I've been waiting a long time for an updated AR10 book.
http://www.collectorgrade.com/bookshelf10.html

"The ArmaLite AR-10: World's Finest Battle Rifle"

Holy smokes! Never would've bet that R. Blake Stevens would let that go by him. Everyone knows the sun rises and sets on the sacred FAL.

Just joking, and the book looks great.

Ordered a copy yestetday, I'm so excited to get it!

I can't wait to get my copy ordered one yesterday also.

Yeah, I noticed that title, too, and thought it was great!  I don't know how many times I've referred to the early AR10 as the finest battle rifle of the 20th century, and it's almost always led to intense debates and arguments.  But I've shot 'em all and done serious work with several, and my opinion remains.
I was glad to see the title endorse that view!

I'm looking forward to getting my copy, but then have to decide--do I send it off immediately for an autograph, or read it first?

I can't wait for my author copies to arrive, either I have glossy proofs of the whole book, but Blake told me there are still some surprises in both the layout and material of the hardcover and dust jacket, so I'm on tenterhooks here.

I must admit, I was quite surprised nobody had attempted to tackle this topic when I decided to be the one to do it in April of 2014, but all the time I was preparing the manuscript I hadn't dared to hope in my wildest dreams that Blake Stevens would actually want to publish my work. I actually first made contact with him to ask him about licensing some photos from his other books, and was overjoyed when he responded that he was quite interested in seeing what I had. That was about in December of 2014, and I submitted the completed manuscript to him on January 27 of 2015. He was editing a book on S&W revolvers at the time, and in April when he finally got around to reading it, he signed me, and he and I spent the next ten months polishing and editing.


Boy, you hit the nail on the head about the sun rising and setting on the FAL I had to tone down considerably my criticism of the FAL from my first draft, although Blake is a really good sport and still allowed the substance of my criticism of the FAL as compared to the AR-10 to stay. In a nutshell, my gripe with the FAL is that the it was developed and marketed by a much better-funded and -supported arms design bureau over a much longer period of time than the AR-10; was beaten by the AR-10 hands-down in weight, accuracy, modularity, rapid-fire controllability, and even reliability (in the AR-10's final form); and most of all was marketed using shady business practices that would be illegal as all hell today. I freely admit that the FAL is a fine rifle and I would not feel undergunned with one, but in comparing it unfavorably to the AR-10, I was simply acting as a conduit for those with first-hand comparative combat experience whom I interviewed.


Although discovering the original complete files of ArmaLite from 1954 to 1961 (this includes stuff from before they had any contact with Fairchild, and were known by a very different name), getting my hands on most of the Dutch factory records, and being able to pore over the detailed files of Interarmco (Armco Steel can suck it, as far as I'm concerned) may have formed the most substantial part of the book, far and away the most rewarding and interesting part of writing the book was the many interviews I was privileged to conduct with important figures in the AR-10's story, especially including end user combat veterans. Of particular interest in forming my superlative opinion of the AR-10's prowess were the veterans with whom I spoke who had used the AR-10 in some theaters of operations and the FAL and G3 in others. In addition to the obvious Portuguese paratroopers and marines who would be shuffled to Guinea or Battalion 32 in Mozambique (both of which used the G3 instead of the AR-10) who compared these weapons, I also was lucky enough to discover that the AR-10 was used in a previously unheard-of (not that no one has heard of the conflict, but there have been absolutely no reports of the AR-10's use there until my book) conflict from its veterans, where it served alongside what were almost exclusively FALs.


Although the FAL and G3 are still touted as fairly good, if pedestrian and crude, weapons by the sources of my book, the M14/T44 was seen as a joke in all fair comparative testing, and Blake was just fine with me essentially crapping all over it. Each major variety of 7.62 NATO AR-10 (Cuban, Sudanese, First Transitional, Second Transitional, Portuguese) was tested against most or all of the other main battle rifles, and the perennial washout of all the comparative testing by many countries on many continents was always the M14. I do not dislike the M1A, and I actually shoot one marvelously well in NRA High Power compared to all my weapons except for my modern AR-10 (and it took less practice and effort to shoot the M1A well compared to the AR-10, probably because I learned to shoot on rifles with traditional drop-stocks), they failed miserably in all comparative testing, particularly reliability. One area in which the Dutch AR-10 is often unfairly maligned is reliability. Every model, starting with the Cuban, was as reliable in most adverse conditions (cold, sand, dry, heat, etc.) as the FAL, G3, BM59, M14, Madsen, StGw-57, etc., though it was beaten by the FAL pretty handily, at least at first, in tropical and saltwater humidity and mud. By the Second Transitional, which was tested in some very unforgiving tropical environments (you have to get the book to find out where), it had surpassed the reliability of all but the FAL in those conditions. The real shocker, though, was the when the Portuguese tested the Portuguese model in the same conditions, it actually beat even the FAL. Therefore, the Portuguese/NATO AR-10 can honestly be said to be the most reliable battle rifle of the age, in addition to being the lightest, most accurate, and most controllable.

