Wilfred G. Ellis (1935-1994), a police officer and master gunsmith from Abington, recently had one of his creations featured in AllOutdoor.com’s Photo of the Day.

From AllOutdoor’s article:

Designed and manufactured in 1986 by Wilfred Ellis at his home shop commonly referred to by him as Fort Ellis. Ellis was a career police officer and master gunsmith from Abington, Pennsylvania. This truly unique rifle features components from a number of different firearms including the AR15 and M14. Manufactured without sights and with M60 style slotted flash hider, M14 type gas piston assembly, vented round steel handguard, AR15 style barrel nut, fixed Picatinny rail carry handle, right side charging handle (fabricated from an AR15 trigger), AR15 style bolt carrier group, magazine well marked “CAL 5.56M/M FORT ELLIS/ABINGTON PA 3-15/1986/XR86 NO.0001″ checkered M16 style pistol grip, wide trigger designed for 1911 double action conversions, and fixed buttstock with AR15 style buffer tube. The operation is similar to that of an AR15 type rifle except rotated 90 degrees clockwise. With round feeding from the left, and spent cartridges ejected from the bottom, and the trigger engaging the sear via a transverse transfer bar.

From a Top War article:

By the way, this is what Wilfred G. Ellis (1935-1994), an American police officer and master gunsmith from Abington, Pennsylvania, who clearly had a craving for the construction of new types of firearms, did just that. In his house, he equipped an excellent workshop in which he was engaged in restoring old weapons and at the same time creating new ones, using for this purpose the parts of weapons available on the market. And in 1986, in just 15 days of work, he created his own 5,56 mm caliber rifle under the 5,56 × 45 mm NATO cartridge, which he called “Fort Ellis”. And he did it, of course, not from scratch, but using the details of rifles such as the AR-15, M14, M16, the M60 machine gun, the AK47 assault rifle, in a word, what his hands reached, that’s the point. And it should be noted that his rifle … turned out.