M15 vs AR15 whats the differance?

aquariumjunky · Apr 14, 2009

Ok what the differance if anything? My buddy has what we had always called an AR-15 from armalite but while I was putting a new trigger group in it today I noticed that it is marked on the lower reciever as M-15.

Does this mean anything? The specs it is built to? Or are they jsut getting clever and tring to make it more like a M-16? and yes I confirmed that it says M-15 first I had heard of one with those markings (not that I have been around the block that much)

Any insites?

Thanks,
Steven

yotehunter · Apr 14, 2009

Colt has the rights to both M16 and AR15 so other company's can't put that on there receivers

eldbillbo · Apr 14, 2009

aquariumjunky said:
Ok what the differance if anything? My buddy has what we had always called an AR-15 from armalite but while I was putting a new trigger group in it today I noticed that it is marked on the lower reciever as M-15.

Does this mean anything? The specs it is built to? Or are they jsut getting clever and tring to make it more like a M-16? and yes I confirmed that it says M-15 first I had heard of one with those markings (not that I have been around the block that much)

Any insites?

Thanks,
Steven

AR15 stands for Armalite 15 however Colt bought the rights for it in 1959 for cilvilian production so not even armalite can stamp them ar15 so other companies will mark them with their own marking such as M15 LAR15 ect. all others other than Colt marked Ar15s are clones but are commonly called ar15s .

Armalite still owns the rights to the AR10 (Armalite 10 )

M16 is a military desination any GI contractor can stamp them M16 such as FN, GM ect

wichaka · Apr 14, 2009

Armalite never produced a production model AR, they were all prototypes...even the ones submitted to the military for testing.

jordanvraptor · Apr 16, 2009

Its just a manufacturer's model designation. My lower reciever is an Earle Arms M-15 as well. Eagle Arms is Armalite's red headed stepchild...

PhysicsGuy · Apr 16, 2009

Like everyone else said, Armalite sold the naming rights to the AR-15...

So when they actually decided to make their own production AR-15 rifle, they were forced to call it the M-15, kind of ironic.

aquariumjunky · Apr 17, 2009

Thanks guys! Guess I was kinda an idiot but never occured to me. My "ar-15" is not marked ar-15 either guess I have been shooting an Gator all this time!

Steven

eldbillbo · Apr 17, 2009

aquariumjunky said:
Thanks guys! Guess I was kinda an idiot but never occured to me. My "ar-15" is not marked ar-15 either guess I have been shooting an Gator all this time!

Steven

your not a idiot its ar15 has just been genericized

like calling a Q-tip a Q-tip which is a name brand for a cotton swab we don't ask for a cotton swab we ask for a Q-tip no matter if is a Q-tip brand or other brand of cotton swab

same with for example band aid which is a name brand for a adhesive medical bandage yet there are dozens of different brands

it just happens that Colt was the first to bring the AR15 rifle to the market so thats what stuck

ktd · Apr 19, 2009

PhysicsGuy said:
Like everyone else said, Armalite sold the naming rights to the AR-15...

So when they actually decided to make their own production AR-15 rifle, they were forced to call it the M-15, kind of ironic.

Although the current Armalite is not really Armalite, they were Eagle Arms, and they bought the name Armalite, though the name AR-15 did not come with it.

Interestingly Colt does not use the name AR-15 for their civillian arms either. The 1994 Assualt Weapons ban named the AR-15 name specifically, and those rifles became something like the Colt ST2032 Sporter Target Model, and were thus legal. Try and call your rifle an AR-15 and Colt will sue the crap out of you.

eldbillbo · Apr 20, 2009

ktd said:
Although the current Armalite is not really Armalite, they were Eagle Arms, and they bought the name Armalite, though the name AR-15 did not come with it.

Interestingly Colt does not use the name AR-15 for their civillian arms either. The 1994 Assualt Weapons ban named the AR-15 name specifically, and those rifles became something like the Colt ST2032 Sporter Target Model, and were thus legal. Try and call your rifle an AR-15 and Colt will sue the crap out of you.

I think thats the opposite Armalite bought Eagle arms and Eagle Arms is a division of Armalite

So far colt would only sue manufacturers that try to call their rifles Ar15 and so there has not been a case of that so thats not accurate . Thousands of guys call their clones here on the boards Ar15s and Colt has not sued a single one of them

They did try to sue Bushmaster for calling a rifle M4 and lost .

ktd · Apr 21, 2009

eldbillbo said:
I think thats the opposite Armalite bought Eagle arms and Eagle Arms is a division of Armalite

Armalite's website says otherwise,
<broken link removed>

If I read it right, the owner of Eagle Arms bought the name Armalite, I suppose having a richer history, changed the company to Armalite and made Eagle Arms a division thereof. Armalite did get the name AR10 though. I guess you could say the opposite is true if you look at it as the Eagle Arms president became the Armalite President and then made Eagle Arms under Armalite.

eldbillbo said:
So far colt would only sue manufacturers that try to call their rifles Ar15 and so there has not been a case of that so thats not accurate . Thousands of guys call their clones here on the boards Ar15s and Colt has not sued a single one of them

They did try to sue Bushmaster for calling a rifle M4 and lost .

When I said "call your rifle AR15", I meant that as a manufacturer. There are so many people making them you can almost regard them as a subgroup of the world population these days. If I meant it as a user, I would certainly look stupid using the term meself! Occasionally people who write about various products do get notices though, what made me think of that was remembering an article in GunWorld where the writer devoted a whole column about how 3M sent him a letter saying he had to either use Velcro(tm) with the trademark thingy or otherwise had to say hook and loop pile fastener. Luckily Colt is not at the point where they are suing users over such, though they have made a lot of their money over lawsuits it seems. Since the original poster was asking about AR15s in particular I did not bring up the M4 thing, I tend to use the term CAR15 myself, which I am sure is also Colt trademarked.