Hey guys! Thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com
I'm Ian McCollum and I'm here today at the Rock Island Auction Company where we are taking a look at...
Someone's one-of-a-kind unique home gunsmithing creation.
According to the markings on this, this is an XR-86, serial number - 0001.
This is a rifle that was manufactured... Created, really, by a guy named Wilfred Ellis.
He was a master gunsmith in Pennsylvania.
He created this in 1986 (as the designation impies) and in doing so put together...
Well bits of... We have an M60 bit. We have an M14 gas system. We have an AR-15 trigger system
(Although it's been rotated 90 degrees)
And we have an AR-15 bolt and a locking system.
So, was there a specific reason to put this together?
Well, probably not.
This looks to me like the, sort of, thing that's there, because, well, you know,
It looks like a fun project and... Why not give something like this a try?
So why don't I go ahead and show you what he put together and how he made it an AR-15 bolt with an M14 gas system?
So, we'll do a little parts breakdown here, starting at the muzzle:
This is the muzzle device - the flash hider from an M60.
Moving forward from there, we have a gas block... Gas system from an M14.
So, this has been slid over the barrel and then *this* block has been added in front to hold it in place.
You can see the threads *there*.
So, to take this off you would take out the gas plug, then you'd unscrew this block and then you could slide the whole gas block off the barrel.
Looking on the underside, we have what is basically the operating rod here.
This connects to the M14 gas piston, because when you fire...
There we go... On the M14,
There is this little self-contained short-stroke piston that's going to come out *here* and it's going to push this operating rod back.
Unfortunately, I would have to remove the entire gas system to take off this handguard,
But you can just barely see through the slots
The rest of the operating rod working, and there's a lot of mass on it,
Which, I suspect, was added there to give it enough dwell time - basically, to slow the opening of the bolt enough for the bullet to get out the barrel.
So, if you look through right here,
You can see that block moving and there is a weld, that you can see right down in there -
And that is where he basically has a round block over the barrel with a little extra thing welded to the side of it.
So, we'll get to that extra thing in just a moment.
Moving on to the action, we have an AR-15 - an EARLY AR-15 - grip without the little finger rest.
A trigger here, which, I believe, is the trigger from a double-action 1911 conversion.
Because he didn't need the AR-15 trigger there, he cut off the AR-15 trigger and used it as the charging handle here, on the side.
There is a little cutout there - and right there you can see the cam pin for the AR-15 bolt.
So, that's going to rotate in and out of position when the bolt locks.
On this side we have a magazine well.
As you can see, two layers of metal are folded across here, at the front, to seal it off.
There's a magazine catch here, on the side, and this takes standard AR-15 magazines.
Like so. There's a 20 rounder that's in the gun right now.
There are his markings on it. Caliber - 5.56 mm. He called this a Fort Ellis.
(The guy's name was Ellis, so, I guess, that makes sense)
He resided or worked in Abington, PA, and I don't think it's actually necessary to mark the gun with the date of manufacture,
But he did it, there, which is, kind of, neat. And then - the designation: XR-86, serial number - one.
There are no iron sights. Instead, there are just these two pillars with a piece of Picatinny rail on top.
So, if you wanted to use this, you could mount whatever sort of optic you want in.
The buttstock is just a standard early AR-15 buttstock, and he has accommodated it down here with a little metal tab that holds it in place.
However, there's actually nothing holding this guy on, and I can just slide it off the back of the receiver tube.
Fire control parts are located inside, here, on the side of the gun, and that's held in place by this spring-loaded tab and this pin up here.
Put that down...
If I just pull this back, I can then pivot this whole thing open. When it's all the way open, I can slide it off like that.
That allows us to see the inside of the receiver.
First, however, we'll take a look at this guy.
We have an AR-15 fire control group down inside here.
So, works just like a standard AR-15, because he has also rotated the bolt assembly around 90 degrees to match.
The only difference is there should be a trigger coming out here
(Obviously, there's not), so he has adapted it to work with this trigger and he did that
By welding this lever onto the side of this piece (which would normally be the trigger).
So, now, when this goes back, this little piece goes forward, which pushes that lever forward, which pivots the original trigger and fires the gun.
(It is, of course, semi-auto)
Now, inside the receiver tube, we have an AR-15 bolt here and we actually have an AR-15 buffer and spring.
(The spring lives down in this tube)
You can see a rod down in the bottom there. I can actually take the bolt out by pushing it backwards.
(Easiest way to do that is going to do that with the plastic punch)
I push that backwards - then I can lift this up and out and then gently let the recoil spring forward...
So, there is our AR-15 bolt carrier assembly.
The gas tube up here has been filled in - this is no longer...
This is just acting... Basically, acting like a piston-operated AR, which this, actually, sort of, is, if you look at it that way.
Pull out our buffer and spring...
Set those aside and then...
We have the charging handle,
Which used to be a trigger.
(Just comes out like that)
So, he's got the trigger mounted onto this piece of steel,
Which has a hole all the way through it. That hole is for this operating rod.
That rod is connected to the operating rod here,
Which comes all the way back to there, so, when the gun is actually assembled together,
The charging handle is nested over this rod and it's got a lug here that's going to engage on the bolt like this:
It's going to slide on there and then the pointed end of that rod (right there) nests into the gas key here.
So, when this cycles backward, it's going to push the bolt backward.
This means you have a non-reciprocating charging handle, because it just slides on that rod, so it can stay forward and,
When you pull it back, it allows you to manually cycle the bolt back.
There's that rod at full extension.
And this guy...
Slide that in there...
Slide it over - just like that.
There's an AR-15 trunnion here, which matches up with the AR-15 rotating bolt.
And then he has gone ahead and used an AR-15 handguard ring with these little serrations in it
To properly locate this NOW operating rod, which is protected under this shroud which also acts as the carrying area for the charging handle.
So, there's nothing historic about this. This isn't related to any military trials.
This was quite literally one home gunsmith's project - something that looked like a fun idea and something cool to play with.
Apparently, he put about 900 rounds through this before he suffered any sort of malfunction,
And at that point, the one malfunction that he did have was a case head separation,
Which could be related to the gun or it could just be bad ammunition.
I don't know what he was shooting through it, but separated case heads do occasionally happen.
So, it's definitely a neat concept thing and, perhaps, some inspiration from... For some of YOU,
Home gunsmiths out there, who are looking for a funky weird cool project to put together yourselves.
If you would like to own *this* one specifically and bypass all the work of having copying yourself,
It is a legally transferable gun:
It's semi-auto and it's got all the markings that would be necessary to be transferred through an FFL, etc, etc, etc...
And it is, of cours,e coming up for sale at the Rock Island auction house.
So, if you take a look at the description text below, you'll find a link to ForgottenWeapons.com
From there you can click on over to Rock Island's catalog page,
Take a look at their pictures and description and their price estimate on this - all that sort of good stuff.
And if you decide to bid on it...
Best of luck!
Thanks for watching!