I Think I Have a Colt Addiction

[Combloc1]

I thought I was done writing this but apparently I'm not. So, in this post, we're going to look at another police rifle. It's one you seldom see and I am happy to have had the chance to document it. It's the "Model AR6601 Law Enforcement HBAR Rifle" also known as the "AR-15 Match HBAR":


A little history is in order. In the interest of space, I'll simplify things a bit and paint in broad strokes. As previously noted, around 1990 Colt stopped marking the magazine well with the "AR-15" roll mark and replaced it with "SPORTER" in an effort to make them seem less military and more.....well.....sporting. They also plastered drawings of dad and junior at the competition match all over the catalogs to try and make it more convincing. As discussed earlier, they removed the bayonet lug and pinned the "Auto Sear Block" in the lower receiver too. They could see the ban hammer coming and wanted to keep out of its way if possible. It didn't work and, on September 13th 1994, Slick Willie signed the 10 year Federal Assault Weapons Ban into law. In order to comply with that law, Colt was forced to remove the flash suppressor from their rifles as well and restrict their magazines to no more than ten rounds. The resulting rifle was the "Match Target" series of rifles as seen in the 1995 catalog we looked at earlier. The rifle pictured above was made during that ban. However, you will note that it still has the bayonet lug and flash suppressor. That's because the ban didn't apply to government and law enforcement; only to subjects er, um, I mean civilians.

Lets take a closer look at the receiver. First up is the left side:

There are a few interesting things to note here. First, it's marked "AR-15" just like everything was prior to 1990. Why they didn't mark it "A2" like they did from 1985-89, I do not know. Also, notice that it still has a screw up front instead of a captive takedown pin. The other thing of interest is the serial number. Although it doesn't show up well in the picture, the prefix is LMH (Law Enforcement Match HBAR) and the number is 001303. If my research is correct, sometimes Colt would start the serial number at 1000 and sometimes they wouldn't and I don't know which way they went with this model. Whatever the case, I've never seen one with a serial number in the 2000's. It seems that police departments much preferred carbines to rifles and very few of this model were ever made. That apparent rarity is why I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to get my grubby mitts on this one. My advise to you is that, if you see one of these for sale at a reasonable price, buy it because you may never see another.
So, when exactly was this rifle made? I didn't take pictures of it but there is no date on the barrel, meaning it (the barrel that is) was made prior to 1996. However, the date code on the bolt head indicates that part was made in July of 1998 and the consistent wear I see on the internals tells me none of them have been replaced. So much for dating your rifle/carbine by the barrel date. I suspected that was the case and this rifle seems to bear that out. All I know for sure at this point is that this particular rifle was made somewhere from late 1994 to September of 2004 although I suspect it was made prior to 2000.
The right side of the receiver showing the "RESRICTED" roll mark:


Barrel marking:


A2 flash hider:

Still using the peel washer at this point.

The sear block is gone and we now have the familiar web:


The butt and its trap door:

Shame on Colt for ever making this exquisitely craptastic part. Prior to the ban, A2 butt stocks had a plastic butt plate and an alloy trap door. This one has a plastic door which, in itself, is forgivable. But Colt didn't stop there. They also had the brilliant idea to jettison the closure plunger AND the hinge pin. Here's a closeup of the closure device:

That's exactly what it look like; a tab molded as part of the trap door. It's about as cheaply made as a Chinese toy from 1982. Now, to be fair, I think military rifles of this era still had a steel closure plunger and a real hinge pin and this junk was reserved for us peons (and I guess that includes law enforcement).

Here's a picture showing the natural position of the door after you open it fully and let go:

When I say that there is no hinge pin, I mean there is NO hinge pin. When you open this thing up, you are flexing a thin piece of plastic similar to what you would find on a throw away first aid kit. It's that cheaply made!

Here's a shot of the inside of the door:

It looks like a new age waffle.

A comparison of the craptastic door on the left compared to a pre-ban door on the right:

The differences are immediately obvious.

Here, we see a pre-ban door open:

Again, it is made of a metal alloy, has a proper spring loaded steel closure and has a steel reinforced pinned hinge. In other words, it's a Quality assembly.

This last picture is a general comparison view showing the ban era police rifle at the top and a pre-ban civilian model below:

The point of this picture is to illustrate the changing finish color. If you look closely, you will notice that the pre-ban has the greenish-grey anodizing so typical of earlier Colts whereas the ban era rifle is more of a charcoal black. It's still not the dark black that is so ubiquitous today but it's moving towards that.

