Alright guys, I finally got all of the pictures sorted by the individual weapons.  I figure it was best to separate this thread from my recent one, as I would like to have all of the pertinent links and info I can provide in this first post, so here goes... I am going to try and do these weapons in chronological order, first with the AR-10 and AR-15, followed by the XM-21, AR-18s and Stoner 63s.  Info on weapons that I did NOT inspect can be found here. My special thanks goes out to Les Jensen, Curator of Arms & Armor at the West Point Museum and Mr. Albert Tellez, Museum Technician.  Having the ability to do this was a privilege to which I was not entitled, but they were kind enough to take about 9 hours total out of their schedules to facilitate this endeavor.  Les knew that I was not an XM-21, AR-18 or Stoner 63 expert and still allowed me to inspect them for the benefit of this community.  So for that, I give many thanks.  If you guys have any extra info on these weapons or things I might have missed, feel free to comment as I will be writing up a report for the Museum as part of my thanks.


Artillerie Inrichtingen AR-10 SN 6966
As can be seen in the images, this weapon is in pristine condition. I am not particularly knowledgeable on the AR-10, but I believe this to be a Portuguese model.  I was surprised to find that the serial was not marked on the lower, as all of the ones I have seen in my references (Vickers Guide AR-15 Vol. 1 and The Black Rifle) had the serial there.  I know people always talk about how beat up the furniture is on these guns, and this one is perfect.  I also noticed that the selector markings are the later-type, with SAFE in the forward position and SEMI at the top, rather than having SAFE in the middle.  Probably more due to my ignorance than anything else, I could not cycle the charging handle and did not want to break anything in front of the curator, so I did not try and force anything.  Luckily the BCG still came out regardless of whether or not I could cycle it.



Colt 601 SN 13912
It is probably obvious to those on this forum that the upper on this rifle is not original.  As the sheet states, only the lower was received by the museum.  The lower appeared to be in original condition, with dimpled FCG components and "many circles" mag. button.  The upper was added on 8 July 1975, using an upper from Rock Island Arsenal.  The handguards were painted at the museum by a former curator.  



Colt GX-5857 (607) SN 14657
I was amazed at how small and handy this thing actually was.  I'm not extremely knowledgeable on these, but I did do enough research to be able to disassemble the stock (wasn't as hard as I thought), at the request of @57Octane.  The tube had tracks on both sides for the collapsing assembly.  Of note with this particular example is the nylon carbine buffer, and the wire holding on the port door rod, rather than a C-clip.  I would like to know for this one and the next one what the "GX" stands for, as I had never seen that before.



Colt GX-5856 (606) SN 14761
I was once offered the opportunity to buy one of these uppers and one of the nylon buffers. I think I made the wrong choice not picking it up, in retrospect.  The heavy barrel on this one really makes for awkward balance characteristics.  



Colt Pre-XM16E1 (603) SN 39903
This was the rifle I was most excited to inspect in the entire museum, because I thought it would answer a ton of questions.  Instead, I was only left with more questions.  First, it should be noted that the SN falls right at the end of the accepted range for 602 production.  Now, that being said, the rifle very obviously looks like an XM16E1, but lacks the model designation.  Therefore, I believe this to be one of the very first examples of an XM16E1 built on a partial-fence lower, before they had type-classified it.  The general wisdom on this thread believed that the XM16E1 never came with a cast FSB, despite there being a claimed example in The Black Rifle on page 156 (however, we don't know that that rifle is an XM, rather than a 602 or 604).  I was most excited to see the BCG on this rifle so that some questions could be answered about what the earliest ones came with, however, it only had the carrier. I was also saddened to see that the barrel extension was welded shut.  Not only that, but the FCG did not function.  You can see that the hammer pin only appears to be in on one side, but when I tried to drop the hammer, it wouldn't budge anyways.  Also notice the pad broken off of the transitional bolt catch, as well as the part that engages with the magazine follower.  The weapon also lacks an auto sear.  What makes this even more strange is the fact that this one came directly from Colt in 1965.  This rifle must have been used as a test rifle before being demilled and sent to the museum.  (The museum would not make these types of alterations, so it had to have happened at Colt).  



Colt SP-1 SN 788
This was a nice example of an early 3-digit gun that came out of a private collection and was sent first to DCA (Directorate of Cadet Affairs [Now Directorate of Cadet Activities]) and I believe it spent some time under the control of USCC (United States Corps of Cadets).  It was subsequently transferred to the USMA History Department and was then given to the Museum.  It was pretty dirty, and I believe it had probably been fired by cadets on numerous occasions.  Note the transitional bolt catch and dimpled safety.


