Ultra-Rare Colt AR-15 Survival Rifle, with firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson 

My Grandpa Cpt. John W Miser was one of the youngest B17 captains, his B17 was named "FiFi" and was in the 8th Air Force as part of The Army Air Corps. He said during the war at some point they made all the air crew men switch out their 1911 pistols for M1 Carbines W/ the "Para" style folding stock. He said he hated it because they were supposed to carry the M1 Carbine is a pistol type holster while the plane was in the air. He explained that it was very awkward and uncomfortable and would get caught on random shit in the B17 all the time. Luckily when they were supposed to turn in their 1911s he reported his 1911 lost or stolen. Then stashed his carbine somewhere in the plane and instead carried the 1911 in an officer's style shoulder holster for the rest of the war. Then when the war was over he shipped his 1911 home. He kept it until he died, then put in his will that it be given to my father Willam J Miser. And then when my dad died from the asbestos cancer "mesothelioma" at the early age of 53 he put in his will that his gun collection be passed down to me (Joshua D Miser) and my brother Noah J Miser. We had a pretty decent gun collection about 25 guns when my dad died with some were also passed down through generations. Me and my brother fought pretty hard about who gets the 1911 but I ended up telling my brother he can have grandpa's 12gage hunting shotgun, all the pistols except the 1911, and more than half of the other guns if I could have the 1911, the preban PWA "556 Commando" AR15 (which was actually a full length M16A2 style, the name Commando seems kind of misleading), the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, M14 (M1A1 all wood style M14), and the nicest K98K. All the guns I got were 100% original with matching parts numbers, furniture, and were all in beautiful condition. The K98K even had German eagles and SS markings and an original bayonet. He got a lot of really nice guns out of the deal but I got what I considered the best of the bunch because of they were my favorites to shoot and all very collectable war guns in damn near perfect condition. None of the rifles I got were hand me downs though only the 1911 was, but they were my favorite guns to shoot and probably worth more than the entire rest of the collection. One gun he got that I really wanted was a late 1800s Ithaca 12gage double barrel side by side coach gun with the really short barrels. That thing would damn near break your arm but it was a cool collection piece. Unfortunately like a year later we were in Florida for Christmas and when we got back someone had thrown a garden gnome through the glass patio door and stole both my brother's handgun safe and rifle safe, just took the whole safes. Luckily I had all my stuff in my room hidden and my brother had a few of his guns hidden and they only took the safes. The cops came, didn't even take finger prints and said I hope you have insurance on them because chances are we will never find them unless they get used in a murder or something.

Hi Jonathan, would you do a video about the weapons in the movie "Leon the professional"? I watched it the other way and i have many questions about the guns in that film.

I used and fired both the 20” M-16 and the GAU-5A during my time in service and the report from the two was quite similar. The moderator was a good idea in that regard because it got the noise down to an “acceptable” level but didn’t require routine maintenance like a true suppressor.

@@itsapittie Thank you - that was definitely Colt's goal - a report and flash not significantly worse than the full-length rifle.

@@bootstraspbill I got to handle the 'hero' pistol from that movie some years ago. We're not really doing "guns of X franchise" at the moment (focusing on What's This Weapon?' and 'Up in Arms') but I'd like to return to that at some point as time permits.

fucking AI comment

I second that. This video featuring Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK, which houses a collection of thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history, discussing the ArmaLite Rifle model 15's Colt-licensed survival rifle was superb.

the person that keeps firearms in the building colloquially known as Royal Armouries Museum

...Kuzcos poison

I thought he said his name was "Jonathan Asalways"?

Funny how it's almost as though we've come full circle with small arms aboard aircraft. Originally pistols used by pilots to shoot at one another from biplanes in WW1 while flying now PDWs to shoot at ground troops on the ground in case you plane gets shot down.

Have a ready to use gun?

I always keep mine NOT ready to use. I need time to get ready to use it.👍🥃

Option two is what we are talking about.Is a PDW,Light,small with 200 meter range,Practical?9mm pistols-smgs don't at Distance.Can 556 Carbines/Smgs be made Practical for Aircrews?

Love your videos. My survival training the RCAF was focused on 1. Shelter 2. Heat source 3. Food. Combat was not a topic our goal was to survive long-term to be picked up eventually. Army of one idea is a little to Hollywood I think.

First order trooper? Heretic!!!!

Would be cool to have him cameo in the Continental or something and he was secretly an armourer for hitmen in that universe all this time.

Normal person wouldn't be allowed in the room with that beauty, without an unobtainium licence. 😮😢

We're glad you had a good time Sam :)

For a second then I thought you were claiming Jonathan was born after 2000… … which made me feel *very* old, then I checked, and he’s just (just) older than I am!

​@TheHorzabora Don't worry your still old ❤❤❤ Cheers from a 2002 baby

@@capturedflame Not with an M60. Gotta use a bolt action for that.