That's it for this post. I thought I was done earlier but it seems that things may/will pop up that make more sense as an addendum here rather than as a new post. So, rather than say hasta la vista, baby (I can't help it. I came of age in the 80's) I'll raise my glass to you and say "Dasvidaniya comrade!"

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

I'd like to say Thank You for the information that you have shared on the Colt AR's.
It has been very interesting to see and read about all the versions and variations that led up to, and into, the 90's ban.

 

[If1HitU]

You have a great Colt addiction,sweet family you have.

 

[Combloc1]

Up next is another Model 6721 police trade-in:


This one has a barrel date of 04/1998. While, at first glance, it appears identical to the third A3 Carbine we looked at, appearances can be deceiving because it has several interesting differences that warrant taking a look at it. Some are factory differences while others were done by the end user. Regarding the factory differences, when you begin to collect Colts, you quickly realize that there is almost endless variation, not just among all the different models, but WITHIN each particular model. I'll point out the different features as we go along.

The left side of the receiver:

Doing a little math, this serial number is 3885 lower than the second carbine we looked at and that one had a barrel date of December 1998. Now, as we saw earlier when looking at the 20" police trade-in rifle, using a barrel date (or lack thereof) to pin down EXACTLY when a rifle (or carbine by inference) was assembled can be a potentially dangerous game. There is no guarantee that a barrel didn't sit around for months or even possibly years before being assembled onto a firearm but it's all we have to go by. Also, during the 1994-2004 ban, it is reasonable to surmise that 20" barrels threaded for a flash suppressor sat around for a while because they were only available for, as stated on the magazine well, "MILITARY/GOVERNMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT/EXPORT USE" and most of those entities were purchasing carbines. Because of this, it is reasonable to conclude that the barrel dates on carbines more closely conforms with actual firearm production dates. Whew, that's a lot of inferring, surmising and concluding right there! And it might all be poppycock too so make of it what you will. As for me, it's my story and I'm stickin' to it! So......with all of that, I'm GUESSING that somewhere around 3885 carbines were built between April and December of 1998. OK....moving on now before this turns into either a thesis or a novel depending on whether or not you agree with my conclusions.

Here is one of those variations I talked about:

Just like the other three carbines, this one has the "M4" style feed ramps but the receiver is only marked with a "4". Please ignore the carbon built up in and below the "4" as this one hasn't been cleaned up yet. If you refer back to the other ones we've seen, two were marked "M4" and one was devoid of any marking at all. As Spock would say......fascinating! Yep, I need to get a life.

Barrel marking:


As seen earlier, the stock is marked "1 N":


Again, please ignore the funk. It's as it came and needs to be cleaned up. Also, note that some stocks of this type were not marked but are still correct. If you come across one that is unmarked, you can compare it against a known original for authentication and/or you can simply rely on experience. From my experience, unmarked stocks are identical in every way (mold pin locations, reinforcement rib locations, construction material, etc.) only they lack the marks. There are many little things to look at and that goes beyond the scope of what I'm covering her BUT one sure way to tell is the construction material. These stocks were not made out of the common polymers available today. They scratch differently, they chip differently and they reflect light differently. If it looks like modern 21st century plastic, it's almost 100% guaranteed to be a modern reproduction. Be careful and do your homework. Also, to my knowledge, nobody is faking the "1 N" marking.....yet.

While we're looking at the stock, here is a little "75" that I assume was put there by the PD it was used by:


And they scratched the initials of their department into the stock too:

It sure would be neat to find out where it was used.

The last thing they did in the stock area was drill and tap the receiver for a single point sling:

Unfortunately, this keeps the stock from locking into the closed position but I guess that was A-OK with them.

An interesting surprise on this one is the lack of a web in the receiver:


The flash hider and peel washer:


Battle Scars!!!!

Actually, it's FAR more likely that somebody just dropped something on it. I show this because this is the kind of marks you should expect to see on these ex-polizei jobbers. They were used as tools and, like tools, they are going to show marks. Some folks would switch this stuff out for better looking parts but, if you ask me, you're destroying part of the firearms History unless you keep the original bits so that it can be put back to how it originally came. If I do sometimes switch parts out, I do it to put things back in their original configuration but I always keep the originals for the sake of History. In the case of this carbine, it came with M4 handguards on it and they were switched out with the earlier single heat shield six hole style it would have originally left the factory with. Do what you want.....just some food for thought.

