I presume that in 84, AR Pistols were nonexistent (earliest I remember is the OA93), so you would had to either go SBR or use it on an M16, right?
You'd assume correctly. The AR pistols were attempted by a very few, in an effort to squash them into the size of a sub gun. In the very late 1980s, companies like Olympic and J&T (not same as current J&T/now extinct) offered three-inch buffer tubes in an effort to pistolize the AR platform and retain reliability. The short buffer tubes did anything BUT offer reliability.
Olympic came up with the OA-93 design in 1993, JUST in time for the "Assault" weapons ban(s) of the early 1990s.
This was an extremely GRAY AREA for AR owners/builders. At the time of the Bush/Clinton bans, there were far fewer companies offering stripped lowers. The ones who did mainly offered them as rifle lowers only, and there was a rule on the books stating that a pistol which accepted magazine over X number of rds (10 i think, but my memory is aging) HAD to weigh no more than 49.9 OZ, as-shipped from the manufacturer, or as imported, built, etc., or it was considered an "assault weapon." The laws also prevent, to this day, any AR-15 originally shipped/sold with a buttstock from being a pistol.
Unfortunately for Oly Arms, not only did this new ban/weight limit dry up civilian sales of the OA-93, but sales were also hurt by the sentiment that Olympic was partially responsible for the ban on steel-core 7.62x39 and 5.45x39 ammo.
This was because if a rifle round containing an AP steel-core was able to be fired from a (mass produced) semi auto pistol, it was also banned from import around that time, and Olympic had JUST released a mere ten units of OA-93 pistols in 7.62x39 caliber.
Some anti-gunners caught wind of Oly's new offering, as well as a competitor's 11.5" barreled pistol in 5.45, and had a shit fit, prompting a ban on this "cop killer" ammo, as it was pushed to the media...In reality, only about ten pistols and as many uppers were ever released by Olympic, hardly what a good lawyer would consider "mass production." Nonetheless, Oly caught a terrible rep amongst the AR community as a result, and many people refused to buy Oly products ever again (hashtag your loss).
Fast fwd to 1996, and the Legal dept. at Oly drummed-up the first of TWO ways around the law against 50-oz+ assault pistols: the OA-96.
The OA-96 was an AR pistol IDENTICAL to the OA-93, sans one, small feature - the detachable magazine. Instead, the OA-96 "featured" a mag that was welded to the lower, and required tipping the upper open on the front pin, to expose the top of the magazine, which could be (eeek) hand loaded, or loaded by use of stripper clips for "convenience." This would've been a fine candidate to use JUST the upper from on a pistol lower, aside from the WEIGHT of the finished product, as well as one equally large problem - the rear lug for the receiver pin was modified by Olympic to eliminate the pin for quicker reloading, and the uppers from OA-96es would no longer fit a standard lower without a rig job.
Needless to say, sales for the OA-96 were almost nil, aside from people in places like California and NJ, where these were literally the ONLY AR pistols one could legally own without a prescription...
Fast fwd two more years, and Oly had the best idea in their history, a swiss-cheesed version of the OA-93 called the OA-98, which ran reliably, and came in at an astonishing 49 oz, circumventing the "assault" weapons ban!
I personally purchased an OA-98 IN 1998, when it was released, from a gentleman named Dave Finez, of Black Rifle Works (now retired). He admonished me at that time, not to slap the upper on anything BUT an actual pistol lower, sold originally AS a pistol. I was fine with the Oly OA-98 as-was, aside from replacing the Luke Skywalker heat shield with a barrel shroud THE DAY THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN EXPIRED.
My OA-98 upper now sits on an Aero Precision lower, with the original lower locked-away for my kids to sell when Dad's pushing up flowers.
Olympic OA-93, with original, top-buffer design. So ugly it's beautiful.
Loading the awkward OA-96. I wonder why sales sucked?
The glorious OA-98, Olympic's biggest Fuck you to the "Assault" weapons ban.
Today, any stripped lower Xferred to the buyer as "a weapon other than a rifle" can be built in to a legal pistol. Arm braces are the newest skirt of these crazy laws, and it takes a complete gun nerd like me to even come close to keeping up with current legislation. Even I am sometimes mistaken in my quest to keep abreast of current AR-15 law.
In 1994, if you wanted an AR pistol, your only choice was the Carbon 15, and boy, was it a sad choice in its original form (but the carbon 15 is another whole thread of info, and I'm already hijacking the OP here.)
As an apology for the hijacking, here's a link I found related to the OP's upper:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/K...ate_pics_of_upper_internals_added_/15-694375/
