Experimental barrel extension? Anybody seen one of these?

https://i.imgur.com/mdzCMYBh.jpg




https://i.imgur.com/9Z5fBn7h.jpg

I stumbled across this in my junk parts bin as I forgot I had it. As I remember it was in a box of stuff that was be tossed and boss said anyone that wanted anything out of it take it or it was going to the dump. Not being one to pass up such I got this.

It appears to be made of three pieces.

The outside sleeve, the bird cage and the threaded section in the back. I assume this was press fit together. There is only one chamber in side and no baffles. There is no evidence of welding. silver solder etc so press fit seems the only logical conclusion.

The only thing I can think it might be is an extension for the CAR15 as when it came out the muzzle blast was awesome and the Medical Dept opinion was it was very close to rupturing ear drums with one shot and they had all the barrels made up so they put extensions on. All the others I have ever seen the extension is much longer than this.

I tried to photograph inside but flash would not line up to show inside but with flashlight there is a fair amount of firing residue build up in it.

Thought yawl might be interested.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Humpy70

I stumbled across this in my junk parts bin as I forgot I had it. As I remember it was in a box of stuff that was be tossed and boss said anyone that wanted anything out of it take it or it was going to the dump. Not being one to pass up such I got this.

It appears to be made of three pieces.

The outside sleeve, the bird cage and the threaded section in the back. I assume this was press fit together. There is only one chamber in side and no baffles. There is no evidence of welding. silver solder etc so press fit seems the only logical conclusion.

The only thing I can think it might be is an extension for the CAR15 as when it came out the muzzle blast was awesome and the Medical Dept opinion was it was very close to rupturing ear drums with one shot and they had all the barrels made up so they put extensions on. All the others I have ever seen the extension is much longer than this.

I tried to photograph in inside but flash would not line up to show inside but with flashlight there is a fair amount of firing residue build up in it.

Thought yawl might be interested.

---

It almost looks like a functional prototype of the XM-177e2 moderator. Interesting!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is only thing I can think of but all the ones I have ever seen were about 2 inches longer. I have a email out to half a dozen folks I used to work with at Picatinny and Aberdeen to see if they are familiar with it?

I have heard back from two and while neither have seen this one, both agree it must have been an interim design before finalizing on the longer one which is all that I ever saw. When I was at Picatinny the M16 guys worked across the aisle from me about 15 feet away and all I ever saw them working on was the M16A1s and changes to that. One of which was a forearm material change, a change in color, surface finish etc. There was a problem with them because one of them broke more than the other, can't remember if it was the left or right that broke more often but I remember that was a problem they were trying to figure out.

When the M16A1E1 arrived at Aberdeen with the top and bottom the same that was a pleasant surprise and they worked well but it was not the first round one I saw which was a free floating tube was designed by Bob Snodgrass (died last year in N. Georgia) and he came up with the free floating handguards which were all aluminum but he told me they were only for testing ammo. He also had one fabricated for an AR10. Somewhere I have a pic of the AR10 design and it may have been in our prototype bunker but I don't remember seeing it. That bunker had a large number of prototypes with single digit numbers which I now understand most were destroyed a few years back because some lowlife decided there were just too many and since they were never adopted he sent them for destruction.

Just hung up with a guy I used to work with and he remembers a suppressor like this but the internal area had very deep spiral grooves in it and the front end hole was about 30 cal size but it was threaded for M16. The only thing he could figure was they were trying to spin the gas so to speak. He saw it in a secure area that cameras were only allowed by certain folks.

Talked to another retired Test Director and he said there were a variety of these tested at Aberdeen and the flash signature was very large and they kept making them longer to reduce the flash and take the decibel level down to a safer area so as not to rupture ear drums.

Humpy, it reminds me of an extension I saw on a few Israeli M16A1 Commandos so they could mount the M203 on the original M16A1 Carbine diameter barrel (before the M4 barrel came out, turned to the original pencil-barrel diameter).

Kinda-sorta like this one. The Israelis cut a number of standard 20-inch M16A1 barrels to replace shot-out M16A1 carbine barrels.

http://i.imgur.com/hvkk1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HLXmfTi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kHZRXGe.jpg

The AWC Hyperdyne was a single-chamber muzzle brake, kinda-sorta like this but without the bird cage.

I have not seen this variation rifle, thanks.