tHE sTORY

Soldier of The 101st Airborne Division with his M16A1

Operation “Cook” September 8th 1967

Quang Ngai Province - Republic of Vietnam

President John F. Kennedy

Inspects an M16 in the Oval Office April 19th 1963

Washington D.C. - United States

Why build one?

Well first of all, cost. An actual M16 can cost a pretty penny. Ente built his for less than $950USD with new & reproduction parts.

(Tools not included in that price.)

Second, Ente has been an Automotive Mechanic, Electronic Service Technician, loves to work with his hands and learn new things.

How did he do it?

After some research it turns out the M16, official military designation: “Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16” was adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 that was initially developed in 1956. That bit of information led into a rabbit hole on AR-Pattern rifles and how ArmaLite developed the AR Platform and Colt took over the military contract to produce M16s. ArmaLite sold the AR-15 design and the AR-15 trademark along with the ArmaLite AR-10 to Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1959. Colt started selling the semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle as the Colt AR-15 in 1964 to civillians, since then over 2 Million Colt AR-15s have been sold. After Colt's patents expired in 1977, other manufacturers began to copy the design of the Colt AR-15. The term "AR-15" is a Colt registered trademark which it uses only to refer to its line of semi-automatic rifles. Other manufacturers market generic AR-15s under other designations, but are frequently referred to as AR-15s. It is estimated over 22 million AR-15s have been sold.

Alright brief history lesson over.

So after learning that the M16 is in reality an AR-15 by a different name it was an exciting development for building his own. After some looking around and doing research on the weapons system it turns out that there are a few manufacturers that still make “Retro AR” parts. Most commonly today AR-15s have flat top receivers or M16A4/M4A1 style profiles. The integrated carry handle was replaced with a picatinny rail that allows for optional carry handle or most frequently the use of optics such as EOTech, LPVO, etc.

Ente started to do some research into where to find ‘A1’ style parts, the most important to the “accuracy” of the build was the upper receiver. He wanted an A1 upper receiver without the brass deflector with the ‘tear drop’ forward assist. There are A1 style uppers produced with brass deflectors often referred to as ‘C7’ upper receivers referencing the Canadian military’s adoption of the Colt/Armalite AR-15 platform, called the ‘C7 Rifle’ and features the A1 receiver with brass deflector.

Ente went to RangeTool and purchased an M16A1 Complete Upper Receiver and went to Palmetto State Armory and purchased a Harrington & Richardson M16A1 Pencil Barrel. He also got a PSA Stealth Lower Receiver and Rifle legnth gas tube. He went to KAK and purchased a Lower Parts Kit. Ente got the AS Designs ARC-Fire Forced Reset Trigger and He also picked up a Luth-AR Buffer Tube Assembly. Ente went to Linemount for the furniture, he got the M16A1 Handguard, Pistol Grip and Type D Stock & Screw.

Ente knew the M16A1 came orignally with a 20 round magazine so he went to Duramag and ordered their 20 Round Magazine. Of course he got plenty of standard issue 30 round magazines for range days and training but wanted the original look with the 20 round mag for display purpose.

After it was completed he used headspace gauges to check the chamber clearance to ensure the rifle was safe to operate.

Accessories

After sourcing all the rifle build parts Ente wanted some accesories and after a little searching found a Surplus NOS(New Old Stock) M7 Bayonet to install on the barrel for display purposes. Ente also found a Ontario Knife Company leather scabbard for the bayonet since he likes leather holsters & sheaths over plastic. (He originally sourced an M8A1 Scabbard.) Ente also got the USGI Buttstock cleaning kit to store in the stock and a pistol grip plug to store a small bottle of CLP. Ente went to Viking Tactics and purchased a Top Sling Buttstock adapter in OD Green then He went to Ebay and purchased an M1 Seatbelt Sling in OD Green to use while carrying the rifle during training drills.

After a few months of research, careful planning, sourcing parts and tools, the build was finished.

Did we mention this is the first rifle Ente’s built?

“Building a gun is a lot easier than building an Engine.”

-Ente, February 18, 2025

A list of parts and tools used can be found below. For those who want to build their own M16A1.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

-Ente & Maltz

Founders of Functional Reserve Militia