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Posted: 5/12/2013 7:10:22 PM EDT
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Tony
I have a M16 marked the following: Over trigger Colt's Firearms Division Colt's Industries Hartford, Conn. U.S.A Left side of magwell Property Of U.S. Govt. M16A1 Cal. 5.56mm 5350882 Any idea on when this gun was made? Came in standard a1 configuration. Foia report shows it being bought by a dealer along with 25-30 others in early 90's from DOE. I also had it x-rayed when I bought it and it is not a reweld. Thanks in advance for you help. If you need pictures for your research let me know. |
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Quoted:
Any idea on when this gun was made? Foia report shows it being bought by a dealer along with 25-30 others in early 90's from DOE. The FOIA on my non-colt M16, I received the redacted Form 2 that was filled out by the SOT Manufacture and has the date on it, so that was the day it became a MG. I'm curious to wanting to know why you didn't get a redacted Form 2 with your FOIA request. THE FOLLOWING IS MY GUESS: And someone else will come along and say for sure if I was right or wrong because I don't know. Maybe US Government sold MG's are not put on Form 2's? |
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Quoted:
THE FOLLOWING IS MY GUESS: And someone else will come along and say for sure if I was right or wrong because I don't know. Maybe US Government sold MG's are not put on Form 2's? You are mostly correct. Form 2's are not required (and thus not filed) for MGs built for military contracts, because those guns are not required to be entered into the NFA Registry. All of these guns also are required to be marked "U.S. Property." However, MGs built for contract to all other (non-military) federal and state agencies do require Form 2's, and thus they are in the NFA Registry from Day One. None of these are supposed to be marked "U.S. Property." The Department of Energy is a special case: To better provide security for nuclear materials, DOE was "issued" quite a few military-contract M16s from Department of Defense inventories. In addition, DOE also did their own contracts with Colt. The result is that DOE had a mix of Colt M16s -- some with U.S. Property markings which were not listed in the NFA Registry, and others without U.S. markings which were indeed in the Registry. All had a common mix of DOE markings as well. When DOE decided to upgrade to new gear, they traded some of their M16s to FFL/SOTs, and sent off Form 5's to NFA Branch. Much to NFA Branch's surprise, some of them were not in the Registry. But the forms were from the Department of Energy, so they just added the SNs to the Registry and approved the F5's for all of them. Today, that could not happen: Any existing MG which is not already in the NFA Registry may only be added via a Form 10, which restricts future ownership to .gov and LE (even SOTs cannot possess them). So these came into transferable heaven via a brief window of opportunity. As far as when the OP's Colt was made .... it is tough to date military-contract M16's. What I know of the 5-mil series is in the SN thread, here: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_23/199902_Serial_number_info_on_Colt_factory_M16s_UPDATED_5_12_2013_.html You also might ask over in the retro forum. 
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| And to add to, not contradict, tony_k's narrative - no machinegun intended for the federal government is required to be on the NFA registry. In practice, all other agencies except the military tended to go through commercial channels for procurement, instead of direct large contract awards. As a result, those guns were mostly registered by their manufacturers on F2, even though they eventually ended up going to an entity of the federal government. |
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