Can anyone tell me who manufactured this barrel?  I tried looking on Bigghammer and could not find these markings.

Thanks

Are you sure it's not a "[b]B[/b]" (Bushmaster)?

It is "P".  Any ideas?

Thanks

I'm only guessing here because I don't know if these companies made barrels but what about PWA or Professional Ordinance?  Could one of these two made it???

Edited to add: Did you try IMing or emailing Troy to see if he knows?

Great, thanks again Troy.

M4it

Sheesh, what doesn't Troy know?  What an asset to the site.

But the rest of us would need at least two of those somethings for everything we don't know.  

It's not an Elisco Tool barrel. Elisco Tool never made any barrels in 1/7. The last contract they had with the Philippine Govt. were M16A1 rifles and carbines with 1/12 barrels.

The P marked barrels and uppers were made by SACO as spare/replacement parts for NG/Reserve M16A1's. Some units were issued M16A2 replacement parts to update their M16A1's while other units received M16A1 parts. Some of the PM marked uppers were sold by Olympic arms and PWA in their parts kits back in the mid 1980's

The M16A2 wasn't even released for issue until 1985 so any spare parts would have come out in the mid 90's at the earliest.

While we are talking barrel markings, I have one that is marked E MP 5.56 NATO 1/7.  Someone once told me this is Canadian, but I have never seen any other references.

Diemaco's marking is a funky triangle. Not E.  

I've got a couple SAK MP 1/12 M16A1 replacement barrels.  Early 90's Israeli spares contract.

How does it shoot? Someone here warned us of E MP barrels being trashed by the military because of bad chambers causing high rates of failure.

It shoots very well.  Admittedly, I've only zeroed it and shot off 60 rounds tops.

I believe it was purchased thru DPMS maybe 5 years ago.  Don't really remember.

So who makes this barrel???

EMCO. Check out [url=http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=12&t=158033]this link[/url].

Never seen one marked P MP, hopefully we can figure out who may have made these things.

Jetlag, thanks for posting a link to my original E barrel post. If I hung out here more, I might learn how to do it myself one day.

FALbert, I hope you got one of the good ones, just inspect the chamber carefully. But if it doesn't experience any Failures To Extract (FTE) after it warms up, you'll be O.K.

Colt-653, Not a flame,just trying to figure out your comment about A2 uppers being issued to the NG/Reserves to convert their own A1's ? In all my years in the system, I've never heard of this. Usually, only Depots (Anniston) convert rifles as the lowers are remarked/overstamped with an A2 and refinished during the process and the serial numbers are entered against the correct NSN/Lin number in the Army inventory.

Circuts, I've seen SAK A1 barrels in use as early as the late 70's to mid 80's on Depot rebuilt A1's.

Please don't take the above comments as argumentitive disputes of your individual findings. Just things I've wittnessed over the years.

Wpns Man

Certain units received PIP kits to update their M16A1's in house.  The Airforce sent most of their M16's to CAPCO in Grand Junction, CO for this update.  Depends on the size and function of the unit(Read SF units didn't convert to Burst.... kept their A1's as M16A3's)

Barrels marked P MP were made by SACO Maremont as part of the M16A1-M16A2 PIP program starting in 1988. SACO was the prime contractor for replacement parts for the M16 . Starting in the early 1970's SACO produced M16A1 spare parts kits which consisted of LM(Martin Marietta)  marked A1 uppers with SAK(SACO) marked 1/12 20" barrels.  

When SACO was having problems in the late 1980's FN USA was contracted to produced a small run of replacement M16A1 parts for the USANG. The A1 uppers they used for the contract had the brass deflector found on the M16A2. Some of the lightweight A1 style barrels were also produce in 1/7. CMMG has some of the FN barrels available.  

The E MP barrels were made for Eagle Arms(Armalite) by SACO back in the late 1980's early 1990's. Quite a few were also used in the PIP kits that were used to update M16A1's during that time period.