 

[Combloc1]

Colt 20 round magazines also show a huge amount of variation over their 60 year History. There are so many different ones that I don't care to even begin to try learn them all let alone acquire them all. As a quick illustration of what I'm talking about, here are three Colt marked magazines:

I say "Colt marked" because Colt doesn't make them. They just buy parts, stamp their name on the base late, throw them together and send them out the door. The two on the left have the same finish but one has more wear than the other. However, that finish varies over time so two band new condition magazines can look quite different. The magazine on the far right has no finish at all and is bare aluminum.

The other side of the magazines:

The bare metal one is so bright it was hard to get a good, true picture of it. Instead there is a lot of glare. Sorry about that.

View of the tops:

The top magazine corresponds to the left magazine above and the middle one is the middle one. All of these have metal followers but newer ones came in a rainbow of plastic followers. It can get very confusing! Even among these metal followers, some are shiny, some are dull and some are differently molded. For example, notice that the dummy round molded into the middle follower is different than the other two.

And the base plates shown in the same sequence as the previous picture:

".223" marked floor plates are earlier then ones marked "5.56". Note that even the stampings vary both in composition and font. There is so much variation that it may well be Colt doesn't even mark them but rather sub-contracted(s) that out too. I simply don't know.

Front view:


Rear view:


Clos-up of the manufacturer mark on the bare aluminum magazine:

This was made for Colt by Universal Industries. They also supplied magazines directly to the government with their own marked base plates.

The same mark on the other "5.56" marked magazine:


The ".223" marked jobber has no marking but rest assured, Colt didn't make it:


The purpose here is simply to illustrate that you can find "Colt" magazines with all kinds of different finishes and markings. You can easily find sites and forums on the internet that state quite authoritatively just who made what and when and exactly how many variations there are but I'm not buying that. Yes, there are general variation guidelines that are decently reliable but the fact is, Colt has been churning these things out for 60 years now. I guarantee you that there are more variations out there than people are aware of. I'd be willing to bet that even Colt doesn't know anymore just how many different weird things have been made over the past 6 decades. The neat thing is that almost nobody even cares so you can find some really rare stuff and get it for a song. The downside to that is that almost nobody even cares so you probably won't even have a clue that what you have is rare! So I recommend you do what I do if you are one of those rare weirdos who does care. Go to gun shows and root through piles of these old clunkers and when you find a variation you don't have, think to yourself "Hey! I haven't seen this before!". Then haggle the dude down to the lowest amount of Imperial Credits you can get it for and head on home with a grin knowing that you found something new to you. That's what collecting is all about if you ask me.

 

[Combloc1]

Next up, we're going to shift gears a bit and look at some older Colts:

To be a little more precise than just "older Colts", two of these four come from the very first batch of Colt AR15's ever produced in the late fall/early winter of 1959. Another is from the second batch in early 1960 and the fourth is among the first SP1's sold in 1964. We're only going to look at the SP1 briefly at this time but we'll revisit it in more detail at a later date. The other three are essentially the same rifle differing in only the most minute details so, rather than tear three rifles apart and take pictures of the same stuff over and over, we're only going to look at the oldest one in some detail. There are some other goodies coming up too but we'll save that for a little bit later. This is going to take quite a few posts so let's get to it.
First up is the SP1:


The sling is NOT an original but that's ok. It still does it's sling thing. As I said, we'll dig into this in a decent amount of detail later but I wanted to present it here to illustrate just how similar it looks to the Model 601 AKA Model 01. Still, we're here so we might as well take a quick look at some of the external features.

The left side of the receiver:

While there were SP1 receivers made with serial numbers lower than 100 (we'll look at one later) the general rule is that series production started at SP 00101 with sales starting in January of 1964. That would make this rifle number 82. Note the dimpled rear takedown pin and safety lever. The furniture is molded in black bakelite or some other such phenolic resin. I apologize to any polymer Nazis out there who may feel the need to correct me and say it's polymorphaminegraniteodon or some such other chemical compound. All I know is that, if you rub the stuff with your thumb until it's warm, it gives off that ever so nice bakelite smell. I love it!
Some other interesting things to notice are the roll pin at the rear of the receiver to keep the buffer from loosening up, the early style bolt hold open (with serrations near the bottom of it) and the contrast in finish between the upper and lower receiver. This has always been common on Colt's and I know it bugs some folks. Lighten up Francis!

