When M14 Meets M16: The Fort Ellis XR-86 Frankenrifle 

Actually, Frankenrifle was the name of the gunsmith, you're thinking of Frankenrifle's monster.

With that tour, Ian just doubled the value of that gun.

This is probably the cleanest looking improvised firearm ever.

This rifle deserves to be used on the range

Will Ellis was my mentor of sorts. I was much younger, getting into shooting and hunting. A father figure who mad my reloads for my 30-06 and .223. I was, as well as many others including my father-in-law, mesmerized by the stories of his time as an Abington, PA policeman. Captivating man. A man who had tragedy strike his family with the death of one daughter rehabbing from her car accident injuries. Threw a clot, I believe. Another daughter, Jeanie, died from complications from diabetes. I was in "Fort Ellis" a few times where he kept his vast collection of firearms, etc. More relics in his house basement where he did his reloading. To the best of my knowledge, he died from a fall from the roof of his Fort installing a vent for a bathroom he was putting in. I reload my own ammo and think of him often. His wife, Phyllis, who is now remarried, is as sweet a lady as you'll ever meet. Ate wild game dinners at their house in Abington with friends and family. I keep his hand-written loads recipes and have a priceless picture of him. RIP Will. You were a genius.

most popular weapons of the Vietnam era smashed together.

This is the master gunsmith version of me cooking dinner from whatever I have leftover in the fridge. The fact that it actually worked is testament to his skill.

So a "what if" scenario in which the Khyber Pass is located in Pennsylvania ;)

Don't show this to Bethesda...

So, more or less a twisted AR15 with short-stroke instead of direct impingement. I can actually see why someone would want that. This thing is genuinely pretty cool.

I laughed my ass off when he said “the spring lives in here.” Loved it

One real mark of the builder's craftsmanship is in how easily it disassembled for Ian. We've all seen "legit" arsenal built prototypes on this channel that did not come apart nearly as smoothly, or that he was afraid to attempt to take apart.

In 1986 nobody knew what a Picatinny rail was. That's probably a Weaver rail.

When 1940's Germany gets an m4 from the future

Mechanicly it's genius, For practical reasons it's basicly licking windows.

"Hold my beer." - Wilfred Ellis, 1986

And gun jesus did look upon the platypus gun and did wonder wtf...but gun jesus looked closer and saw that, whilst weird, it was indeed good.... Praise be

it looks like an m16 and fg42 had a baby

m14's gas block + FAL's handguard & charging handle + M16's Receiver + unidentified carrying handle(with sights) = what you seeing now. holy...

This is actually a really cool rifle, imo. Looks like a modernized FG42 :D

When gunsmiths are bored, this is what you get.

Hmm that would be cooler if it was 9mm with a suppressor . Then you could call it a frankensten .

Ian, please show more guns like this that are made/designed by amateur/competant people. Its odd and/or interesting guns like this is where others can see very experimental designs tried out very interesting.

This is the kind of gun you would make in MGSV after finding the Master Gunsmith

"Your gunsmiths were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Naw.... I love all shooty things.

1986 in Pennsylvania: Mayor: You can't go through with this, this is madness. Ellis: Yeah, what ever 2 days later Ellis: IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIIIVE *pop pop pop*

If it we're $500 at a show I would pull out the cash... Between an estimated $3750-$5000 it is too rich for my blood... However, I would love a copy of the design to try and build my own...

"It is of course a semi-auto..." Yeah but it's a full semi-auto.

That's nothing......you should see my Kalashnizooka.

Maybe important to explain to younger viewers that in 1986 there were maybe 20 or 30 something cable channels, definitely no internet, and video games were really just in the early stages of infancy. To buy an AR-15 meant buying a Colt for what in today's dollar would probably be something like $1200+ for a plain vanilla model. Imported AKs were cheap, and we still had Chinese ammo for them which was cheap as dirt, but few people wanted anything to do with those.

Absolutely love the weird and wonderful creations of firearm designs like this. makes me wonder what other strange home-brew weapons designs are lurking out in the world.

I bet the guy who made this spends hours on Pimp My Gun every day

It's like someone wanted an FG42, but couldn't get one.

That gun is genius, definitely a point of pride for the maker.

Sort of reminds me of the scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, when Tuco (Eli Wallach) goes into the gun shop and starts putting a revolver together.

It's a "Because I can/ To see if I can" gun. I once saw a, albeit grainy video of a guy who made an auto ejecting 9 mm Ruger vaquero I think it was. It was still single action but as soon as you fired a round the last case got ejected out of the cylinder. It had a mechanism that would Rube Goldberg blush.

Why wasn't this in Star Wars?

I actually worked on the PD with Will. Fort Ellis was a cool firearms collection, some of which Will had made himself, like tanker garands. I actually still have 2 PPC guns he rebarreled and tuned for me.

