1957 Article on the AR10

GUNS Magazine from March 1957 (pdf) has an article on the AR-10, posing the question of whether it would replace the M1 Garand. From the article:

Top brass in the Pentagon were as startled as the California hunters when they first saw Sullivan and his guns. This time, it was not the color which shocked them, since Sullivan knew better than to show camouflage-conscious military specialists bright colors and highly polished surfaces. Instead, it was the story Sullivan had to tell. He spoke of a new rifle that weighed about 6 3/4 pounds, and could fire full automatic, handling the standard service .30 NATO cartridge with as much accuracy as the present M l rifle. He showed them a 20-round magazine of waffle-creased sheet aluminum that weighed four ounces. An infantryman's load of 100 rounds in these pre-loaded expendable magazines would weigh no more than an equal amount of ammunition involving the regular BAR box that required reloading, plus the ammunition stripper clips.

(p. 15).

Objectionable kick was nonexistent in these truly lightweight automatic rifles. The highly efficient tin-can muzzle brake and flash suppressor fitted to one AR-10 kept things to a comfortable bounce in full auto, with none of the uncontrollable climb associated with some weapons when gripped too tightly. In semi-auto fire, the kick-in spite of the fact that the gun weighs hardly more than an Ml-carbine~is far less than any other gun of comparable caliber. Measured energy of recoil is a scientific figure, but "kick" is something else~nobody knows what. My impression was that the 308 AR-10 kicked less than a Model 70 Winchester bolt action rifle wing the same cartridge.

(p. 48).

 A little different from the standard history of the AR rifles suddenly coming from nowhere to be adopted in lieu of the M14.