The right side of the receiver:

Again, we see a dimple in both the rear takedown pin and safety axle. The rear sight wheel markings are neat too. The bolt is in phosphate just as we are used to seeing to this day.

Like an idiot, I didn't take a picture of the outside of the ejection port door. I'll do an update when I take one of that. However, I did take a closeup of the latch:

Notice that everything is held in place by an early style roll pin arrangement rather than the squished in place metal setup that's used today. If you don't know what I'm talikg about, just flip the port cover open on your own jobber and check it out. The latch body is also of the earlier faceted shape instead of the newer rounded profile.

Proof marks on the upper receiver:


Barrel proof marks:

This is a 1/12 twist with zero chrome in it. As far as I know it is NOT a Winchester barrel as Colt had their own barrel production equipment by this point. Also of interest in this photo are the front sight pins in the white and the use of a roll pin instead of a rivet to hold the sling swivel in place.

Old style hard rubber butt plate and no drain hole in the stock retention screw:

Dig that pristine rubber shine!!

That's it for now. In the next post, we'll start with the 601's.

 

[Browning]

It sure would be neat to find out where it was used.

http://www.wclpd.com/

 

[Combloc1]

Thank you very much sir!

 

[Combloc1]

Alrighty, we're only going to look at the next two in the most cursory way. Mostly because they are nearly identical to one we are going to look at in detail but also because of their condition.

First up is Serial 000598. That makes it the 498th Colt made which would be very early in 1960:



Other than the cracked right side handguard, this rifle shows almost no wear. Judging by the fracture, the furniture appears to be brown fibrite painted black.


Left side of the receiver:

When looking at the nearly flawless finish, keep in mind that you are looking at a contraption built 59 years ago. I'm not going to disassemble it.


Right side:

Again, I apologize for not taking a picture with the port door closed. I'll rectify that the next time I take pictures. Note the very early magazine release button with the horizontal serrations.


Receiver proofs:

That's it for this rifle.


Next up is Serial 000371. We're getting into some rarefied air at this point:



It too sports brown furniture painted black. This goes against generally accepted wisdom which stated that the first 100 rifles were assembled with bare brown furniture while the remaining 200 in the first run had green paint applied. If I've learned anything in my years of collecting, its that you should never deal in absolutes. Did this rifle have the furniture swapped out at some point or did it leave the factory that way? The fact is, we'll never know and, if you ask me, it doesn't matter. What is fact without dispute is that this rifle sold as new in the box in 1985 for $1895. Hard to believe? Well, here's the price list from back then (it's item nr. 4 circled):

Notice that a New In Box A2 factory select fire was selling for $1095. The A2 was the latest and greatest in 1985. If you recall from earlier when we were looking at some catalogs, a Match Target HBAR was selling for $1067 new in 1995, just ten years later. Before the Hughes Amendment in 1986, select fire was not so prohibitively expensive as it is today. Yes, $1895 was still expensive for the time but that amount equates to about just over $4500 today. Given that this is a first run rifle in unfired since leaving the factory condition, what do you think this would go for at auction today? I'd say it turned out to be a pretty decent investment. Needless to say, we're not going to disassemble this one either.


Here's the left side of the receiver:



And the right side:



Upper receiver proofs:



Unfortunately, the box is pretty beat but hey, at least it still exists:



You have to remember, these were not made for commercial sale so the box was nothing more than a container to get them from point A to point B and was considered a throw away item. My understanding is that you got a box, one rifle and one magazine. It's 1959......no sling, no manual, no pretty pictures or warranty card......a box, a rifle and one magazine. End of story.








I think it's interesting that there wasn't even a serial number on the box. At least I assume that the stuff written on there was done much later. Of course there would be no model number because there were no other models! The next rifle we are going to look at has an identical box except there is no Styrofoam so I didn't feel the need to take pictures of that......maybe I should though if only for posterity.

 

[Combloc1]

Double post. Sorry about that.

 

[desidog]

What, no Dissipator?

 

[Combloc1]

Nope. I'd LOVE to find one though. Do you have one you want to sell?

