Colt AR15

[JLemon]

Did Colt ever make an AR15 that was full auto? I’m doing an M16A1 retro build and was going through some pictures I took at the Cambodian War Museum in Siem Reap and the receiver clearly says Colt AR15 and it has an auto select. The top line reads Property Of but I can’t make out the 2nd line.

 

[cavey]

yes... originally the colt AR15 for militlary contract had a fire select trigger group.

this is an internet cut and paste but it sums it up...."From what I understand, ArmaLite tried to sell it to multiple militaries, but couldn’t match the numbers needed for production. They sold the rifle to Colt, where they swiftly had a simple redesign and rebranded it to the Colt ArmaLite AR-15. This is the rifle the US military bought, which they named the M16 (don’t ask me why, I don’t know). The M16 went into production in 1964."

its close enough to give you an answer.

 

[swat1018]

Most military M16 were select fire.

 

[cavey]

I think the confusion is with the current general understanding that the AR15 is the civilian version of a M16 and is not capable of select fire. Were as Armalite developed the AR10 and AR15 as weapons capable of full auto the latter of which "became" the M16 and then the AR15 name reemerged associated with a semi auto fire version of the same gun. I would guess if you could have found a way to purchase one back in the day from the manufacturer, a civilian could have legally bought a full auto AR15 from Armalite maybe even on of the colt stamped AR15's as well.

I think... luck just had it that the military had the m14, tested a m15 (variant of the M14), and when the AR15 came along they did what they do and named it the M16 and handed out contracts for production. Had they not done the testing prior for a different rifle we would be calling the rifle a M15

 

[bigbendmarine]

Quite a bit of history in this link, though they kind of put the cart before the horse with the acronyms listed in the table first and explained at the bottom. Think I'm not too far off the mark in saying that from the creation of the original M16 until the early 80s most variants had FULL AUTO as a feature. Then in the early 80s and especially with the M16-A2 a move was made more towards limited 3 round burst.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Colt_AR-15_&_M16_rifle_variants

 

[Telemark]

Yeah I shot one in Cambodia