XM16E1 (603) SN 129363
What the previous XM lacked, this one sort-of made up for.  This one was another early example, having the rebate under the port door, "+" on the fencing, and square-pad port door, among other early features.  The BCG has a narrow-band bolt with "M" and "P" mark, with the oil hole.  There was no firing pin or firing pin retaining pin, as those are often removed to put the weapon on display.  Les could not locate these pieces, so they were likely misplaced long ago.  The furniture is pretty battle-worn on the right side.  I assume someone took a pretty hard fall during a full combat sprint, which may have led to some of this damage.  



XM16E1 (603) SN 556335 w/ HEL E4A Suppressor
This one was brought back with several of the other weapons featured in this thread.  However, whoever wrote up the document was wrong in stating where they came from.  It is corrected on some of the sheets, but not all.  This rifle served in a sniper team (possibly with the XM-21) with 2-5 Cav. (NOT 215 Cav.), which was part of the 1st Cav. Division.  Again, the Suppressor drastically changed the balance characteristics of the rifle.  



XM16E1 (603) SN 603010 w/ XM203 Grenade Launcher
I am told that the Grenade Launcher was added at the museum, and Les could not locate the original handguards for me.  The barrel seems to be a little late to belong to this rifle, but maybe I'm wrong on that?  Other than that, there were really no surprises here.  I don't know much about 40mm Grenade launchers, so I did not go into detail on that.



Winchester Experimental Piston M16A1 SN 799168
This one was different and exciting.  I had never heard of it before.  Please let me know if this one is new to you as well.  This is an apparent early attempt at trying to make a piston-driven AR-15, which was undertaken by Winchester.  It was transferred to the Museum in 1972 from the weapons lab at Rock Island Arsenal.  Its a pretty neat and interesting design, and the hump in the handguards looks a little funny.  You can see how the "hump" was added onto the handguards, and how space was cut out of the heat shields to provide room for the gas block.  Can someone determine the reasoning for the hex screw on the left side of the upper? I did not want to further disassemble the system for fear of damaging something, or failing to be able to put it back together since I had no idea exactly how it was supposed to come apart.  I probably could have figured it out rather quickly, but I didn't want to risk it.



Colt XM177E2 (629) SN 905745
This rifle was also transferred from Colt.  However, it has the DoD acceptance stamp. It has an "MP" between the legs of the FSB but no "C" or "C MP C" markings on the underside like I have seen on some other short barrels.  I'm not well read up on these, but this is obviously an original example.  I thought the color of the buffer was interesting as well.  Not sure I had seen a black one before.



M16A1 (603) SN 1049127
Standard M16A1 fare here.  It had an MP C barrel.



Colt XM4 SN 6153635
This one was neat to handle.  While it is not as "retro" as some of the others, I think it will be accepted here.  Don't know a ton about what to look for on these A2 rifles.  However, I thought the barrel profile was interesting because it is slightly different than what we see on later M4s and M4A1s.



XM-21 SN 586319
This one was inspected at the request of @m1sniper. I forgot to take a picture of one of the things he had asked for, and I could not get the action to separate from the stock.  The glass bedding must be pretty tight and the rifle must be dirty and old enough to only complicate things further.  I was able to document some of the other markings, and also matched the stock up with some paint chips.  I added the pictures with the RGB values as well, in case anybody wanted to duplicate the color.  Note the wear from the trigger finger and the shooter's cheek.  REALLY cool... This one also came from 2-5 Cav. and, as stated above, was possibly paired up with the XM16E1 with the HEL suppressor.



ArmaLite AR-18 SN 57
Don't know a ton about the AR-18, but I know enough to know that this is a pretty early example.  It lacks the bent bolt handle I was expecting, and also did not have an ejection port cover, which I was a little surprised about.  I documented a marking on the barrel forward of the FSB.  I don't know what it means, or if it is important, but its there.  This was a cool rifle to check out!



Howa AR-180 SN 11703
Again, another nice rifle that I do not know a ton about.  It was in the same estate as the SP-1 and basically has the same story.  The red tag says the rifle is "broken."  The only thing I saw was that it is missing the spring for the firing pin, which would lead me to believe that the weapon would not fire reliably?  Did Howa AR-180s still have the firing pin spring, or was that engineered out?  To me it seemed like somebody lost a spring, didn't know it, and then deemed the rifle "broken."



Stoner 63 Carbine SN 595
I didn't get a ton of pictures of this one, as the pin holding the magazine well and handguard on was extremely tight and I didn't have proper tools, and was running low on time.  Its still nice to get a look at this sweet carbine though.  



Stoner 63 Rifle SN 1041
I was able to break this one down a bit more.  I captured the barrel markings as well.  Not sure how important they are or what they mean.