 

[desidog]

No; my AR stuff was mostly cobbled together on the workbench from a bare receiver, nothing Colt factory OEM with original box.

My hat goes off to your collection!

 

[Combloc1]

We're going to look at this next one is some detail. I'll point out some neat features that you don't see anymore but I'm not going into a long history lesson as I do so. That's not the point anywho. The point is to document this one particular rifle. However, other than in one small detail, this example is fairly typical of all rifles produced in the first run of 300. That's not to say that you won't find variation. In fact, I'd be surprised if you didn't. In other words, while using this rifle as a general reference point for all early 601 Colts can be useful, it would be folly to use it as an in stone template for ALL early production Colt 601 rifles. Let's get started. Be warned, this is going to take a while so you might get bored.



Colt started production of the AR15 in the fall of 1959. All of the early ones were select fire and this one is no exception. Remember, their target customer was the US and international military markets, not civilians. Series production of civilian specific models wouldn't begin until late 1963 with sales beginning in January of 1964. This is the 151st series production Colt AR15 made.



We are looking at mid-twentieth century firearm History here. Just as with the MP44 and AK47, for better or worse, this design changed the world forever. I cannot put into words how lucky I feel to have had the access to it the following pictures document.


As an aside, many times when taking close-up shots, holding the camera won't give you a clear enough focus shot and a tripod is too clumsy. Often times, I use whatever is laying around at the moment to steady the camera and many times the magazine is most handy. As with many previous rifles, that was the case here only I was using the first design "waffle" magazine. There were several times I caught myself using it as a support and thought "Wow...some folks would put this in a display case never to be touched and here I am using one as a camera prop to get a steady shot!" It was a little surreal and I loved every second of it. I guess that's neither here nor there and maybe you don't even care but I just wanted to share it.

I also want to show you the receipt from the last time it was sold in February of 1986. Times have changed a bit:

Notice the seller wrote on the invoice "M16". At that time, very few people saw this rifle as nothing more than an obsolete version of a then currently available much better version. Why would I want a beat up used rifle with fragile, painted furniture when I can buy factory new and improved model?? Duh! It's a no-brainer! Fortunately, some guys understood. That price included the rifle, a magazine and the original box. I didn't take pictures of the box. It's beat up just like the other one we looked at and it's identical except there are no Styrofoam inserts.


We'll start at the front with the flash hider:

Note the knurled lock washer.



I hear these make excellent prybars for everything from opening ammo cases to field ration cans. They are really good at NOT catching on vegetation in jungles too. An EXCELLENT all around design!


Notice how nicely finished the front of the sight tower is:



The back is pretty schweetly smooth too:



A roll pin was used to affix the sling swivel:

Later, they switched to a rivet and never looked back.


Here's the other side:

For and aft of the roll pin used to hold the gas tube in place, you can see the mild you can see what I presume to be the mold ejector pin marks. The forged sight tower didn't exist yet. You can also see some sort of proof mark in the upper ejector pin mark on the bulge the front sight post threads into.


You can clearly see the mold line on the bottom of the assembly:



The adjustment mark is molded into the tower and the sight post is round:



A top and bottom view of the handguards:



The green paint has worn away exposing the brown coloring of the polymer/bakelite/fancy space age molded thingy.


Here's a close-up of that:

I really like the swirly appearance of it. It's pretty!


The inside of the left handguard showing the aluminum heat shield:



The shield is missing from the right side one:

That kind of blows but it does have an upside in that we get to see the reinforcement ribs molded into it; something we would never see otherwise.


Here, we are looking at the inside of the slip ring flange at the rear of the handguard:

Notice how the paint has crazed. Whether this from age, was like that when it was applied or it's from solvent contamination, I have no idea.


The barrel and gas tube contour:

I stuck a few magazines in there as a backdrop because the camera was having trouble focusing on the skinny barrel. Although it's out of focus, here is the same shot without the magazines:

These early gas tubes are not made out of stainless steel. That wouldn't last long for reasons obvious today. It's also bent differently than a modern one.


A Colt proof on the top rear of the barrel:

It might be marked by Colt but it was manufactured by Winchester. I could find no other marks. If I remember correctly, roughly the first 18,000 barrels were made by them until Colt had their own barrel production machines. These early barrels were broached too where Colt used button rifling. The twist rate is 1/14.


That's it for tonight. Now wake up an go to bed!

