It also allows you to take a modified sitting position if you really want to. Not that useful, but it's nice to have the option to do it if it's warranted.

@@matchesburn Having options is always better then not having options right

@antoinebrosseau By the number of people that say the bipod on the Chauchat is too long that is not true.

I think they change it, what did it say?

@@NovaAge The card says "M16 A2" which is why it was so amusing :)

@@MrGrimsmith ah

@@MrGrimsmith The editor has carried on the Colt tradition of playing fast-and-loose with _M16A2_ as a designation c:

Didn't know that, thanks for your great contribution!

the 30's and xm148 were still in development not in full production back then!!!

I remember in the late 70's firing the 203. I really liked the round profile of the 203 and thought that they should have that style on all the M-16s. I guess they read my mind, but I got out prior to the adoption of the A2 with the round handguard. The early handguards were pretty fragile, as well. I think I cracked every handguard I had.

Wasn't it straight sided? Pretty sure those were really unreliable. You need a curve in the magazine for reliability due to the taper of each cartridge case.

@@Treblaine no the 30's back then were pretty much as we have today! they were still in the field test phase though!

Just because the L85 is a piece of excrement does not mean that the AR-15 was the right choice.

@@calvingreene90 correct...an AK style platform would have been the smart choice but a NATO country wouldn`t have been allowed to do that, so the AR-15 would have been the next best choice...

@@ca9968 No, a bullpup that works well like a Steyr AUG or FAMAS. I like AKs but unless you are going to cast and mill magnesium alloy receivers they are too heavy.

@@calvingreene90 an AK variant like a Valmet, Galil or South African R4/R5 is better than any bullpup, bullpups are handy but every one i`ve ever fired has had an issue with the point of balance..they`re too back heavy..great on a range, but to carry, they`re just awkward... I owned a Norinco built AK and a Vector LM5 when I lived in South Africa and both were superior to the SA80 I carried as a squaddie...the LM5 (A civilian version of the R5, which is a copy of an Israeli Galil SAR) weighs 4.4 kg`s, the SA80 weighs 4.98 kg`s...the Famas and AUG are a tad lighter but a few hours a week in the gym and you really wont notice the difference...

British special forces uses several different weapons platforms, not just AR 15's. And these tests were carried out in the 60's. So they couldnt compare against the L85/L86 and the SAS/SBS couldnt reject a weapon that hadnt even been designed let alone made and brought into service.

Which one? L86? C9? Minimi 7.62?

@@kiwigrunt330 Well we are talking about British magazine fed support weapons so hazard a guess.......... 🙃

I wonder if it might not be such a problem with them restricted to the 20 or 30 round mags. It basically wouldn't be firing at a greater rate than a standard M-16, although presumably more of it on full auto.

it's pretty weird that you guys let other people mess with your property, the only illegal thing about guns is that you're not allowed to kill people that didn't engage in war with you. Legislation is trying really hard to make you feel like a bunch of kids treating you like one. Now this trend is manifesting on cars also: your car that you own is not really yours, same with the driving skill.

No there was no issues with cookoffs with later models. I have a rebuilt closed bolt Colt LMG. Closed bolt machineguns are extremely popular now and the kinks worked out. You wont reach hot enough with its bull barrel and open receiver port in combat to cookoff. Ive fired 200rd at a time in free automatic no issue

Exposed belt feds are dumb anyways, the ammo is literally exposed when a modern drum mag is much more dependable than those examples found decades ago, and it keeps your ammo protected. I’ll stick with a 100rnd Gen 2 KCI drum with an FRT to make a damn good suppressive fire weapon.

With the later open bolt LMG kits, you lost the select fire capability. It was SAFE and AUTO only. There were quite a few heavy uppers that hit the market at the time but they were sold without the open bolt assembly and trigger group. I have one of those, but I also managed to get a complete parts kit minus receiver too. As I recall those LMG guns were made in anticipation of foreign sales to Central America about the time that we were arming the Contras.

@@MyDailyUpload - Didn't know that, thanks. Without a SEMI option, it is much less appealing. Did some of the kits allow true select fire?

@@kurtbjorn3841 Not that I'm aware of. The open bolt conversion was rather clever. They managed to use a standard 3-hole M16 lower receiver and very specialized parts. For example, the hammer both held the bolt open until the trigger was pulled, and then struck the firing pin when the bolt closed. Colt had made an open bolt weapon before, the M231 port firing weapon, but the lower receiver was very different and incompatible with standard M16 parts. The open bolt LMG could have been fielded as an upgrade kit on a standard M16. Semiautomatic perhaps could have been possible, but I've never seen it and it wasn't in the Colt Patent filing on the mechanism.

As far as I know the Poles got the idea for the burst fire mechanism from the FN CAL, and the original reason for it in case of Tantal was to get better controllability in full-auto mode with its then 7.62×39 chambering.

