Colt AR-15

Colt AR-15

Colt AR-15 Rifles is a lightweight, magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic rifle. The “AR” stands for the first two letters of ArmaLite. It was designed with the extensive use of aluminum alloys and synthetic materials in order to reduce weight.  Colt’s Manufacturing Company currently uses the AR-15 trademark for its line of semi-automatic AR-15 rifles.

Due to financial problems, and limitations in terms of manpower and production capacity, 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.The first mass production version was the Colt AR-15 Sporter, in .223 Remington, with a 20-inch barrel and issued with 5-round magazines. Over the decades, Colt has made many different types of AR-15 rifle and carbine models, including the AR-15, AR-15A2, AR-15A3, AR-15A4, and many other models.