 

[NickEllis]

Clearly you have no interest in ARs.

Lovely writeup.

 

[Combloc1]

Next up are some detail shots showing what I consider interesting parts from the middle of the rifle and stock. We'll start with the magazine well and manufacturer's markings:



"PATENTS PENDING" That dates it!


Detail of the trigger area showing how well they cleaned up the forge seam:



Pistol grip showing worn paint:



Bottom view:



Detail view of the right rear area of receiver:

Some things of note are the dimpled take down pin and safety axle, the roll pin to secure the buffer tube from unscrewing (totally unnecessary and later omitted), svelte early buffer tube boss, full auto sear pin and early style triangular charging handle.


Very fine serration machining on the charging handle (right side shown):



Left side of charging handle:

We'll look at it removed from the rifle later.


Here, we see the charging handle removed showing a detail of the exquisitely machined cut for the charging handle latch:

Murica!!! LOL


Some detail shots showing how well they cleaned up the forge lines inside the carry handle on these early rifles:

 

[Combloc1]

Early style windage adjustment knob (these things always remind me of a telephone dial which in turn reminds me of the Yip-Yip aliens (google "Yip-Yip aliens telephone):





Everything about these early examples shows that a lot of care was taken in production and assembly. All of the details are finely rendered and almost on par with what we would see in a commercial hunting rifle. If it were blued instead of phosphate and anodized, it would be absolutely beautiful. BUT, it has a special beauty all its own as it is.


And here is the rear sight leaf:





This thing hasn't been cleaned in a while; it's kinda' dusty! Ignoring that, the sight sure hasn't changed much over the years.


HOLY CRAP!!! I FINALLY remembered to take a picture of the ejection port door from the outside!!

This is the first pattern and has the large,flat, square thingamajig.


Here it is open showing the early roll pin setup:

Notice that the detent pin body is rounded and not faceted on this one. VERY interesting! Instead of an early faceted one and a later rounded one, is it possible that both existed at the same time? Yep, I think so.


Green painted butt stock:

Normally, the wackjob side of me would have taken a picture of the other side even though it's identical but I resisted the compulsion this time! I will NOT be ruled by OCD!! HAHA!! While we are looking at this area, note the sling swivel is held in place by a roll pin. This would be the standard arrangement until the stock design was reworked to include a storage trap. At that time the rear sling swivel was redesigned to be static and held in place by the lower butt plate screw.


The hard rubber butt plate:

Note the early stock retaining screw which lacks a drain hole.


A close-up showing the left side of the front takedown pin in situ:



These early ones were not captive and were held in place with a spring and ball bearing. Here it is removed from the receiver:



These were easy to lose so they changed the design so that they were retained in the lower receiver at all times.


Well, after I took the front takedown pin out and pushed the rear takedown pin to the side, the whole cursed thing fell apart! This is a good stopping point. We'll cover the insides in the next post.

 

[Combloc1]

In this post, we'll start looking at some internals. To be honest, there isn't a whole lot to look at because very little seems to have changed over the years. Still, there are some things to be seen. We'll start with a basic field stripped shot:

Everything looks pretty normal. The most obvious difference is the entirely chromed bolt assembly. We'll be looking at that in detail in the next post.


Looking into the trigger group cavity with the hammer cocked:

I'm not sure what that extra part behind the hammer is for.....


With the hammer decocked:



Hammer profile and proof mark:



A view into the magazine well from the top for no other reason than it was there:



Now here is something VERY odd:

The hold open has been modified and there is a spring and detent arrangement which allows you to click the hold open into either the engaged or disengaged position. It will still work just like a regular hold open when the magazine runs dry but it will not automatically return to the disengaged position if charging handle pulled to the rear after the magazine is removed. You must press the hold open button in order for it to release. In a similar fashion, inserting a fresh magazine and pulling the charging handle to the rear will not release the hold open. Again, you must press the button. This is not a normal feature and seems to be a one off modification done by the factory. Why Colt did this is unknown but my understanding is that sometimes standard rifles were removed from the assembly line and sent to the tool room for experimentation only to be later returned to stock and sent out the door in the modified state. I assume this is one of those rifles.


The buffer in place:



Buffer removed:

Looking down the tube, you can see a small hole that was used for tightening the tube down.


