Originally Posted by
TriggerFish
The Alyeska Pipeline Company bought this Colt M16A1 new in 1979 from Colt. It was one of a large order to equip
Alyeska’s security force that was guarding the entire length of the pipeline’s run in Alaska. They were all shipped from
Colt with factory semi-auto only selectors installed. I bought this one in 2002 from The Armory in Scottsdale, AZ.
I had their gunsmith install a Colt factory full-auto selector.
When The Armory got in their order of ten “Pipeline” guns, the rifles all appeared to have been shot very little.
I got the second pick of the 10; the owner at the time got first pick! The Armory is now The Scottsdale Gun Club.
The theory as to why machine guns VS AR-15 is that Colt had so many M16s left over after Vietnam and the military
downsize that when Alyeska went to order the ARs (which were selling well to civilians at the time) they gave the
pipeline co. a "deal" on the 16s. By Colt installing the semi selectors Alyeska got what they wanted, less expensive
rifles and Colt moved dead inventory. Then 20+ years later Alyeska found they had a lot of very valuable guns that
they THEN sold off.