Indeed there are two sides of the whole burst firing thing: the concept and the implementation. The American experiments in the 1960's definitely proved that their implementation was flawed, butt the fundamental question of "does burst fire bring any capability over single shots?" as a concept is something I yet have to see a definitive answer to.

​@johanmetreus1268 Accuracy wise probably not. But for a moving target at a close range, it might increase the chances of a hit.

Well, there were HK11& HK13, and also contemporaneously to the emergence of the Minimi the Steyr came up with the AUG HBAR. RPK variants in 5.56 do exist, and given the adoption of the RPK-74 about the same time it wouldn't be unthinkably difficult to convert it to 5.56 at an earlier date, if the need ever emerged. So yeah, there definitely were some options in the '70s, but not in the '60s. Also, the trouble with the Mininmi is in its lack of reliability, and some of its detractors would also point to it being too cumbersome for one-man operation.

ah the GPMG, aka why you dont want to be the biggest strongest fittest guy in the squad. Mate of mine in the territorials won some competition at his gym, so they decided it would be hilarious to reward him with carrying the machine gun.

That would be the M60.

AR has been around for 50 years bub

@@mattyallen3396 Over 60 years if you mean the '15, pardner

Has done these over on the video game channel.

@@blue2sco , I actually found one that he had just done like 2 days ago! It found it right after I had left this comment.😁 So you're right, thank you!

I love the lower without the fence or forward assist, just classic :) I've yet to see one at any of the gun shops where I live, but I'd LOVE to do a first gen build like that and maybe a triangular handguard.

It's likely a myth, as the M16A2 has a burst fire setting, but was adopted after the US transitioned to a professional, volunteer military. This is not a marksmen's rifle. The barrel is being dragged down by the heavy bipod. The RPK has a terrible time trying to keep it's point of aim consistent.

1) As mentioned above, it is not true in regards to the M16A2, and at least in two other cases it is also false. The Polish Tantal project used the burst fire mode (in conjunction with higher rate of fire) just to improve hit probability with its original 7.62×39 chambering. As for the AK-12, it is rumored that the requirements for the new rifle trial that resulted in its adoption were written with heavy bias towards AEK-971, which ended up being adopted alongside AK-12. In its turn, AEK-971 is a by-product of the Abakan project, which aimed at improving hit probability with auto-fire from unstable shooting positions and resulted in the design known as AN-94 basically winning over anything else. With both AEK-971 and AN-94 full-auto capability was retained (as is the case with AK-12), and resulting design being, if anything, much less suited for an average conscript. 2) I'm not sure if this rifle could take any optical sight whatsoever, and in any regard there were no sights for AR-15 prior to 1967 or so. Moreover, with barrel of such quality the rifle would likely perform quite poorly in the DMR role. And then there's the issue of bipod putting a lot of undesirable pressure onto the barrel, which certainly doesn't help matters. Take a look at how designs like L86 or M27 deal with bipod placement to see what one should do to give their LMG some semblance of DMR capabilities.

@@F1ghteR41 That hole 4:50 in the "carry handle" is for optics (e.g. Delft scope) and it has been there years before 1967

@@TheSundayShooter The hole is indeed there, but before 1967 there were no sights for AR-15 per se. The 3× A.I. scope you mention is for AR-10, and no amount of Colt marketing could change that, which is why they chose to design a new sight of their own later. Besides, as far as I'm aware by the time this rifle assumed its current look, the A.I. stopped producing the sight anyway.

Thanks for the feedback. We've heard this a fair bit so will definitely be using a ring light on all new episodes.

Just tell everyone that it's the Elbonian model.

Its one of those things that looks good on papper. but kind of sucks when it comes to reality. it´s kind of like doing a sportscar, SUV and Mini van combination.

@@exploatores A completely modular vehicle that could be converted into any of those variants _does_ sound like fun! It would also probably be hideously expensive, and require a lot of special maintenance. Funny how that works ;-)

@@patrikhjorth3291 Not forgeting propobly get beaten by budget level of each thing.

An-94 is different to the AK-12

He even says "AK-12" by name...

Big thing to try in the 80s but they all failed really. The whole issue is- what's the actual point? They cant keep up auto fire, especially with closed bolts and small magazines anyway

Gridpods have a serious rep for breaking in two or being fragile.

And as an idea it predates the rifle in question by quite a bit: I believe it was invented by Michail Kalashnikov sometime around 1950 for improving the stability of the AK during full-auto fire, although at that point it was a monopod that was put into the forward grip rather than a bipod. Sadly, the prototype went nowhere, possibly due to the increased calls for lightening the gun that resulted in the adoption of the AKM in the late '50s. One might debate the merits of this approach, however, when it comes to taller obstacles and longer magazines, but it certainly is a neat idea, and for regular rifles it might very well be enough.