You are exactly right there, old friend, and your experience is mirrored by the unbiased testing and evaluation reports of more than a dozen countries, as well as the immeasurably valuable combat experience of brave servicemen who personally used the AR-10, FAL, and G3 extensively in combat.

Although I am admittedly a big fan of the AR-10, I made it an absolutely inviolable rule (which was faithfully reinforced by Blake) that NOTHING made it into my book that was not directly confirmed by a primary source document or interview with a person who had first-hand experience. The status of the AR-10 as head-and-shoulders above ALL other combat rifles of the 20th century was completely and irrefutably confirmed by what I found in my research, and I hope that the rifle will finally be given its proper due once my book becomes common reading.


The depth of the bias against, spite towards, and extreme unfairness with which the AR-10B was greeted in late '56-early '57 by Springfield Armory is something that even my writing struggles to plumb. One of the best examples of that is that Dr. Carten, head of the Ordnance Corps, actually had all copies of the AR-10's test report returned to him from the recipients and destroyed them all. In fact, not even the Springfield Armory museum has a copy, and the only copy that survived this purge was one safeguarded by ArmaLite itself, which had been leaked to them by someone in the Pentagon. Reading that report gives one a VERY different view of the AR-10's performance than was suggested by the public statement that Springfield put out. In fact, even in its prototype form, the AR-10B actually exhibited better reliability than the T44 and T48 against which it was tested.

Been saying this for 10 damn years

Love my ar10tc.  It's my go-to rifle.

Txl

Do they send out shipping or tracking info?

Anyone know how long it takes to receive shipment after ordering?

I just got an email confirmation.


 

I ordered my copy on the 16th, received an order confirmation but no shipping info.  

I just emailed them and asked about shipping info.

Thanks for the info guys, Ive not received any confirmation yet

With all due respect to your rifle, the AR10C is a different animal altogether.  The book in question is about the original AR10--long before the modern "up-sized AR15" .308's hit the market.  I don't mean to imply that modern 308 ARs are bad rifles.  They're just not quite what was envisioned in the late 50's.

I ordered 3 or 4 days ago and haven't gotten anything beyond the original, "We got your order" email.

Really looking forward to reading this one too.

You are right, funny the original Ar15 was a downsized Ar10.
The new Ar10 is an upsized Ar15.

Would love for the old guard to come back!  Surely there is someone with the CNC skills.  
The most critical part for me aside from the appearance of the metal, is the quality of the furniture.
Still ever hopeful :)

I received a nice reply from Susan Fraser at Collector Grade Publications; they apparently have had a small glitch with the printers and she expects my order to either ship this Friday or Monday the 29th at the latest.



I ordered a copy of their FN49 title as well as the AR-10 title.  Two obscure battle rifles; one obsolete before it was put into production and one far ahead of its time.  i bought a Venezuelan FN49 years ago when I was in high school with the idea of collecting one from each country that adopted it.  Life got in the way and now good examples are too rich for me to get one of each "just to have".  Oh well, I'll be satisfied with the book.

I want to get the FN49 book also. Do you still have your Venez FN49?

Yes, I still have the FN49; cost me $150 in '72.

The final AR10 that ArmaLite had is what the market is just catching up with, when you look at Colt's 901, the DPMS GII, and the other smaller frame AR10 type rifles we're seeing now.

The ArmaLite/Colt AR10A was really the lessons-learned, product-improved model of what really amounted to prototypes and low-rate initial production guns from the Dutch.  It has taken 54 years before someone introduced a small-framed AR10 again, and the 1959 Colt AR10A is probably one of the most overlooked designs of the 1950's.

Good for you, people always regret selling their earlier rifles.

Having said that i'll give you your $150 back for it

Let me think about that....


Ahh, no.  ??


