well it took awhile but i finally found one. got it from a
nice gentleman in south fl who kindly included a
22lr conversion kit and several extra mags that hadn't been
mentioned in the ad for the gun. nfa branch has cashed my
check and now the long, long wait begins again.
sawman, no i didn't get to shoot it. but i did talk to a local to the gun
class III and smith that knew the gun and the seller. they looked at the
gun for me and said it was in very good condition and also mentioned that
they knew the seller and that he was a standup guy. and so far that's been
the case.
it's always gonna be a little scary sending a lot of $ to someone you
don't really know. that's the NFA world for ya.
Your above sounds good. Would definately ease up some apprehension.
Those are great guns. Well designed and there were several versions of the gun.
I had a buddy that retired a couple of years before me. He got a job working for the Dept. of Energy,and his team had some AC556's in their arsenal. --- SAWMAN
in researching this gun i was continually amazed at how many
different gov't and law enforcement agencies, prisons etc
used these guns in their various configurations.
right now, because some parts that are specific to the
ac556 are made of unobtanium, i'm hoping to find a parts kit.
a lot of these come on the market after an agency switches over
to something else like MP5's or M4's. the receiver gets cut up
and the rest of the parts are available for resale.
btw, didn't the dept of energy have some unusual M16's
converted by colt to 9mm? very spendy in today's market
My buddy worked the SST (Super Safe Transport) Program. Long since,mostly declassified,it was a fleet of tractor trailers (18 wheelers) that were heavily armored and defended by escourt vechicles,with a team or teams of men,armed to the teeth. They carried anything from pistols to LAW Rockets,and everything in between.
At one point I went to Tennessee to visit him and he showed me two of the AC556's that he had in his custody. IIRC they looked a little different than the one on the above picture. Maybe . . ? . . more stainless to the stock.
The transport story is very interesting. ESPECIALLY how the main 18 wheelers were configured as were the large vans and Chevy Suburban's.
Again . . . congratz on the accusation of a true icon. --- SAWMAN
And - - -> The Dept. of Energy and Dept. of Transportation brought some guns out of "retirement" in the mid 80's. Most were the Colt Mod. 609 and 610's. Also some GAU-5/A's.
Along with this came the "rumor" that some heavy for caliber,AP type ammo,had been developed,tested,and deployed for the above guns and most likely the AC556's that were deployed with the "outlying agencies". Most likely these guns were used also by the guards of the nuclear power plants and the Federal Marshals that move/transfer dangerous prisioners by air or motorcade.
At one point in my career,I talked to a guy that was directly involved in the safety and storage of the governments small arms. He told me that "you would be surprised" at the number of the older guns like BAR's that were stored for future use,expiermentation,and/or retrofitting.
I distinctly remembering that I would really like to take a peek into those storage spaces. --- SAWMAN
holy crap! i wonder what those convoys were hauling. something really
scary no doubt.
some the agencies had ac556's with the GB (government/bayonet?) barrel
which came could come as a folder with a bayonet mount and a carbine
length barrel. and in stainless!
i wish more of those guns in storage in various gov't agencies
had made it into the transferable registry. maybe these toys
would be a little less expensive.
i see from your signature you have an XM177E2, that's got
be a rare bird.
that's a good lookin' weapon. i was shown an xm177e2 once and was told
that it was a double stamper because ATF considered the "moderator" to be
a suppressor.