@@Seth9809 It is indeed, but it is a semi-auto, so it really doesn't jump around with 5.56

The _AR-15_ trademark is the extent of Colt's "rights to the rifle" and it amounts to nothing but the roll marks, _afraid_

Not all AR's are M16, but all M16's are AR's.

​@@nigelwright1610 No they're not. The early full auto AR-15 rifles used different components such as a heavier firing pin, Edge-water buffer, chambers size, buffer tube length and other items mentioned in the video. Every designation change represents some kind of change.. Original nomenclature name AR-15, XM-16, M-16, M-16A1, M-16A2,etc.. In fact Colt used a different designation when they changed specs and components..The early AR-15 rifles were called the 601 series..

@@TheSundayShooter They also own the TDP which got the military into trouble when they gave it out to other manufacturers and it was leaked to the public..

@@hairydogstail Colt's copyright of the design expired decades ago, which is how there are a myriad of AR-15 manufacturers. There are M16 (Colt 604) units with roll marks that read _AR-15_

Many are starting to go back to this in some way. The UK got rid of their LSWs and LMGs, as did Denmark and the USMC. NZ replaced the 5.56 Minimi with the 7.62 Minimi. Interesting, the Dutch marines still use a combination of GPMGs and the latest version of this LMG at platoon level, and still seem to like it.

The SA80 is based on the AR18.

@@lordsimonicus3479 just the action and they FUBAR'D it six ways from sunday by bullpupping it!! in it's original layout it would have made a more than adequate service rifle for britain all they needed to do was switch to a forged receiver from the stamped sheet metal and improve the heat shielding in the forearm! possibly changed the rear sight but other than that she was ready for service! i had a Sterling built 180 and trust me they not only missed the boat there they missed the entire port!! if i could get parts for it i'd still have it!!

*>they dispensed with the forward assist* It may not had been developed yet when this unit, Colt 611(?), was exported *>I was of the understanding never to use 5.56 in a .223* A reasonable assumption given a 60-year-old barrel, though keep in mind that the _5.56mm_ adopted with the M16/M16A1 is not the same as the _5.56 NATO_ standard of the 1980s onward

They adopted ARs 20 years before the SA80 existed.

@@Ukraineaissance2014 did they? When?

@@joelbilly1355 during the Malaysian emergency

@@Ukraineaissance2014 really? Was the British army not using the FAL in semi auto only and had already designed and built the EM2 which was the basis for the SA80 in a different calibre adopting the FAL because the US military insisted the 7.62 by the standard military round rather than a smaller intermediate? The British army were still using the Bren gun as their light machine gun right up until the Falklands war in the 80s. The Malayan emergency ended in 1960 before the m16 was adopted, I don't the think the SAS used the AR10.

@@joelbilly1355 yes sorry I meant borneo and those south east asian conflicts of the 60s. They ordered a number of M16s in 1961 and more throughout the decade, actually using them before the US adoption. Since the 80s have used canadian built versions

no wait thats the m16 hbar

I imagine it's as simple as, there were other options which proved superior. Minimi derivatives have been used for decades, so I assume the belt-fed, much larger capacity was the big appeal there. Funnily enough, isn't there a move to a HK416 version happening? I've read something about there being a desire to reduce the ability for enemies to be able to spot which is the one in that role.

LMG variants of service rifles have tended to not work well. They generally turn out to be too light to be an actual LMG and just be bulkier, heavier rifles. The heavy FAL, the M15, and L86 being good examples. The RPK, while copying much of the AK, has a lot more differences including a different receiver.

The L86 LSW is decidedly not an AR-15 derivative. It, along with the L85, is if anything an AR-18 clone badly converted to a bullpup. I would agree that this would also have suffered from the issue of being too big for a rifle but not up to doling out sustained suppressive fire in a similar way to the LSW, though. I certainly wouldn't have fancied being given this in place of a Bren, even if the Bren is obnoxiously heavy.

They have a branch in the Tower of London, totally recomend

What would you consider the greatest and why? (Not asking a gotcha question, genuinely curious to hear your take) :)

@@jazeenharal6013 FN Minimi (M249 in U.S. service or L109/L110 in British service) can either be fed from a 20 or 30 round box magazine or can be belt fed depending on what’s available, a much more suitable choice even if it is heavier.

@@mrjockt I was under the impression that they didn't work very well with the magazine and nobody really uses them like that...

@@chemistrykrang8065 True, most users used the belt feed option, but there was always the magazine option to fall back on if that was all that was available, better than nothing I suppose.

@@jazeenharal6013 either the PKM or Minimi

Since Maxim when it comes to guns Americans know best

@@whitewittock I too like pretending that the M14 never happened

@@TheSundayShooter it was better than the SA80

@@whitewittock At what?

@@kiwigrunt330 build quality, reliability

Not quite a prototype as _this_ AR-15 is a commercial unit

It's an obscure prototype *of a trial AR-15 in LMG configuration*.