Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
ArmaLite AR-15 with the charging handle located on top of the upper receiver, protected within the carrying handle and a 25-round magazine. 1973 Colt AR-15 SP1 rifle with "slab side" lower receiver (lacking raised boss around magazine release button) and original Colt 20-round magazine.
Colt manufactured their first batch of 300 Colt ArmaLite AR-15 rifles in December 1959. [41] Colt would go on to market the Colt ArmaLite AR-15 rifle to military services around the world. In July 1960, General Curtis LeMay, then Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, was impressed by a demonstration of the AR-15 and ordered 8500 ...
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]
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.”
Gunmaker Colt bought the manufacturing rights to the AR-15 in 1959. Most of the patents on the gun expired in the 1970s, allowing other gun companies to build their versions.
The CAR-15 name was an attempt to re-associate the AR-15 name with Colt, since the AR initially stood for "Armalite Rifle" the original manufacturer of the Armalite AR-15. Colt later abandoned the CAR-15 concept, but continued to make carbine variations, using the "M16" brand for select-fire models and the "Colt AR-15" brand for semi-automatic ...
Colt would capitalize on this with a range of AR-15 derivative carbines. They developed AR-15-based Squad Automatic Weapons, and the Colt SCAMP, an early PDW design. The Colt XM148 grenade launcher was created by Colt's design project engineer, gun designer Karl R. Lewis. The May 1967 "Colt's Ink" newsletter announced that he had won a national ...