Posted: Apr 5th 2010, 07:02 PM
The first picture shows how a green painted 601 looks. (Same rifle, just before I stripped the paint. Which I'm sure some collectors would have a stroke over.)
Now we have the workings of the 601. The chrome slick side bolt carrier group, with the fat head firing pin & machined firing pin retainer (not seen in the pic). The Edgwater buffer, & 601 buffer tube, which differed from current ones by having two large holes on the receiver end of the tube for tightening & not having the wrench flats on the butt end. It was completely round. In this picture you can also see the triangle charging handle.
The rear sight assembly differed from later A1 versions, by not having any numbers on the wheel, instead it had a R & a arrow stamped on it, seen on later upper receivers. The area around the rear sight wheel had no markings, as seen in this picture.
The insides of the carry handle had the forging flash removed & smoothed out for a nice finished look. The port door is different from later A1 style port doors cause it was a flat square, instead of the later flat rectangle. There was also a small hole drilled below the ejection port (seen in the third pic below) that allowed the small leg of the port door spring to be put in it, instead of just resting on the edge.
The magazines the 601 used were called Waffle mags, cause of the waffle like pattern on the body of them. This style of mag was not used for very long as there were troubles in their functioning in combat usage. (These 2 mags from my collection were the actual mags used for pictures in the book Black Rifle, or so the collector I bought them from claimed.)
The followers on some waffle mags were marked with an 'S' (meaning unknown) while others were unmarked.
Here's a picture showing the markings on the floor plates. Notice they are marked both Armalite & Colt?
Sorry if it seems like I'm rambling on about this, it is something I enjoy.
