Hello Guys,
my name is Paolo. I live in Italy and I am a guns collector.
I want to show you a rifle extremely rare, a rifle museum !
I own an original Colt Armalite model 01 (601) made in December 1959, S/N 115 and as you well know the production run started with S/N 101 so,
is the rifle number 15, probably the first day of production.
In the month of December were produced the first 300 rifles, and Colt has decided to paint the furniture green after about the first 100 products, these are the original brown !
This rifle comes from the Malaysian army, where he was taken for evaluation test. In the book, THE M16 Jean Huon said that Malaysia had 25 of these Rifles,
of those rifles survivors the Italian importer has recovered 7, but only a few were with charging handle, stock, grip and handguard original, the others had those of 'M16A1.
This rifle was the best preserved and the S / N, the lowest
The guns arrived in Italy with the standard 30 rounds magazine and see the rifle without his waffle magazine was very bad!
Fortunately I was able to find one original in the U.S., so now the gun is perfect !
Unfortunately the Italian law does not allow full auto guns, so it has been modified to fire only in semiautomatic mode.
The modifications concern :
bolt carrier is milled equal to the semiauto model
auto sear removed and enlarged the hole of the sear pin, filled with a steel block welted
Hammer milled like the semiauto
selector filled welted in position full auto
new drill hole to insert a roll pin to stop the selector in semiauto
In addition, different marks the Italian importer that has made the modifications (NuovaJager) and a new S / N , and obligatory for all guns, the proof marks.
Many will ask how much this rifle, well ... 5000 € including taxes (21%) … without waffle magazine
I know that the rifle is partly ruined forever , but this is the law, would not have been more possible to re-import in the United States and in many European countries would have been deactived ... would never even sung in semiauto !
I hope you understand what I wrote and forgive me for not'll understand all the answers
now I leave the pictures speak.







in the company of a Vespa 150 of the year 1959 (painstakingly restored)

Holy shit! Wow man, that is a truly amazing piece of history. Even modded to semi auto, that is still an ultra rare gem, and the look is perfect!

I'll be in my bunk.

Nice vintage rifle you have there.

It's nice to own a piece of history, thanks for the pics.

Mille grazie, signore!

Thank you for doing your part to preserve this historic firearm. We all have national laws to deal with.

As Paolo pointed out, this could not be reimported into the USA under the Hughes Amendment. Even if it were stripped to parts, the barrel would have to be destroyed under current ATF rulings, which aren't even legislatively supported, just what they feel they can get away with.

Paolo, you are one of the retro-elite. No apology is needed for the condition or appearance of your superb early Armalite rifle. Thanks for saving it and sharing it with us.

You receive a Kiss on both Cheeks!

Fantastico!

Thanks very much for sharing and welcome.
That is an incredible rifle you have.
Please feel free to share more photos.

oplita,Welcome!!! That IS the most beautiful rifle I've ever seen posted here in retroland,,,and that's saying something as there have been some real beauties posted. THANK YOU FOR SHARING WITH US!!!!!!!!!

Very very cool, thank you for sharing. More pictures please. I think the ones without flash look the best. If you take it outside, sunlight will make it easier for your camera to get a good picture. (Some in direct sunlight and some in shade) I like this one best:

http://imageshack.us/a/img834/7168/31250552.jpg

One detail I am curious about is if the front lug on the upper receiver is beveled or not. See this thread: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_123/521261_.html This one has a good picture of a non-beveled front lug: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_123/547942_.html It looks like your 601 has the skinny / thin mag release post but I can't find the thread about it right now. (The threaded part that goes through the receiver, the button screws onto it) One other thing I am curious about is what does the buffer tube (hidden inside the stock) on a rifle that old look like?

Find it funny no one pointed out the "rotating" sling swivel yet....

Find it funny no one pointed out the "rotating" sling swivel yet

Was the first thing I noticed. Excellent pic with it turned also.

Did anyone notice it has the early squared off extractor lug consistant with other early bolts we've examined?

Great heads up. Something I've never noticed. Looking at a couple P's and MP's along with a couple extractor purchases I don't believe I have any of those. Not jacking but anybody got a pic up close of a couple different examples, possibly repost on another thread or even archive the thread I evidently missed.

Ok,Ok,,I was bustin chops..But hey snipertewg,,good catch..I overlooked that as I just keep staring at the full rifle pics.....DROOLING...