i am reposting this from general discussion since i know a lot of us dont venture out there too much, so anyways........

I  have a friend with a huge military m16 (a1?) demonstration prop used for training troops. I have never seen one of these before, but its complete with bipod and stand and its in the wooden case. Sorry for the crappy pics. Its in great condition and appears to be made in the 1960's or early 1970's. It actually says it is serial # 12. The barrel is metal and the handguards and stock are plastic. It cycles and has ammo and a detachable mag. It is over 4 feet long when assembled. The ammo is roughly the size of a 50 cal round, for scale, see pics. I have seen garands and 1919 Browning large training cutaways, but never an M16. Any one know how rare or desireable it may be? He said he would sell it to me but I dont know what to offer, or what its value may be???????

Don't know what it's worth, but that brings back memories!

There was one on display at Old Sarge Army Surplus back in the 70's/80's.

they had some of those on Pawn Stars a few episodes ago, don't remember what they were worth

I would love to have this!

Finally a rifle for "Big John" over at ADVOUT.

I believe they had one of these at Knight's Armament's museum too.

I just want to assemble it and run through the L5P square carrying it and yelling "They drew first blood, not me!"

I have no idea why this stuff pops in my head but it sure does sound fun

Yeah they had 2 on pawn stars yesterday. I think the guy offered the guy 2.5k for both and he didn't take it. I think he wanted 10k originally but would settle for 5k. They never got on the same page and rick didn't get them. Very cool I would love to have that one or the 1919 that was on tv.


here is the vid, cool story with them too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5pOr3nZ1ug&feature=related

Wow!  I'm surprised more things like this don't exist for training considering how many rifles have been made and issued.  Something like that would have certainly helped me on my first build.

It's available within the military supply system, GT Army ROTC had one in the early '90's, probably still does.  As you can see from the pictures, they were of an M16A1, not sure if they came up with an A2 or M4 version, but since they're probably primarily used by training units, I imagine economies of scale are such that they cost a fair bit.  In fact, according to this article, they were only made by one company, and spare parts tended to be an issue.



 

There used to be a cutaway M16A2 for sale on the market boards. I don't remember how much or how many were made, but it was a MG. Had NFA stamp and all. Every major component  had the sides machined away so you could examine the function, but just small enough that it would actually run. It was obviously a training aid.


ETA: Here is an M16, fairly rare.

The M16 shown in the link will fire? If you replaced the upper with a regular upper, the gun will work as a FA?
Amazing!

With the exception of the milled out chamber, bore, and gas block/tube, I don't see why not. Seems like everything would be weaker, but with a normal upper should run. If you look close, all the milling really exposes is a small view. All pins and springs still seem captive and able to operate without parts flying out.

Don't think I want to test it though.