 

ETA,  those ??s were supposed to be

While the majority of what folks call "AR-10s" today are just that; upsized AR-15 clones, your ArmaLite AR-10TC, TxLewis, is much closer to the original than you might think, and is descended almost directly from one of them. LRRPF52 actually beat me to the punch a bit, but if you look at that 1959 AR-10A (which I call the "Costa Mesa AR-10," as there was only one made there) you will see some striking similarities particularly with current ArmaLite's rifles. In the book I go into great detail about that particular rifle, of which only one was ever made, but I am not giving anything away when I say that it was an amalgamation of a Dutch Second Transitional AR-10 and ArmaLite XAR-15. It is commonly accepted that when Eagle Arms became ArmaLite it only go the trademark. This is not true at all; it actually bought the entire inactive company, which included its intellectual property. I will save the details of the ArmaLite ownership lineage (which is not correctly and completely retold in any one place except my book) for my readers to share fully here, but suffice it to say that there are three modern-production 7.62mm AR-pattern rifles which can be considered to be direct descendants of the original Hollywood/Zaandam/Costa Mesa AR-10s: The ArmaLite AR-10, Knight's SR-25, and LMT LM308.

 

I am no patent agent, but I looked through the USPTO database and could find no instance where an "original Armalite" patent or trademark was transfered to the "new Armalite".  In the case of trademarks all I found were re-applications.  Anybody could have re-applied for an lapsed trademark.  In the case of patents it is well documented when one company sells a patent to another company.

For example, the AR-10 trademark from Oct 10, 2000

-------------------------------------------
Word Mark: AR-10
Status/
Status Date: REGISTERED AND RENEWED
7/5/2012
Serial Number: 76144253
Filing Date: 10/11/2000
Registration Number: 2667871
Registration Date: 12/31/2002
Goods and Services: firearms, namely rifles
Mark Description: NOT AVAILABLE
Type Of Mark: TradeMark
Published For Opposition Date: 10/8/2002
Last Applicant/Owner: ARMALITE, INC.
Geneseo, IL 61254
Why is this contact information displayed?
Mark Drawing Code: Typeset (Words/letter/Number)
Design Search: (NO DATA)
Register Type: Principal
Disclaimer:  (NOT AVAILABLE)
Correspondent: Charles J. Meyer
Woodard, Emhardt, Moriarty, McNett & Hen
111 Monument Circle, Suite 3700
INDIANAPOLIS IN 46204

I'm happy to report that the first shipments are on the truck as of today! It's a complicated arrangements Collector Grade has, with its printing usually done by a really upscale outfit in Manitoba, and then the books warehoused and shipped from Buffalo, NY, as most of their customers are in the U.S. Waiting sure is torture, ain't it? Blake sent me the final proof templates in mid-November and the stuff was approved my him and me and at the printers by December, so I've been on tenterhooks for my copies for months now! Mine are set to be delivered on Monday (NY to VA takes a bit), so I figure a bunch of y'all should get yours that day and the next few.

Believe it or not, the "World's Finest" part of the title was actually Blake's idea! My working title was significantly more understated in order to court a publisher who clearly adored the FAL, but he was pretty convinced by my findings that the Portuguese AR-10 really was the best full-power automatic rifle ever. In fact, we've discussed how we'd put one of them made in '61 (with the full-chrome bore) up against a SCAR or HK made today and be confident that the perfected AR-10 would come out ahead in every category!

I just received my copy today.  

I can't wait!

I placed an order a week ago today and havnt received any charges or updates from them so I emailed them today and they confirmed they have my order, just that there was a delay with printers or something.

In case anyone else was in the same boat.

Placed an ordered last Sunday. Good to hear they probably have my order. Did they give you any idea of when they might be shipping?

My birthday is next week

i emailed my wife with a bunch of DILLON stuff i wanted

...then saw this book in another thread

asked her for this also

if she just gets the Dillon stuff, I'll order it myself LOL

hoping it's a fine addition to my other collector grade books

I'm honored! My crate of author's copies arrived yesterday, and I've been busy signing the ones (all but 2) that are going to contacts who helped me out with my research since then. I had a lot of great assistance from collectors and veterans, and I am very grateful to them. Additionally, it was actually quite expensive to put the book together, what with licensing fees for the photos that I didn't take and trips to places like Knight's Armament in Florida and Springfield Armory in Massachusetts.

 


Here they are with my personal AR-10 that inspired my interest in the weapon's history, and led to the book. I really hope everyone likes it, and that the wider shooting world can appreciate the AR-10 as well as we retro guys do!

are there any color pics ?

