is not made of swiss cheese, so I think it’ll be fine too.
Standard-spec 1913 picatinny rail. The WK180C and WS-MCR use a more compact rail that won’t work with some QD mounts or other optics mounts, while this one does.
It has an ergonomic mag release that’s a bit further back on the receiver.
You can use AR-safeties, which really opens up possibilities to use nicer 45 degree safeties like on this rifle.
The takedown is interesting and . . .I like it. It’s not as fast to get to the bolt as the WK180C but it does allow for very fast removal of the lower and some guys will like that for casing it in a too-small rifle case.
It is right eject+charge only and there’s an add-on ejection port dust cover so it’d be great if you’re into larping trench warfare.
Because it uses a normal gas system, you can use any AR-compatible forend, and there are many of those on the market.
Major issues with the Jard J180
The price. At $1299, the build kit is as expensive as a whole WK180C rifle and very close to a WS-MCR rifle. AND the dust cover costs an extra $130. After getting the barrel, stock, forend, grip, safety, gas system, you will be well past $2k unless you thrift shop the used stuff.
The magwell is bad in 3 ways that hurt feeding reliability a lot.
First, the front to back fit isn’t quite to spec and mags can tip too far forward. This causes rounds to impact low of the feedramp and fail to load. My Cross mags had this issue.
Second, the mag catch does not fully catch on all mags because it doesn’t stick out into the magwell far enough. This means that some mags (most of mine) can/will shoot loose and drop out of the gun or fall low enough to fail to feed. Cross mags, Gen 3 pmags and one of my RRA LAR mags locked in for me but the other 4 mags I had could shoot loose.
They use FUCKING SET SCREWS AS OVER-INSERTION STOPS. Yeah, you read that right. 2 set screws from each side act as over-insertion stops to keep you from inserting your mag in too much. They WILL ding and dent your mag feedlips, potentially causing more feed issues. A good straight-insert STANAG magwell should handle over-insertion with a lot more tact.
Minor quibbles with the J180
Upper/lower fit is not great and they’re pretty rattley. This won’t affect accuracy, it’s just annoying.
Your forend rail will be lower than your receiver rail, limiting what NVG or other optics you can mount.
You can’t get a reaction rod or Magpul bev block in or some upper clamps on to put on your barrel and torque it. Good luck.
The buffer tube sits quite low on the gun (lower than the bore axis), so you’ll need to mount your optics lower if you want an AR-style height. This isn’t the worst, you’ll just need appropriate rings/mounts.
It uses a LOT of screws.
It can’t take A2 stocks.
It is so close but can’t take beavertail grips.
I prefer left charge and right eject so I can go fast in 3 gun competition.
It likes to be well oiled and short-strokes steel-case rounds like Barnaul: giving fail to feed and fail to open on empty mag issues. Some of my AR’s were similarly picky so I can’t fault it too much for this.
Who should buy a J180?
I think the J180 is a decent fit for a Canadian who wants to put all their nice AR15 build parts on a new rifle they can take to the range. That person would have to be familiar with AR-building, have some tools/know-how/experience, and a little more money in their bank account.
I’d go with an adjustable gas block if you do get one of these rifles so that you have more control and can run whatever ammo you want. There are lots of them out there and they’re dope because they let you tune your gun, so get an adjustable gas block.
You’ll need to find mags that it likes and I’m not sure I’d want to use it as a competition rifle. In competition, you slam mags home so they don’t fail to seat. On this rifle, slamming mags home repeatedly will fuck them up because those over-insertion screws will chew away at the feedlips.