E barrels were not produced by SACO, but by EMCO. Please see the link to my original post on the subject that Jetlag was kind enough to post. I have been intimately involved in this for the last couple of years and acertained my facts on the manufacture directly from Rock Island. Don't know about the P MP barrels but all the E MP marked ones were only used at Anniston to upgrade A1's to A2's. None were issued to Field Maintenance Units to convert, let alone Organizational (owning units) to accomplish. It is always possible that EMCO "may" have sold some contract over runs to Eagle Arms near the end of their contract, as the time frames are close.

I'll try to see if Rock Island can/will provide me with any info concerning P MP barrels if possible.

Wpns Man

SACO Maremont/SACO DEFENSE INC(FORMERLY MAREMONT CORP) and Continental Machine Tool Company were two of the major contractors for spare parts for the M16 system and produced 70% of the major spare parts. Not sure if EMCO actual made the barrels or purchased them and sold them for SACO.

Eagle arms not only purchased barrels for civilian sales from SACO but also provide complete M16A2 PIP Kits to at least several California based Army and Air National Guard units. Colt like wise has contracted with both of the above companies for the majority of their parts at.


CAPCO, who has the current USAF contract, does not make any of the PIP kit parts, they simply update M16's to A2 status at their Grand Junction, CO location using parts they out source.

PIP kit info:

http://afsf.lackland.af.mil/Organization/AFSFC/SFW/org_afsfc_sfwc_news1.htm

http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/pubfiles/913aw/23/913awi23-211/913awi23-211.pdf

COLT's 1998 contract:10 -- M16A1 RIFLE MODIFICATION KITS, NSN: 1005-01-234-2252 POC Contract Specialist: Teresa Stottlemyre, (309) 782-4626, Contracting Officer: Milton E. Wynn, III, Major, USA, (309) 782-3387 CNT DAAE20-98-C-0113 AMT $18,148,960.00 DTD 062698 TO Colt's Manufacturing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 1868, W. Hartford, CT 06144-1868 Posted 06/26/98 (0177)

http://www.fbodaily.com/cbd/archive/1998/06(June)/30-Jun-1998/10awd001.htm





Kit, Mod, M16 (Rifles and Carbine Team, AMSTA-LC-CSIR). This modification kit converts a M16A1 Rifle to the M16A2 Rifle configuration. The improvements include: strengthened plastic handguard, rifle stock, and pistol grip to increase durability of the weapon, interchangeable handguard halves, muzzle brake compensator which reduces the raise or jump of the muzzle when fired, a burst control device limiting the automatic fire to a maximum of three rounds per trigger pull, and adjustable rear sight and square front sight post for a more distinct sight picture, a brass deflector to prevent hot brass cartridge casings from hitting left-handed shooters, and a stronger barrel reinforced with additional metal and a change in the twist ratio of the bore to accommodate NATO standard 5.56mm ammunition. http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/csi/satoc.htm

I have a list some where of the NSN and CAGE codes for the kits. Known manufacturer of the Kits are FN, Colt, SACO. I've also seen Eagle Arms marked kits in the hands of Airforce units....not sure if these were purchased with private funds or as kits. I've heard rumor Eagle Arms produced/sold the M16A2 kits for a  short period of time.  

The kits consist of a Complete M16A2 upper, A2 buttstock, A2 psitol grip and a 3rd burst lower parts kit.  The kits come in a brown or white shipping container. Some of the kits include a green follower 30rd magazine depending on manufacture(ie FN).

M16 parts and accessories are often not manufactured by the company selling the product. Colt only produced about 20 of the parts they used to build the M16. Alcoa( http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/home.asp and Continental Machine Tool http://www.continentalmachinetool.com/ were and still are the primary manufacturer of the majority of all civilian and Military AR15/M16 parts. SACO was also a prime contractor up and until the mid 1990's. I'm not sure if EMCO was/is a maker of M16 parts or simply marketed them for another company like CAPCO does with the USAF contract.

Colt-653

Good information, thanks. In my reasearching of the E (EMCO) barrel SNAFU that is currently on going. I found out that EMCO is no longer in business. Their contract was in the late 80's time frame. Don't know the exact date yet as I haven't gotten my hands on a copy of the actual contract. I do know that all of these kits were used for conversions at Anniston starting in the early 90's and ending in '95. All rifles so converted, approximately 90,000 plus,were issued by the end of '96.

Wpns Man