Palmetto State Armory's Harrington & Richardson brand has begun shipping the Model 606, a faithful recreation of one of the most historically significant AR-15 variants ever produced. The Firearm Blog first reported the launch this week. The rifle is in stock now at Palmetto State Armory at $1,249.

The original Model 606 dates to the early 1960s, when ArmaLite had licensed its AR-15 design to multiple manufacturers in hopes of attracting military interest. Harrington & Richardson was among those licensees, and the Connecticut company produced a heavy-barrel variant intended as a light machine gun candidate — effectively the first HBAR AR-15 ever manufactured. The design used a 20-inch heavy barrel to handle a sustained firing schedule and incorporated the M2-style folding bipod found on the M14 rifle. The experimental rifles were evaluated alongside offerings from Colt and other licensees but never entered mass production. For more than sixty years the Model 606 remained an artifact of collector lore, known mainly from reference books and occasional gun show stories.

PSA acquired the Harrington & Richardson trademark and has used it systematically to revive American service rifles that production history had bypassed. The retro-series approach has already yielded faithful recreations of the M16A1 and Colt SP1-style carbines, building a dedicated following among collectors who want period-correct ARs without hunting down vintage components. Both the Model 606 and a companion Model 605 CAR-15-style carbine were previewed at SHOT Show 2026 in January. The Model 606 is the first of the pair to begin shipping.

The new rifle carries a 20-inch chrome-lined 4150 chrome moly vanadium HBAR barrel chambered in 5.56 NATO with a 1/7 twist rate and a 1/2x28-threaded muzzle. The slick-side M16-style upper receiver carries no forward assist or shell deflector, staying true to the original configuration, and it pairs with period-correct M16A1 triangular handguards fitted with aluminum heat shields. Upper and lower receivers are finished in gray Type 3 hard coat anodize. The M2-style bipod is pinned at the muzzle adapter rather than clamped, matching the original arrangement. Chrome lining in the barrel and chamber adds corrosion resistance and eases cleaning. Despite the heavier barrel profile and the bipod hardware, the completed rifle weighs nine pounds.

At $1,249, the Model 606 occupies a middle tier in the retro-AR market — above a basic M16A1 clone but well below what a comparable HBAR build assembled from individual components would cost. PSA has also listed blemished Model 606 uppers separately for builders who prefer to run their own lower receiver.

The companion Model 605 CAR-15 carbine had not appeared on PSA's in-stock listing as of this writing. Based on the pace of H&R retro releases so far, additional configurations — including black-anodized variants — are expected to follow through the remainder of 2026.