I had an AR15 that was made in 1961. It was call, "police" model such and such. It had the early, "tight" chamber and no chrome in the barrel. I bought a new AR15 in 1979, but it might have been made a bit earlier.
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I had an AR15 that was made in 1961. It was call, "police" model such and such. It had the early, "tight" chamber and no chrome in the barrel. I bought a new AR15 in 1979, but it might have been made a bit earlier.
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I assembled my first AR in 2006 when the Democrats took back control of Congress. It was the specter of the previous AWB coupled with my growing awareness and interest of firearms in general. I don't have a crystal ball but it is safe to say that had the Democrats not been such a pack of gun-banning nitwits, I probably wouldn't own any semi-automatic centerfire rifles. I have lost count of the number of people that have bought their own after shooting mine. Dozens.
Unintended Consequences of senseless legislation.
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Democrats are the best Gun Salesmen
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I'm another old timer, looked at them back in college in the early 70s, but waited till 1979 to buy my first AR15 SP1 for $400 at Ron Shirk's in Lebanon PA. I traded that away maybe 10 years ago but have many other AWs in it's place... now up to 10+ "black rifles", 4 "assault pistols" and 5 machine guns... not including the C&R type Garands, M1 carbine, SKS, or other semi-autos not considered to be AWs. We were in the minority by far back then.Originally Posted by langss
I bought my first SP1 in 1975 for the outrageous sum of $225 U.S. I put a Colt Scope on it and took the little bent up block in the magazine out and I have been hooked ever since.
It really wasn't mainstream to get these black rifles till the later part of the 90s, after the AWB expired. Pent up demand, and all that. If you really look at it, the American public has always desired military guns, dating back to the 1800's. It was just politically incorrect after the 60's: "what do you need that to shoot ducks with", a Fudd mentality which persists in our ranks but I think is slowly diminishing.
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Agreed...Look at what he current administration has done for us..........
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My history with the AR platform is not nearly as nostalgic as many posters on this great site. Instead I have come to cherish my guns born from necessity and a desire to learn how to shoot well the right way. The impetus to get me into guns was a rude assault on my doorstep in May 2013 with a 45 stuck in my face and then a real genuine interest was born in me for the shooting sports. Politics can change by one real event that threatens your life. I have read this site often which lead me to purchase a LMT 308 with a second 20'' stainless barrel and my second purchase is a KA SR 15 E3 MOD 1 3.1 URX and a Springfield 1911 and a Remington 870 shotgun. And of course a big safe to store them in. Its a start.
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A BIG safe is a must have in this day and age........
Senior Member
Got my SP-1 at the Brass Rail in L.A. in 1969: $225 brand new, full price.
Last edited by TriggerFish; 09-04-13 at 01:11.
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I remember the clones showing up in the 1980's. I'm guessing that's after a lot of the patents expired.
The first clones had receivers milled from billet. The investment cast receivers came out a few years later.
Originally Remington worked with Armalite to develop the 223 Remington and made it to meet US military requirements.
Right before Armalite sold the rights for the AR15 to Colt, Stoner redesigned the chamber in the AR15 to a tighter design. This tighter chamber was the one Colt bought the rights to.
The first large quantity of ammunition bought was in 1964 by the US Air Force. There were numerous reports of overpressure problem with this ammunition.
The overpressure problem was investigated and it was found that the chamber Colt used was tighter than the original one that was used by Remington.
Remington changed to the tighter AR15 chamber that Colt was using.
Remington and IMR were both owned by Dupont at the time.
Remington reported that they couldn't reliably reach the US military required velocity while staying within pressure limits using their Dupont IMR powders.
This, "tighter" chamber went on to become the standard for 223 Remington.
While searching for a solution, it was found that Winchester's ball powder could reach the required velocity while staying within the pressure limits.
Dupont went on to develop some powders.
Colt later developed their own looser, larger chamber to make the rifle more reliable and patented it. This looser / long throat chamber required more powder loaded to meet the required the velocity.
This caused the military ammunition to produce more pressure in commercial 223 Remington chambers.
Colt claims they have designed a slightly different chamber for the M4 to make it more reliable.
A lot of the unique features on the M4 were patented to protect the exact design from other makers.
Banned
On a related note, I bought my first AR back around 1999, which was before they were anywhere near as common as they are now.
The magazine hoarding phenomenon started after the AWB expired in 2004. During the Ban I was paying $20 (and money was worth more then) for well-used USGI preban thirties. New ones went for about $30 or so. I'd buy a few at a time, when I could find some that looked good. I'd change the springs to new SS springs and put in green followers.
Fast forward to 2004. Mags are legal again. Thanks to the internet, I sold my prebans to people in states like NY which had their own continuing magazine bans. They paid $20 plus shipping for a rebuilt mag that was legal in their state, which wasn't too bad a deal for them. Then I'd turn around and buy brand new Okay/NHMTG for about $7. So I was able to triple my stash and get brand new ones for cheap.
Now everybody has a box of 100 of the things in the attic.
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