Colt Walther .22LR Tactical Rimfire Series

Carl Walther has a long history of producing high quality firearms and as part of that history they have produced many different firearms in .22LR over the years. Colt licensed Carl Walther to produce a series of Colt-branded .22LR firearms that represent the M16 and M4 series of firearms.

Cover of the firearm boxes

The four models in the Colt .22 Tactical Rimfire series are:

  1. Colt M16 .22LR
  2. Colt M16 SPR .22LR
  3. Colt M4 Ops .22LR
  4. Colt M4 .22LR
Page 4/back cover of the .22 Tactical Rimfire accessory brochure

The ‘Colt M16’ model is pretty self-explanatory. It most closely represents a Colt M16A4 since it has a removable carry handle.

The ‘Colt M16 SPR’ is bit more complicated. Colt never made an official SPR variant as shown. This model most closely represents the U.S. military Mk. 12 Mod. 1 Special Purpose Rifle (SPR) that was used by the U.S. Army and U.S.M.C. To see more about the ‘Colt M16 SPR’, see my page here where I have detailed photos and some comments.

The ‘Colt M4 Ops’ model is supposed to represent a Colt M4A1 carbine as it appeared in use by some Special Operations Command (SOCOM) special operations elements. The rear sight on it was made by units cutting down a removable carry handle or they purchased a purpose made sight assembly from Lewis Machine & Tool (LMT).

The ‘Colt M4’ model represents an early U.S. military M4 carbine before the inventory was converted under the Modular Weapon System (MWS) modification work order that standardized the M4 Rail Adapter System (RAS) and the Matech 0 – 600m back-up iron sight.

There are not any compatible parts between the Colt Walther .22LR firearms and the standard AR-15 or M-4/M-16 series firearms that they represent.

Walther includes a standardized manual (M4/M16 Self-loading rifle cal. .22LR) with the firearms. The manuals are not tailored to each variant.

Cover of the users manual

What is interesting to me is that it seems that the Colt Walther .22 Tactical Rimfire series never got much exposure or promotion. Included with the ‘Colt M16 SPR’ that I had was a small brochure that illustrates the four firearms in the series plus an extensive series of accessories that was intended to go with the line of firearms. Here are images of the four pages of the brochure.

Cover of the .22 Tactical Rimfire accessory brochure
Page 2 of the .22 Tactical Rimfire accessory brochure

Page 3 of the .22 Tactical Rimfire accessory brochure

Page 4/back cover of the brochure is shown at the top of this page, so I won’t duplicate it here.

Although the accessories wouldn’t pass the scrutiny of the modern military firearm clone community, the diversity of products would enable someone to have fun accessorizing a plinking firearm much cheaper than if you were to buy military specification parts.