Has anyone ever asked colt for pre-ban authinticity on thier rifle?  In other words, was it a complete rifle when it left the factory?  How should I deal with them in asking for this information?  What steps to take and so forth?


thanks

Colt will tell you the manufacturing date over the phone.  If you want written proof, it's $25.00, and a 4 month wait.  If you want a complete description as to how it was configured, that's $100.00, and again, a 4 month wait.

Go to Colt's website, and then to the historian section.

I would highly recommend at least the $25.00 DOM proof.  

You just never know when some idiot company is going to have a fire in their office and loose their records.

I'm going to start requesting manufacturer's documentation, even on my postbans.  You never know when a company might loose their records, or go out of business, and what the future political climate might be.

It's too bad manufacturers can't send along a little postcard with DOM and the configuration it was in when it left the factory.

Not a bad idea to get documentation on most anything. But I'm certain that if you have a preban Colt lower it left the factory as a rifle. I have never known Colt to sell a lower only until the last few years, and certainly not until well up into the postban years. If anyone has any info to the contrary, please let us know.  

All Colt AR15's prior to the 9/13/94 ban period
were factory assembeled into rifle & carbine configuration. Colt never sold components such
as stripped lowers or complete lower halves until after the 1994 AWB. If Colt will tell you date of manufacturer over the phone like Bushmaster does they'll likely tell you they never sold stripped lowers or complete lower halves over the phone too. As for the watermark letter that's a waste of $ 25.00 you could spend on accessories.

If the complete rifle was a "spacegun" with no flash hider, bayo lug (colt took those off voluntarily before 1994) or telestock, it's not a grandfathered assault weapon, even if it was made and sold in 1965...

That'd be a very rare factory gun, though.