First pattern buffer:



A detail shot showing the rear of the buffer:



Front of magazine well and pivot pin lug machining detail:

 

[Combloc1]

First pattern charging handle:









While neat looking, it really is too small and fiddly. The newer version may look less space-age but it's a much more ergonomic design.


Front lug detail:



If I understand this thing correctly, the counter bore in the picture immediately above is for the ball bearing in the takedown pin to lock into.


Rear lug detail:



The bevel is there to allow for any misalignment between the upper and lower receivers during reassembly.


Looking forward into the breach from the bottom:

Other than the missing M4 feed ramp cuts, it looks pretty much the same as current production.


The next post will be entirely devoted to the bolt. See you then!

 

[BCR#1]

Looks like wilhelm has a twin.

Bill

 

[Combloc1]

Shhh…...don't tell anyone.

Where do I know you from sir?

 

[BCR#1]

Shhh…...don't tell anyone. Where do I know you from sir?

Gunboards and maybe Subguns.

Bill

 

[Combloc1]

Now it's time to look at the bolt assembly. For the most part, it's the same as a standard modern AR15 bolt but it's got lots of bling because it's almost entirely chromed. Still there are some differences and I'll point out the ones I know as we go. I'm no expert so you might see things I missed. If so, let me know because this is all about learning!

Right side:



Left side:

Note that the firing pin retainer pin is different. We'll look at that in a bit.


Top:



Bottom:



Bolt face:

I want to say that newer locking lugs might be beefed up compared to these but I might be wrong??


Rear of the firing pin in situ:



Disassembled:

There is nothing special in the way it comes apart. It's still the same today.


Closeups of the firing pin retainer pin:



From what I've seen, these tended to be fragile and were eventually replaced with the now ubiquitous cotter pin of today.


First pattern firing pin:





Compare this to the one in your personal AR and you'll immediately see just how beefy this one is. Very soon after US military acceptance, a slam fire issue arose. After the typical stupid amount of time and money spent government approach, it was decided that lightening the firing pin solved the problem. I would think that should have been a five minute discussion but hey, I'm just a dumb grunt.


The cam pin:

This is one of the few parts not chromed. The other major parts are the bolt key screws and the gas rings. I'm sure stuff like the ejector spring and extractor spring aren't chromed either but that should go without saying.


The bolt head:



I guess "bolt head" is not technically correct and I should just be calling it the "bolt" but I'm a roller delayed blowback kinda' guy and used to that terminology. Sue me. Notice no "MP"mark. That wasn't happening yet.


The extractor showing some neato torpedo looking machining marks:



A closeup showing one side of the extractor retaining pin:

Nice chamfer on the pin!


So nice in fact that we might as well see if the other side is so well done:

And it is! Schweet!!! Whoa dude.....it's just a pin.

 

[Combloc1]

The bolt face again:

We already saw this but I took the picture so I didn't see the point in letting it go to waste. Melvin Johnson of Johnson Rifle fame came up with this locking lug configuration and he worked for Armalite so now you know about that. But you already knew that didn't you? Yeah, you did.


A close up of the bolt key and carrier:

Again, compare this to your modern AR15 and you'll see some slight design changes to the key.


Closeup of the hole the head of the firing pin retaining pin nests in:

The dark veiny looking funk is grease.


And BLAMMO!!! That ends this semi-detailed look at AR15 number 251, the 151st one ever to roll off the assembly line at Colt's manufacturing in Hartford Connecticut. The thing that strikes me most about these early rifles is the care and craftmanship that went into them. Compared to today's production, this thing is finely made. But in the context of 1959 manufacturing, this rifle was cheaply made and even kind of rough. Today everything is made by robots and CNC machines but this was made before that stuff existed. Yes, much of it was made with then cutting edge casting and forging, but the touch of the human hand is quite evident in many places, particularly the well dressed mold lines of the upper and lower receivers. Also, not only is it quite light of weight compared to today's AR15/M16, but it just feels more handy and well balanced. I like the 601 because it's pure and close to the original design. It's what the designers intended before bureaucrats and committees sullied the vision. It's the Original AR15 and it is good. So that's that. But we're not done boring the pants off you yet my friends. In the next post, we'll take a detailed look at some early magazines and pouches. And after that....well, I don't want to give it away just yet. Keep checking back though; you might enjoy what's coming up. I hope you do anyway. Bye for now!​

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

These are a lot of fun to read and educational as all get out...
Can't wait for the next chapter/episode.