Qjqqt​@@capturedflame

😂😂😂😂

Thats pretty much what i woukd have gussed. If you dont have the few seconds to assamble, then you are propably better of with your hands in the air insted of on a gun.

You ever hear the story of the pilot in Vietnam who killed well over 10 NVA with a Springfield M6 survival rifle?!?! I have an old original M6 from the 70’s, dad got it for me when I was in middle school because I begged and begged for one. He picked it up for 150 bucks and it’s a 16” (not 14) 22/410 (not 22 hornet/410) like the original. Take a look into that rifle, it’s a break action and it rules.

@@user-mj1vb8jr6j trigger guard optional, yikes

Race relations were bad in Military.The Authoritys were afraid Black trouble makers would've broken into Aircraft Ejection Seats Packs to steal Weapons.Remember There were Race Riots on The Aircraft Carriers and Some Airbases in Vietnam.Weapons were controlled when possible!

Still most Aircrew wanted something better than a,38 pistol.I know a few USAF/Navy Pilots who were shot down.When captured,they were only facing a squad of Enemy with rifles,+ they had only pistols.Most of them told me ,they would have fought back if better armed.A 38 pistol vs. a Mosin-Nagant-You,,'re Dead!!

I was definitely shocked when they settled for the shitty looking FAB grips, as though the USAF couldn't afford to coax a company to make a folding grip that doesn't suck. Also I can't imagine what kind of shit barrel they use that'd get fucked that fast. A decent barrel is like $250 lol. 200M is very far in the realm of air crew weapons to be fair though. I also wondered why they used a standard buffer tube and stock, when they could get a much more compact PDW stock.

I'm not surprised at some of the problems with it. I've got a different maker's take down AR it has a few "warts" with the take down especially. I SBR'ed it a long time ago since it's basically a 200 m and in rifle. The same thing I determined with it, so it might as well be a short barrel.

​@bower31 The "barrel" isn't the overall fault it's the mounting hardware/ system that is a major problem. "FYI" my friend has bought a Civ version copy from the company that made them for USAF his wife is in A.F. That cuts out proprietary action springs and buffers, keeping more consistent with standard rifles for training. The U.S. military small arms training is proprietary to job in service. AKA a infantry, scout, S.F. get extensive experience with them. a pilot, desk jockey administrative ect don't. I've actually met some former A.D. service that had almost no contact with a firearm in service. Being a former infantryman I was surprised by how little experience even some who had been in Army and U.S.M.C. had.

@DB-yj3qc I know the Cry Havoc quick change barrel mechanism. This would be the first I've heard of issues with it. Rounds count should have no impact on the QRB system in any way, so they probably are improperly installed. You're supposed to lap the reciever before installing AFAIK, or you'll not get repeatable return to zero.

@DB-yj3qc For a already nearly entirely proprietary rifle, any argument for maintaining standardization is just a way to make the program worse. The USAF already is known for effectively zero standardization in small arms. They could absolutely handle configuring these rifles better. Also I cannot parse your point about training. No air crew do not get extensive small arms training, it's effectively worthless for them. Standardization on training is no issue, they will all go to a specialized school. If they need familiarization with the GAU-5A theyll recieve it there. They have vastly more critical skills, even survival related, to learn than their adeptness with a rifle. Most USAF personally could never be trained on small arms and it would never impact their career at all. They only even qualify air crews on their sidearms every 2 years in some units.

Just make sure it isn't the Hanoi Hilton.

We can also have any opinion we want with out going to jail like in England..

comment isnt very original either

@@datadavis... And your point being... What, exactly?

@@YYCEyeGuyGord stop being unoriginal?

@@datadavis can you tell me which part of my comment got your knickers in such a twist?

As far as I'm aware, the AKS-74U muzzle device is indeed a blast chamber, and the reason why these guns tend to be loud and flashy these days is the ammunition used in them: commercial ammo is designed without consideration for barrels shorter than 350 mm (due to the legislation surrounding the matter), and the military has moved the goalpost for penetration & ballistic performance so far during the last three decades that the AKS-74U, which is out of production for decades and has seen further limitations to its use scope during that time, naturally suffers from these changes.

I've also read in the past that these types of muzzle devices on the Vietnam-era carbines did in fact 'moderate' the sound to have a different acoustic signature, said to be similar to that of an AK firing... with the idea that if the enemy heard it they'd think it was friendlies. I'm not sure how effective that'd be though as surely if you heard your own side firing it'd still mean there's trouble.

They do have them, the L22A2 and L85 carbine. Ian McCollum (Forgotten Weapons) has a video on them from when he visited the Royal Armouries 6 yrs ago.

The issued ammunition for those was quite anemic, by the way. IIRC, it was a 130 grain full metal jacket ball at about 700 feet per second. Better than nothing, I guess. 🤷‍♂️ Fortunately, I never had to use it.

Well, not exactly. 38-200 mk1 is a variant of 38 s&w. Specifically used by the british.