I've always wished THE BLACK RIFLE had some color shots

There are actually quite a few. Most of the shots in there were taken by me at the different collections of prototypes, which are of course in color. In fact, there is, I believe, at least one color shot of every single variant of the AR-10, including several that had never been named, discussed, or even seen by the outside world until I discovered them. Other than that and the collections of some other collectors and the archivist for Interarmco, the pictures come from the Smithsonian, Springfield Armory, Dutch Military Museum, Life Magazine, and Portuguese Air Force. Those licensed sources are all black and white, but I was able to examine and photograph all the types, so there's lots of color in there. That's a real priority of Blake's in making the books look good.

 

No shipping update, but I got an emailed receipt a little while ago.

I also just received an e-mailed receipt this morning, so my guess is that we will all be getting our copies at the same (unknown) time

COOL

I can't wait  

I got mine today (East coast) and it's a nice looking book. I've got many of Collector Grade's other books and it's the same quality as those (good pictures and well formatted). I'm about 30 pages in, well written, well illustrated. From looking through the book the pictures are great and seldom seen (by me!), if you took them you've got a knack for it, they are quite sharp. I'd highly recommended the book, Great job! A great companion to "The Black Rifle".

Thank you kindly! One of Blake's other authors taught me a lot about getting good photographs of guns, which is quite difficult. I used a tripod, reflecting board, and lights as part of my photography setup. It was a pain lugging that bunch of gear around in my car to Knight's in Florida, Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, and the ATF HQ in West Virginia.

 

Um, yeah.  
Yeah, we feel real bad for you.  
Personally, my heart simply bleeds for your trials and travails.
Imagine having to actually carry camera equipment as you visit the most INCREDIBLE FIREARMS COLLECTIONS IN THE WORLD!

You poor, poor man.

Oh yeah, let me tell y'all it was really rough! I still have nightmares about driving through that beautiful countryside, staying at nice hotels, getting to hang out in Eugene Stoner's perfectly-preserved office, shooting the breeze with Reed Knight, and checking out the coolest weapons collections in the world

 

AR-Tenner. You're making me jealous, Man. I do get to to view the end result though...

Ordered mine... Collector Grade are some of the best. Color photos, huh?

Got mine today. This book is really well done!
 
I was nice to see a pic of my AR10 in the book. Even if it was just the Telko lower.

+1 to both, cant wait to really dig into it.

I recognize two forum regulars in the editors thankyou's Its great to have such great company in the forum.

Mine just showed up today.  I can't wait to read it this weekend.

My wife said she ordered it at the beginning of the week

never got an email receipt or tracking number

checked her credit card and it showed the purchase

she asked me if this vendor was legit

told her I've ordered from them without trouble

I ordered on 2/21 and got an immediate confirmation email.
A week later (last Sunday) I got another "transaction receipt" that said "Approved."  (I believe they had a temporary problem processing orders.)
The book arrived yesterday (Friday).
The comms weren't the best, but you can count on getting what you paid for!

Mine arrived today, looks nice, well done Joseph!!
Will take it out with a nice cup of tea and put my AR10A2 on the table to keep company.

I'm really honored, and thank y'all for your kind words! This was a real labor of love, and is meant, first and foremost, for all of us who hold true faith with the AR-10. My trusty AR-10A4 (I essentially made it an A3 with my home modifications) and I have been enjoying some quality time with the book, and I'm sure he appreciates how I made him famous: see Page 360, fig. 336

I'd be remiss here if I didn't shamelessly plug my quest to acquire an original AR-10; please see my EE listing, and know that I will pay handsomely!


Oh yeah, and don't put down your Telko there either, buddy; those are some of the nicest receivers made for the AR-10. I feel that the aftermarket semi-auto lowers are actually invaluable pieces of history in and of themsleves, reflecting a period of small-scale innovation and diligent cottage industry that is largely forgotten today. I have a section in the book devoted to that period, and find them pretty cool, partly because I wasn't born yet when they were being made

I'll second that. My order pretty much mirrors yours only, I haven't gotten a tracking number or my books yet. I'd like to know if they're set to arrive anytime soon. Don't want to local hoodlums making off with my books while I'm sipping a beer.

Book on order also, can't wait.

Someone needs to make a original AR-10, Portuguese or Sudanese would be great!

They do go well together.

Any chance that there rifle is looking for a new home? I'm guessing it's a Guatemalan, but if the sight wheel were clearer I might say it's a Sudanese! If that's a Cuban or First Transitional, then you are one lucky man!