Stoner 63 MG SN 1139
I didn't take this one down too much either, but I popped the cover to take a look at the internals.  Again, I also captured the barrel markings.


Again, here are the weapons I did not inspect but have the sheets for.

Finally, I also obtained a document that Les has asked me not to publish.  However, if you have a transferrable AR-15 that is "U.S. Property" marked and it is extremely close to any of the following serial numbers, I might be able to tell you where and when it may have been shipped to Vietnam.  The serials are:

247713, 625722, 635852, 668262, 820427, 899663, 1026524, 1039301, 1099197, 1108054, 1135215, 1178619, 1220492, 1250233, 1309490, 1350263, 1361565, 1410876, 1416372, 1484282, 1503015, 1510149, 1561327, 1607535, 1608650, 1613952, 1681025, and 1713010.

Standing by for any questions or concerns!

OUTSTANDING WORK Lt. We can't thank you enough for your efforts. Great stuff.. Once in a lifetime opportunity..

This is really great work.  I’m sure you enjoyed yourself, but the extra time taken to share all you pictures with us is much appreciated.

Matt

Tagged, tagged, tagged!!  Wow.

Very nice photos, thank you.

Nice. Thanks

The problem with playing with the real things though is that it ruins clones for you. From then on, they will feel "off", you will be disappointed, and sell them off.

Wow! Fantastic post!! Thank you.

Any possibility of uploading the photos to dropbox and offering a download link?  Otherwise that is a lot of Right Click, Save As for imgur

Great stuff!

As for the GX there is some archived info Here

Cliff notes - the general concensus is that GX seems to be a government designation vs a civilian designation. So GX 5857 is to a 607 like M16 is to an AR15. Make sense?

That pre XM sure looks like a hodge podge of parts. I wouldn't be surprised if that was made from parts tossed in corners around the shop or out of the scrap bin.

I noticed some were missing firing pins. Maybe that was so they couldn't be shot?

ETA - as usual with the retro stuff YMMV

That's amazing. Thank you for all of the hard work.

I'm not totally sure this will be true for me.  I cant afford to replace my clones with full auto guns.  I may get rid of something like 10% of my clones in the future haha.

I'll see what I can do on that one. I may not ever get around to it though, with graduation and commissioning, etc. around the corner.

I found this thread, I just hadn't sifted though it yet.  I was thinking before reading it that "GX" might mean "Government Experimental," as the thread states.  What is confusing, however, is that some 607s were marked Mod. 07 and still ended up in the government's hands.  So why the difference in nomenclature?

Thanks again for taking these. It's so rare to get such an in depth look at these museum collections. You have done a real service to the retro community with these photos.

From what I've been able to tell GX is either short for "Government, Experimental" or "Gun, Experimental" and I lean toward the latter. I think it was Colts internal way of identifying "prototype" or pre-production parts and weapons during the 60's. The SP1 prototype is designated as GX-4968, and I've seen a few revolvers/pistols carry a GX number of some kind as well (need to find those photos again). Given how broad it seems to be used, I think it's just a blanket designation for things they had in development before they were given a real part number.

The GX designated 606 and 607 guns are a special pre-production run Colt did specifically for the SAWS trials. All of the 07 or 06 marked guns are "toolroom" prototypes.

All I can say is WOW!

You cannot imagine how valuable the pics of the AR18 057 are to me. They are the most detailed of an early version that I have ever seen. They really show what mods were made as the development of the AR18 progressed.

I see a clone in my future.

Happy I could help!  Do Howa AR-180s still need the firing pin spring?

Yes they do. It would most likely slam fire without it. Easy fix.

I think I found what was "broken" then.

Thank you for this great thread and your efforts, Sir!

Love this stuff
Thanks again

very cool pics, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the tag . Glad this could be useful!

Dang I was just at West Point last week. Should’ve bothered to check out the museum up there. You a cadet or Lt?

LT... now

Wow, West point has a firearms museum. Nice.

They should let me look at the  broken AR18 to see what has snapped off.

I think it’s the lack of firing pin spring. That was the only thing I could find.

Oh, that's an easy fix.

I got some spare AR180 parts that includes the firing pin spring.

They should call BigRix for parts.

The only reason why I said "snapped off" usually the bolt hold device is a bit on the fragile side.

Nice man, I was up there for the graduation of a family member. I was one of the few Marines there. Would've liked to have shot the shit with you

That would have been sweet! I offered tickets to @m1sniper as well, but he didn’t take me up. The ARFCOM community comes together... lol

Lt,, Man I would have loved to have been there to celebrate your accomplishment but was already committed to our 2 day Living History display at Pres.F.D. Roosevelts mansion in Hyde Park.  NY.. Dats why I posted the thread asking guys to join me in congratulating you...I was there in spirit my Friend!!!