Yes, there's an on-screen correction when I mention the M1911A1 being standard issue. I wasn't technically wrong, but very misleading since we're talking USAF here, so I asked for the correction :)

@@ahalfsesameseedbun7472 Correct, the .38/200 (which has been dubbed .38 Super Police and .380-Mk.IIz at times), is the .38 Smith & Wesson revolver cartridge loaded with a relatively long and heavy 200gr projectile, unjacketed lead and all. I believe it was chosen by the British armed forces because it had the particularly useful (at least for MPs) quality of rarely overpenetrating, instead tending to tumble and expend all its energy inside the target, described in some sources as "keyholing" on penetration. Gave it a bit better performance than some .38 Special loads at the time, while reducing risk of collateral damage. Can be somewhat likened to how hollowpoint ammunition came to be used by law enforcement, and there was some paranoia regarding if the .38/200 load was compliant with the Hague Convention, so there was a Mk.IIz variant which had a lighter 174gr bullet with a jacket (possibly a zinc jacket, thus the Mk.IIz designation). In spite of no longer being a 200gr load, that part of the name stuck.

​@@jonathanferguson1211 the Vietnam era is kind of the wild west of air crew weapons. Everything from 1911s to 38s, I've even heard of guys being given a colt 1903 pocket hammerless and many instances of bringing commercial market revolvers from home.

Lucky little sods 😂

I thought the same thing

There are websites where you can buy replica parts to clone the 607. I recommend checking out the retro ar subreddit

I myself am rather partial to the 605. The Colt engineers just went "Eh, take off 5 inches, that'll be fine".

I like the original CAR-15, which is just a shortened M16.

@@FlyboyHelosim CAR-15 is the whole Colt Automatic Rifle family, which was Colt's attempt to rebrand the AR-15 as theirs. M16 is just a military designation.

The XM177 was and is the absolute coolest M-16 varient IMO. Ive always wanted one. But the closet i could come to getting one was to build an AR pistol patterened after it, in semi auto of course, extremely accurate 111/2 inch barrel, hit sights at 300 meters easily.

That's awesome! Any chance we can look at it online?

Which area, sorry?

@@jonathanferguson1211 where they used to have the Gerald Bull gun, and now the train, the far end of there used to have an open section where some cannons from the sea were being treated, and many other guns (in the artillery sense) that were in various states, some almost falling apart, some rebuilt but stripped down and it was always interesting to see

@@LiveDonkeyDeadLion Oh of course, sorry. Yes, it was nice to be able to see that but the whole area badly needed a tidyup.

@@jonathanferguson1211 the whole place did back then, and now it looks great. Although I do miss the the shooting gallery game with the Bren and Lee Enfield

I think that it's really only Dave at Gamespot and his Mum who use his full name.

I believe it would have that effect, yes (like the booster on the AKS-74U) - but that was not its primary, stated purpose. As I say - Colt themselves called it a "sound and flash moderator".

There's a compromise to that as well. The German Paras at Crete jumped without a primary weapon, their rifles and heavy weapons being dropped in separate canisters, which were blown away from each other causing a disastrous outcome for the German Paras, the little fighting done by the Germans being mostly pistol and grenade s. Dropping things separate from each other doubles the possibility that one item is completely lost, and in this case both items must be present for the tool to function.

@@CharlieBarkinTheDog I'm not saying the components need to be in separate cases but inside a single case. A good folding/hot swap design on an AR-15 will still take up some space, an inserted magazine will stick out like a sore thumb and having those magazines stowed under the handguard or any other area that a form fitting case would allow means it would still be close by, easy to inspect for damage and use.

I suspect he digs through his collection of thousands of weapons…🤔

*iconic

F-111 standard issues ejection equipment was an M-2 & a bazooka.

The AR always stood for Armalite..The original full auto firearms were AR15's..Then Armalite sold the rights to Colt who first used the AR15 designation..When the military officially adopted the AR15 it became the M16..Then in 1964 Colt made the civilian semi auto AR15..They used the original designation for their civilian model.. So yes, the original full auto military rifle was called the AR15..

AR does stand for Armalite, and I have not heard 1 person say it was designed to fire semi auto. What people say is that the firearm that is widely available is semi auto. Saying it was designed to shoot semi auto is not even fudd lore because no one says that. Now if you want to get technical the design came from the AR10, which was 100% semi auto very early on. The military requested it to be full auto, and in Stoners own words, the gun was still a hand full even with the huge comp he throw on to tame the recoil. The design was scaled down and narrowed HEAVY from civilian varmint rifles. The companies involved with ammo made similar rounds for shooting rabbits. They basically made the gun more effective by making it weaker, less power, lighter, more ammo. I’m not sure why the anti gun lore is that it’s “high powered”

Only my subconscious knows the answer to that one :D

@@jonathanferguson1211 I wasn't expecting you to give up any cards here, so to speak; after all, that would kill the fun of guessing.😀