Some neat history on Armalite rifles

[pmclaine]

Liking the AR-1 Parasniper........

Armalite: AR-15? What does AR even stand for? :: Guns.com

Sure, everyone has heard of the AR-15, the most popular rifle in America, but what about the Armalite AR-1 or AR-17? There are a few interesting stories there.

www.guns.com

Ar-3 Looks like an American version of a G43.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

"In the end, the AR-10 was not adopted by Uncle Sam, who went with Springfield Armory’s in-house developed M14 in 1957, but the gun, licensed to Dutch arms maker AI, was adopted in small numbers by Portugal, Sudan, and even KLM Airlines! "

That is because many did not like having to remove their buddys left forearm from their Face after a sustained fight. They had issues with the barrels bursting 2-3" in front of the chamber on the very early ones. Not a very warm an fuzzy feeling. The major advantage over the M14 family at the time was the straight line recoil, where as the 14's always tried to move high an right off target. The 10 I ran for awhile was a early 60's model an proved to be very reliable in everything I had it in but, only if you mothered it. In the mid 70's I bought the civi version but was "Forced" to sell it to a bud who form 1'ed it into a MG. Yea he forced me with trades of my liking from his Title two shop he had in the Sunshine Mall in Clearwater Fla. Dennis was a MG nut an just had to have that 10,...

 

[sirhrmechanic]

This is very cool!

BTW, recently picked up a very early Colt M16 upper... which had a five-prong spring on it for firing rifle grenades. While researching it, I came across this excellent little piece on the early flash-hiders.

The explosive ball/grenade launcher at the end is pretty spectacular!

SAR IDENTIFICATION GUIDE: COLT FLASH SUPPRESSORS - Small Arms Review

SAR is continuing our new “Identification Guide” series. We believe that these guides need to be done. We have plans to cover the HK internals, the Models of the Colt M16 series (YES, we do mean ALL of them) and various magazine identification. This is a photographic series, and we appreciate...

www.smallarmsreview.com

I've got an AR180 that I love. Spectacular gun!

Great article PM!!!!

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[sandwarrior]

This is very cool!

BTW, recently picked up a very early Colt M16 upper... which had a five-prong spring on it for firing rifle grenades. While researching it, I came across this excellent little piece on the early flash-hiders.

The explosive ball/grenade launcher at the end is pretty spectacular!

SAR IDENTIFICATION GUIDE: COLT FLASH SUPPRESSORS - Small Arms Review

SAR is continuing our new “Identification Guide” series. We believe that these guides need to be done. We have plans to cover the HK internals, the Models of the Colt M16 series (YES, we do mean ALL of them) and various magazine identification. This is a photographic series, and we appreciate...

www.smallarmsreview.com

I've got an AR180 that I love. Spectacular gun!

Great article PM!!!!

Cheers,

Sirhr

That is a really interesting collection of flashhiders. Especially the last one that goes with the "ball explosive". Not sure how it works exactly, but it seems they use the flash hider of an M16 for the backblast(?) of the ball. Or, the discharge of the round(?).

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

That breaching ball charge could/would kill on both ends. You fired a live rd into the launching device to launch the ball.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

That breaching ball charge could/would kill on both ends. You fired a live rd into the launching device to launch the ball.

But to me it looks like the gas is bled off to fire the ball... so you don’t need a blank.

never saw one of these. So no real idea how it works. But from the pix, looks like it saves the GI from having to use a blank (because that is convenient in a firefight) tomlaunch the charge.

And charge looks less like breaching and more like bunker buster or thermobaric. Designed as a substitute for a satchel charge.

but those are impressions, not facts.

sirhr

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

so you don’t need a blank.

No live rd, on the ones we tested but it was slightly different that the photo above but not much.
With the lessons learned with the M1's an 14s they decided to design the next generation around live rds only. The M79's had not made it to all A/O as most were headed to Nam at that time so the 14's did that lifting. I Liked the M14 R/G's as they had more down range ass than a 79, but when playing tag removing a live, rd turning off the spindle valve, an loading a launching cartage took time. Then many guys forget to turn the spindle valve back on under stress when switching back to live rds. While it was a great way to put over pressure on target, uncle did not train many guys into muscle memory mode an the none/under trained had issues that caused other issues. Most small groups task one to two guys to self train an that worked somewhat better but the basic hardware system was lacking for the average FNG. Hence why live rds are much better, The M100 is living proof but to me it lacks the punch the M1 & M14 R/G's had.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

No live rd, on the ones we tested but it was slightly different that the photo above but not much.
With the lessons learned with the M1's an 14s they decided to design the next generation around live rds only. The M79's had not made it to all A/O as most were headed to Nam at that time so the 14's did that lifting. I Liked the M14 R/G's as they had more down range ass than a 79, but when playing tag removing a live, rd turning off the spindle valve, an loading a launching cartage took time. Then many guys forget to turn the spindle valve back on under stress when switching back to live rds. While it was a great way to put over pressure on target, uncle did not train many guys into muscle memory mode an the none/under trained had issues that caused other issues. Most small groups task one to two guys to self train an that worked somewhat better but the basic hardware system was lacking for the average FNG. Hence why live rds are much better, The M100 is living proof but to me it lacks the punch the M1 & M14 R/G's had.

So GF... what was the purpose of those 'ball charges?' Were they a precursor to the 40mm? Were they a 'newfangled rifle grenade?' Or something like a satchel charge?

It is so, utterly, not 'Private Proof' that it boggles the mind that it ever got out of Springfield or, more likely, Picatinny. Looks like a complete plumbers nightmare.

So... having used them, can you give us more of a primer? It's so Rube Goldberg that I just assumed it was a stillborn idea...

Cheers,

Sirhr

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

So GF... what was the purpose of those 'ball charges?' Were they a precursor to the 40mm? Were they a 'newfangled rifle grenade?' Or something like a satchel charge?

It is so, utterly, not 'Private Proof' that it boggles the mind that it ever got out of Springfield or, more likely, Picatinny. Looks like a complete plumbers nightmare.

So... having used them, can you give us more of a primer? It's so Rube Goldberg that I just assumed it was a stillborn idea...

Cheers,

Sirhr

They were for breaching only as their fly range was very short. The one I fired was a little different but still threw a large ball charge, using a live rd. The M100 when it came out was light years from that thing. It (to me) was nothing more than a wishful dream as the M14 & M1 R/G's out preformed it in every task. Plus it was heavy compared to the 14/M1 R/G package an took as long to get ready to fire it as the 14/M1 package. Luckily we got weapon choice an shunned the one we tried. As far as a M79 it had a bigger explosive package but was a crap shoot as to where it hit, vs the 14/M1 R/G's or the M79.
With some training a trigger time the other three could be wanted POI most every time, so the smaller package really did more damage with a good gunner.