Something to do with how the carrier on the piston guns moved slightly differently, the cam pin, and excessive wear on the upper. They screwed in a little steel bumper to keep the carrier from wearing a hole in the upper. Colt and Winchester both had the same problem, and the same solution. Chris talks about it at about the 36 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1sCo1IC2MU

Fantastic. Thank you.

Thanks for the great post, very interesting!

It is great to get images like these from museums we can't all make the journey to. Thank you!

that is a super early AR-18! Looks more like a tool room build than a production build. The markings on the left side of receiver are certainly early in the the standardized markings were more central on the vertical surface of the upper.

Yes, I could see having no firing spring pin could be considered " broken" but I also wonder about the bolt hold open device as they were notorious for breaking if you pulled the trigger on an open receiver and let the hammer impact the hold open.

the other thing is I did not see indication of the rear plate for the recoil rods? Is it possible the earliest rifles did not have the later thumb piece facilitating recoil rod compression for disassembly?

Notice the rifle does not have the reinforcing front plate that added to strength of the front of the lower mag well as well as the take down pivots. A lot of leverage can be applied to the lower by the upper and I suspect they found some would crush the mag well front enough it would impede mag insertion??

Very nice.  I don't think I have ever seen an AR-18.

Thanks for your efforts!  

AWESOME info; thanks!

Wow... I just realized THE @Mrgunsngear saw my post! Thank you very much. I love your vids and keep up on Instagram.

And again, thank you to everyone else for the recognition and extra info.

Outstanding share, thank you so much.  Nothing like looking at Retro on the 4th of July weekend.

cool,thanks for the effort

All, I’m currently writing up my report on these rifles for the museum. I’m only done with two of the rifles so far, but I was wondering if anybody would be interested in proofing it for me to ensure the info is as correct as possible. I’m obviously looking for experts within the respective fields, so guys like @HHollow for the AR-10, @m1sniper for the XM-21, @57Octane for the 607, @BigRix and @AR18 for the AR-18, @WaffenUndBier for the Stoners, and really almost anybody here for the AR-15s would all be tremendously helpful.

For each weapon, I’m writing a “history” section and then a section about the specific weapon in their collection.  I am writing based on my own understanding and knowledge about how and why things happened, and thus, small details could be wrong because I was not there which you guys might be able to fix lol.

Please let me know if you gentlemen would be interested in reviewing my work. It might even be better to have some of you guys write parts for the weapons I am less familiar with. Thanks all.

I would absolutely be willing to help.

Great! Could you write up the two sections and I’ll splice that together what I have to say? I’ll cite you, if you want the credit for it.

IM coming your way...

I would  be pleased to assist in creating a nice description for AR10 serial number 6966.  I have actually wondered where that particular gun had ended up.  It was in a shipment of 5 scoped AR10s shipped to Interarms (Alexandria, VA) in August of 1961.  The sad thing about this particular gun is that it is without the Delft scope that was mated to it at the factory.  Delft scope serial number 1018 was offered on gunbroker in 2011 attached to a kit built semi-auto, (Porto 8241).  The scope was in pristine shape but the kit built AR10 was so-so.  The scope was eventually purchased by an anonymous buyer.

Interarms paid AI $163 for the rifle, which included the scope, web sling, and one magazine.  The shipment included extra mags at $2.60, mag loaders at $1, and bayonets at $6.50.

The lack of serial number on Portuguese AR10 lowers is an issue that is not spoken of.  For those that own these nice C&R MGs it would be a horrific thought to have men in suits show up with their electro-pencil.  Tool room AR18 MGs had the exact same problem.

Wow, that is a lot of good info. Could you get that written up and send your sources/documentation on that as well?

There is much that can not be known about the gun without closeup photos.  For example:
1) version of the lower receiver in terms of engraving and reinforcement
2) version of the barrel (need proof marks)
3) version of the carrier (need photo of where charging handle engages the carrier
4) buttstock version, need photo of the butt end with the pad removed
5) heat shield version, need photo of heat shield when removed from gun.

I would donate a correct NOS sling for this gun along with some other accessories depending on what I have in NOS condition.

What I posted on imgur is what I have photos of, but Les might be willing to get it out and have pictures taken.

Artillerie Inrichtingen AR-10 SN 6966

I'm in to help with the AR-18!

Sounds like fun.

No need for more photos of the AR10.

Fantastic. I’ll IM you.

Awesome.

Sent you an email. Thanks!

Also, for all those helping me with the report. Shoot me an IM or email with your name and a short bio if you want to be cited. You could also just put it at the end of your piece for me. Thanks!