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Posted: 5/13/2008 5:47:01 AM EDT
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Can someone please give me some background on what exactly a SP1 is? It is obviously not just a civilian version of a 601 or 602 because they appear to have been made up into the 1980's and come with A1 and A2 flashhiders and all sorts of other things. I know that they were still made long after the forward assist was standard on other models. Why? I have a book at home called the "AR15/M16 Sourcebook" and I can't fine a word in it about the SP1. I just want to be informed. What is it? Why was it made? I'm trying to build my "retro" knowledge and this SP1 thing confuses me. Sorry for the stupid question. roadstar |
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I'm sure that others will chime in with better details as mine are a bit fuzzy. I don't know the exact year that the SP1 was introduced but early on they came with a manual that called the rifle the Comanche. I've seen one or two manuals marked this way. The SP1 was introduced to the civilian market to fill the desire to have a firearm similar to the one being issued to the armed forces at that time in history. Just as companies offer M4's now, Colt offered the SP1 back then. Many companies have offered semi auto versions of their select fire assault rifles for years due to the difficulty with the National Firearms Act. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to own a fully automatic weapon in the US. Up until 1986 it was legal to register and convert a semi auto to full auto. Only a few, like the Colt M16 variants, were able to be factory produced and sold to American civilians. If you wanted a full auto AK47, Galil, Valmet, AUG, FNC, or anything else foreign made it had to be converted from a semi auto. Anyway, the SP1 was made all the way up until the AR15A2 Sporter II was introduced in the mid 1980's. The SP1 went through a lot of changes as did the military's M16. Many of the changes mirrored the military's. Some changes included flash hiders, buffers, bolt carriers, and small parts like pins and fire control components. None of the SP1's had a forward assist. The forward assist was finally introduced on the Sporter II. At that time Colt upgraded the SP1 with some A2 specs including A2 furniture and a new A2 barrel with the 1/7 twist instead of the old 1/12 twist. Colt continued to add changes to the Sporter II including A2 sights. Things really started getting weird around 1994 when the Assault Weapons Ban was introduced. At this time Colt started experimenting with things like sear blocks, larger hammer and trigger pins, changing from a large front pin to a small front pin, and adding a fence to the lower receiver. There are a lot of transitional models from this era that have a mix of these features. The SP1 was also made by two different Colt companies. The first was Colt's Patent Firearms Mfg. Co. and the second was Colt's Firearms Division Colt Industries. |
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Don't sell Colt short, they started to get weird in the late 80s after the Stocton, CA schoolyard shooting. The blue label (box color) came out in 1989 with the sear block, no bayo lug, c shaped carrier, large pins etc.. AFAIK, SP stands for sporter, although the rifle was originally desinated "Commanche". |
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The SP1 was the AR that all the "other" ARs aspired to be in the early days. Nowadays, since the patents have expired, everybody makes good ARs. All the cast crap, and junky internals have fallen by the wayside. If you don't have quality stuff, you won't stay in buisness. Therefore, (I like that word!) any SP1 is a good buy and NOT a candidate for "building". G.I. uppers and G.I. spec lowers are so plentiful that all remaining SP1s should stay in original SP1 configuration!!! Tha's jes' Beel  roadstar, not a stupid question, SP1 was what Colt called the rifle that they sold us civilians. For some reason, they couldn't call it AR15, and for obvious reasons they couldn't call it M16, so they settled on SP1. Experts please feel free to chime in with corrections!!!
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I stand corrected. Thank you sir, may I have another?!  |
No they didn't. The SP1 came only in one of two ways, as a full rifle and as a 16" barrelled carbine. They were all flat side uppers, and flat side lowers, used a 5/32 diameter screw at the front hinge. Earliest pieces had smoothside bolt carriers, some of the earliest chromed, and three prong flash suppressors. When the birdcage suppressor was adopted, the SP1s got them also; along w/notched bolt carriers. The A2 suppressor was never used. The above were the only variations in the SP1 series. Any other changes showed up in later models. |
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