Colt ACR
This week The Armourer’s Bench brings you the last in our series on the US Army's Advanced Combat Rifle Program. Vic takes a look at Colt's entry into the program - very much a product improved M16.
The Colt ACR was the most conventional of the four entries into the ACR program. However, it did have a number of interesting features which set it apart from the M16. It used duplex ammunition with two projectiles, had a recoil mitigating muzzle device and a hydraulic buffer to make the weapon more controllable under fully automatic fire.
While the ACR program proved a failure it pushed the bounds of small arms technology. In the case of the Colt entry the flat-top upper receiver would be used on later M16s and M4s and the Elcan sight used would be adopted for use with the M240 and M249.
You can read my full in-depth article on the Colt ACR over on the TAB website here.
Hey guys, I’ve just posted this month’s Patreon supporter wallpaper featuring the Steyr entry into the US Army's 1980s Advanced Combat Rifle program. You can download the high resolution version over on the Historical Firearms’ Patreon here.
The wallpaper includes one of my photos of the Steyr ACR, you can view more photos of the rifle here. I've gathered together diagrams from the half a dozen patents which protected Steyr's ACR entry.
The Steyr was arguably the best of the unconventional designs entered into the ACR program. It used a rising chamber which alleviated overheating and interestingly it fired from an open bolt.
You can read more about it and watch a TAB video on the rifle here
As always thanks for supporting the site and reading the blog! If you can’t support the site via Patreon sharing the blog and articles with people who might enjoy it really helps too. I count myself very lucky to have a community of readers, I really appreciate it!
~Matt
Advanced Combat Rifle
This week's The Armourer's Bench video is now up and it looks at 4 extremely rare rifles from the US Army’s 1980s Advanced Combat Rifle program.
My friend Vic takes a look at the rifle in the video, embedded below, and I have put together two in-depth articles examining the context and history of the ACR program. This is the first of a series of three videos on the ACR program and we start with AAI's elegant flechette-firing entry.
To accompany the videos I have written an in-depth article on the history of the ACR program, illustrated with hi-res photos I took of the rifles as well as diagrams from US Army reports. I think this might be one of the most detailed articles on the program currently online. The article will serve as the master post for the ACR video series. You can read that here!
I have also written a standalone blog to accompany the first video, it focuses on the AAI ACR and includes hi-res photos of the rifle and a full history of its design and development. You can check that out here!
I’m really excited about these videos and articles, Vic and I put a lot of work into them so it’s great to finally share them. Thanks for watching and reading guys, I really appreciate it.
I’m very excited to share the first Armourer’s Bench video looking at the legendary German HK G11. This introductory video is a primer for both future in-depth videos looking at the G11′s incredibly complex action and discussing its history in greater depth but also looking at weapons of the US Army’s Advanced Combat Rifle program.
Check out the video, in which my colleague Vic looks at not one G11, but two and also read my full accompanying article which gives a fairly in-depth introduction to the G11′s design, development and history.