You should never say ‘first’ because you’ll probably be wrong, but it gets the people going. It’s initially incorrect even in that the exact gas tube length isn’t the same as the modern interpretation (at least from what I’ve read).
I went down a rabbit hole at the weekend, and re-reading the wiki page entitled CAR-15, I came across mention of this specific prototype under the 605 section – the 605 being what most people will probably know as the original ‘dissipator’:
Before this, the first ever shortened AR-15s (below 20″) were reportedly some M16A1/E1s straight chopped at the FSP giving a 15″ barrel. They opened the ports but of course those weren’t known to be great on the reliability front.
Then supposedly the pictured config was the next iteration of the 605 prototypes, but there isn’t a photo on Wikipedia just a text description. That sent me a little crazy, so I checked the wiki’s references for said paragraph, which lists the book “The Black Rifle, M16 Retrospective” by an Ed Ezell.
Even if I was inclined to spend thousands, I don’t have the storage space necessary for a collection of the physical print media that is required to accumulate a *serious* quantity of super deep firearms knowledge. But after a solid googling, I found that the book in question actually is available in PDF form. One of very few such examples.
It’s about 400 pages and at first I mistakenly passed by this image while searching for it, as it doesn’t have a prominent place within the book by any means. I mistook it for a normal A1 in my own haste. But the title photo is in fact a 16″ barrel rather than 20, with custom shortened gas tube and relocated FSP, along with handguards chopped at the back and an extra retainer plate added.
No idea why they didn’t continue developing this as in theory it could have been pretty great, but maybe it also wasn’t reliable or deemed still not short enough, hence the infamous 607 came along slightly later.
Personally I’ve never seen this exact prototype before the digging I did 3 days ago. Which I find odd, so it seemed worth posting.
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