Latest Harrington and Richardson ARs Go Retro and Weird

The company once known as H&R, was purchased by Palmetto State Armory out of the Remington bankruptcy and is manned by some of the crew of Nodak Spud. This collaboration has apparently led to plenty of money to embrace the retro world and produce some of the odder variants of Stoner’s famed design.

At the SHOT Show, they had two totally new designs that captured my attention and a set of furniture that might not have a basis in history, but is certainly retro-inspired.

The Colt DOE SMG

Way back when, the Department of Energy decided they needed a team of elite police officers/paramilitary forces to guard and protect America’s nuclear assets. They wanted a short and light platform they could use in and outside their vehicles. This led Colt to develop a gun that was affectionately known as the briefcase gun.

This gun would be known as the Colt DOE SMG.

The H&R 635 DOE 9mm is an ultra-short direct blowback-operated AR platform pistol. It’s based on the Colt SMG design, but it’s trimmed to be as small and light as possible. H&R has faithfully reproduced the micro-sized 9mm rifle into an SBR with plans for a pistol in the works.

It captures the classic DOE look with the fixed carry handle, a folding front sight, and the SBR even has the classic CAR stock. While H&R doesn’t have an availability date for the DOE yet, it looks like a sweet little shooter and might be one of my personal favorite picks from SHOT 2024.

The Colt LMG

There was a time when Colt wanted to take the AR-15 design and make it into, well, everything. Colt saw the AR like Hasbro saw Barbie…an infinitely expandable platform. They made an entire family of rifles, but also experimented with a variety of other platforms.

One is the oft-forgotten Colt Light Machine Gun. The Colt LMG was an automatic rifle, not too different from what the USMC is currently doing with the M27. H&R captured the look and feel of the gun with its crazy-large handguard, the carry handle, and a bipod.

The Colt LMG wasn’t very popular, and it only landed a few contracts before fading away. Sadly, this one is only semi-auto, but it still looks pretty sweet.

Classy Wood Furniture

While it’s not a new rifle per se, H&R is bringing a set of wood furniture to the M16A1 replica rifles to make it easy to live out your Fallout New Vegas dreams. This is gorgeous furniture, and while not historically accurate, I couldn’t ignore how nice the setup looks.

Fire and Forget

H&R is really killing it lately. The power of PSA’s backing is allowing the retro scene to explode. In the past you had to mill your own receivers with an 80 lower jig to get this kind of historical accuracy. Those days are over. I’m excited because the basic modern AR is mostly just boring these days. Give me a Colt DOE SMG over yet another rifle with an M-LOK rail and six-position stock.