Hey there peeps, hope you're all doing well and have had a great weekend!

Mine's been pretty hectic but man it's been awesome.

I'm a nam reenactor currently living in the UK (Terrible, I know), and one of the items I've wanted to land my grubby mitts for a while, has been an M16. Lo and behold, with the help of a great friend, we scored one at a show this weekend.

I had a particular interest in this specific 16 not only because it was literally the cheapest one, but also the markings were particularly interesting, here they are:



It seems pretty reminiscent of the olden roll marks on pre 72 M16s, compared to the simpler 9 million series style export markings. Do note the british deact proof marks top left, as well as the scuffed A 1 markings left of the M16 mark.

However, the M16 itself is pretty much in 74-83 config (E stocks, LR guards, C cast FSB, C MP Chrome Bore Barrel, etc), as well as, as the title implies, being in the 9 million series. It also was completely painted black which was a pain in the ass to remove:



I've asked around for more info on the lower's roll marks, but no luck.

Do you guys have any idea about why did they use these roll marks for a rifle this late into production? I'd love to hear them!

Thanks again you guys, take care and have a great monday!

Ps, hope the images are embed well seeing they work on my preview,  kinda new to the forum lol

Very interesting. What did they do to kill it?

M16 markings like that were export markings and made pretty late into production. No real info on serial range and takes but from what I’ve seen, they are sprinkled in throughout the 70’s.

More than likely made whenever a contract came up

Oh it's relatively extensive, cut a slot in the barrel as well as weld a rod into the chamber (which extends to about the length of the bolt carrier), remove the bolt and chop up the carrier, gut the trigger group and weld some bits in place and weld a rod inside of the magwell. Gas tube is also chopped about 2-3 inches from the fsb. I believe the front takedown pin is also hammered in place, birdcage has a bead weld just to keep people from unscrewing it (as it's considered a pressure bearing part).










That said you can still put mags in and out, bolt moves, and shit like stock, guards, etc can be swapped (which I did, slapping a D stock and a nicer handguard on it)

Oh yeah I'm aware of the export and even law enforcement nature of these, but what does confuse me the most is how different it is to the other 9 million series export markings I've seen floating around, there must be a reason, or some sort of explanation as to why mine differs so much from the others


(The more commonly found marking on these)

Or maybe its one of those things that doesn't have rhyme or reason and just is like that, though that sounds a little weird give rollmark swaps for no reason seem a bit of an odd choice lol

The early export had this Mod 613 for 603 and 614 for the 604.



Then this one like yours


Hard to tell if all had this markings?
5,000,000-5,4X,XXX (app)
1973-1982
US Property marked M16A1 Colt's Model 603 (not aware of any Air Force M16 Colt Model 604's with serial numbers this high).  Also some export/commercial models.

And the all known markings


When you had the Permit and parts you could bring it back alive

I own a 9-million series Colt M16 marked like this. It is 905xxxx, so pretty close to yours.


Also, holy smokes re: demil procedures in the UK. That is crazy.

That's some great material you've given there buddy, thank you so much for the clarification!

Genuinely interesting stuff as well, what a trip.

Shame you can't just go out and legally put em back together again

Pretty happy about the markings now to be honest, seeing the similarity to 60s/70s M16 marks, even if no US property markings are present, it's still awesome. Specially knowing how US prop and nam era 16s run several thousand bucks in here.

Nice stuff! Does it also have the scuffed ass A 1 marking next to M16?

And yeah, well at least this one's got a moving bolt carrier with the original buffer and spring doing its thing, removable mag, and breaks down! I've seen some 16s completely welded shut, not even the mag comes out!

Yours its stamped/ punched after the gun was built (deactivating process?). You see that the anodizing is gone, silver aluminum visible.

Not sure about the mfg process at Colt.. any chance lowers are rollmarked, stored & serial numbers added later right before shipping or final assembly?

I’d guess some early left over receivers already marked that way were used a decade later to fulfill some foreign order.. ence the 9 million series SN

Btw the A1 looks engraved not rollmarked… maybe added by the importer?

No yeah there are deactivation proof marks from the birmingham house, but they do not add markings to the guns themselves other than those legally required, so the A 1 thingy must have been added earlier on (least that's what I'm assuming), very confusing stuff

Me neither but what you said does make a whole load of sense. Could be actually, nice thinking!

The A 1 stamp seems like one of those things that may not really have any concrete evidence of why and how it was done, but what's been said's still a pretty solid theory