You see when an AR-15 and M-14 love each other very much....

“Get that rod at full extension”

I now know what project I'm doing 2019...

Oh I remember this. I saw it at Poulin Auctions a few months back. I have a feeling that it's back for sale so soon because it doesn't work all that well...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Good to see an Ellis gun!

I wonder what a modernized version of this gun would look like, name it something like XR-86A1 or something.

So it's just a plasticky cheap version of an FG-42.

Interesting rifle, thanks for showing it! I am currently working on a .22lr with an AKM wood stock and an M16 grip, I need to save time for rather unimportant parts, because my free time is very limited. Maybe that was also his reason to build it with so many existing parts, beside his normal job.

It was definitely made by a stoner Like Eugene stoner. If you needed me to specify

....m15?

Kinda looks like someone challenged him and said "bet you can't make a functioning gun from the junk in this parts bin" And sir ellis responded "hold my beer watch this."

I wonder what's the weight of that, it sure looks lighter than a regular AR-15.

This is so freaking cool. I love the way he handled the trigger situation.

Very nice. Glad you showed this. Mabe show us a few more examples of this sort of thing in the future. Thanks again.

It's things like this rifle and the story that excite and inspire me. Thanks for sharing Ian, appreciate all the effort. At this point i've seen enough watermelons blow up or "what if we shoot this thing with a random gun" videos.

When a master gunsmith tells you to, "Hold my beer and watch this!" you need to death grip that can with both hands and try not to cry at what you're about to witness.

I love seeing people's creativity that's awesome

Clever...Very ingenious. Thanks for posting this one!

Looks like an alternate history FG-42

JESUS I want that sooo freaking bad.

Your videos on home made or craft made firearms are always my favorite.

Happy Thanksgiving guys! Thank you kindly for all the great work!

Great video and looks like an AR Sten Gun. Just needs a Beta Mag and you're ready to rock and roll!

It looks like Star Wars rifle ))))

This thing looks so awesome! Definitely a cool home build

Very creative mix of ideas on this one

This design does make quite a lot of sense, actually. It might be actually an excellent gun.

"Property of Mandelor"

It's crazy finds like this why I love this channel

Ian is awesome and this is an excellent channel for all of your firearm entertainment and knowledge requirements!

its kinda' giving me Johnson vibes, ya know? with the ar style bolt and the right angle feed.

Basically a american Fallschirmjägergewehr 42

Im thankful for this.

There's some beauty to be seen in this madness. I love it.

I would love a sideways AR15 or AR10 like this that was dressed up to look like a real WW2 FG42 (or as close as it could get. It probably wouldn't fool most gun owners but it would still be cool to have and it would be A LOT cheaper to produce than the current reproduction FG42s)

i'd buy that. looks like a south african made it.

Thanks for sharing,interesting mix of various rifles,

Looks like a little project to have fun and get fresh inspiration!

Noah: "What the hell is this?" M16: ... M14: "Oh.. you didn't give any specific guidelines about mating"

That is something you make because you can, and it looks kind of cool! Like some of my chainsaws.

I think the guy deserves some praise, this thing is pretty well made.

This is both spectacular and inspiring i mean look at the sheet metal work on the mag well, spectacular quality for a one off

When will we see the mud test for this? Actually the whole thing looks really nice and stuff like the trigger/charging handle is fun as well. Does it eject to the bottom?

Wow! He actually improved the action by installing a short piston and stopping all that carbon deposits and hot air getting inside the action cooking it.

You have an incredible knowledge of firearms.

This video is a good present for my birthday. Have a good Thanksgiving, Ian!

Wilfred Ellis was clearly a very talented gunsmith. He said he made this rifle in 15 days, and it did not have to go back to any revisions and worked on the first try. Any gunsmith will tell you, that is impressive. I really like this design. It is rather easy to field strip as well. Interesting fact. A Google search of "The Fort Ellis rifle" the first result is this video. The second result is this video on Full30. The third result is your article on this rifle on forgottenweapons.com. You have to go to the forth result to find the current auction, ha.

It's horrid and I want it

Thank you , Ian.

Beautiful ! That is so cool!

"Nothing historic about this" I heartily disagree

Looks like a fg 42

That thing is awesome! almost fits right in with the Stoner 63, and AR-18

What a fun range toy. Imagine the looks you would get showing up with that rifle.

Ok watched it twice...How does it eject? I don't see an ejection port.

I need this in Fallout New Vegas!

I actually really like that. Some clever ideas went into that gun.

Pretty darn cool! Thanks Ian :)

And all the ATF agents watching this video started having convulsions.

A bit crude but clever. Welding clearly was not one his strongest skills.

I don’t know why I want this so much. So clever, and you can get parts for it!

I love this kind of stuff, i always thought about getting into weapon design.