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The Colt AR-15 is a product line of magazine-fed, gas-operated, autoloading rifle manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company ("Colt") in many configurations. [1] The rifle is a derivative of its predecessor, the lightweight ArmaLite AR-15 , an automatic rifle designed by Eugene Stoner and other engineers at ArmaLite in 1956.
The Canadian company Colt Canada (formerly Diemaco) licensed production of a rifle (Colt Model 715) and carbine (Colt Model 725), but later went on to produce an entire line of AR-15/M16 pattern weapons developed independently. In May 2005, Colt's Manufacturing Company acquired Diemaco, and the name was changed to Colt Canada.
The first version produced for commercial sale by Colt was the SP1 model AR-15 Sporter in .223 Remington, with a 20-inch (51 cm) barrel and issued with five-round magazines. [21] Initial sales of the Colt AR-15 were slow, primarily due to its fixed sights and carry handle that made scopes difficult to mount and awkward to use. [84]
The Armalite AR-15 is the parent of a variety of Colt AR-15 and M16 rifle variants. History After World War II, the United States military started looking for a single automatic rifle to replace the M1 Garand , M1/M2 Carbines , M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle , M3 "Grease Gun" and Thompson submachine gun .
The original Rock Island FPW had an 11-inch (280 mm) barrel, while the Colt prototypes and the production M231 both had 15.6 inch (396 mm) barrels. Initially the FPWs had no locking mechanism and had flip up sights, along with a metal wire stock akin to that on the M3 submachine gun, to allow the weapon to be used outside of the vehicle more ...
The AR-15 rifle usually comes chambered for either the military cartridge 5.56×45mm or the .223 Remington. Because of the pressures associated with the 5.56×45mm, it is not advisable to fire 5.56×45mm rounds in an AR-15 marked as .223 Remington, since this can result in damage to the rifle or injury to the shooter. [ 1 ]
Between 1964 and 1965, Colt began to expand the AR-15 beyond the realm of an infantry/assault rifle with the development of light machine gun weaponry. The result was the Model 606 series. [5] Colt made two of the model 606, called A and B models. The A model “featured forward assist devices found on the Colt 603 rifles.”
The rifle model is based on the Colt AR-15. Smith & Wesson offers the M&P15 semi-automatic rifles in different configurations, tailored to specific shooting applications and styles. The rifle has different models that come chambered in 5.56mm NATO/.223 Remington, .22 Long Rifle, and 5.45×39mm.