VIDEO: Brownells Goes Retro with M16A1/AR-15 Furniture

Brownells has rolled out new M16A1-style furniture designed for retro rifle fans looking to finish up authentic-looking builds of classic early AR-15 designs.

RELATED STORY: Jungle Warrior – Troy Recreates the Vietnam-Era XM177E2

Available separately or in complete sets, the furniture includes the early-pattern M16A1 style buttstock, pistol grip and famous triangular handguard. The handguards fit into triangular handguard caps. The stocks are based on the Type D pattern, without a trapdoor compartment, and fit onto A-1 length buffer tubes, the company says. It also complements other retro M16A1 parts Brownells offers, including uppers and lowers, barrels, bolt carrier groups and other small parts.

“Customers have a deep desire for nostalgia, and they wanted to be able to build their own version of an early AR-15 or M16A1,” CEO Pete Brownell stated in a press release. “We’re proud to offer these classic-looking parts to help accomplish those builds.”

As the official product page points out, these parts can be bought in the surplus market, but the price tag is high, the availability isn’t what it should be, and the quality is often poor. All the M16A1-style furniture Brownells is selling is made with modern materials.

The furniture comes in three different colors: black, Air Force contract green, and brown. The black replicates the Model 602, XM16E1, M16A1 & later generation rifles made after 1963. The green color lines up with the early Model 601 rifles, the first AR-15 adopted by the US Air Force in 1959. Finally, brown is similar to the earliest AR-15 prototype rifle furniture used in the late 1950s.