Had a guy come in store tonight with a picture of an AR on his phone that he said was a COLT. I could not spend a lot of time with him cause we were busy so I don't have a lot of details. Picture was of an AR finished in a kind of woodland camo pattern,it had a fixed carry handle with A 1 sight and what appeared to be A1 birdcage FH. Guy said he was told that Colt only made 150 camo AR's. I directed him to this forum for answers and to post better pix. Anybody out there know anything? He also had pic of what he said was Colt 1911 in the same woodland camo. Guy said he was from South Carolina around Spartanburg

Colt did sell a camo rifle once...but I was thinking it was an A2 (and am probably mistaken).
I'll have to try and find photos, but someone around here probably has them handy.

The "Z-Coat" A2 is what I was thinking of.  Some pics in this archived thread.

I recall seeing some of those for sale in a local gun shop back in the late eighties. I've only seen a couple offered for sale since then.

That is one of the "Z-Coat" guns done by the Colt Custom Shop. Looked kind of cool but it was just a Government Model A2 with camo paint, not any kind of coating.

I had one some years ago; I think they were made in the late 80s about the same time as the Colt Guard guns.

Mine didn't have the box but came in a woodland camo Ace Case.

I had to sell mine along with some other cool AR stuff to help pay for law school, but I did scan the sell sheet from Colt.

When I get back on my desktop computer I'll see if I can find it and post here along with some pix of the one I had.



They also did a 1911A1 in the same finish.

They also make a 6420 carbine with that finish.

Was there anything special about the coating or was it just spray paint?

As promised, here are some pix of mine. SN was GS 000178 so I guess Colt did this run to kick off the new (at the time) A2 Government Model, which at the time was the first with full A2 configuration (but on a slab-side SP1 lower). At some point they ran out of A1 uppers and the Sporter II transitioned over to the A2 upper, so there was no need for a separate Government Model because they were the same thing. That's just my theory - not sure when they stopped making the old lowers and started making AR-15s with A1/A2 lowers.


Note the availability on the sell sheet is "Mid-Year 1988" so at least we have some idea as to when these were made. Also, note that the camo Ace Case did come with this model.





"Z-Coat green tiger stripe camoflage" for use in "heavy cover." Gotta love it.































Some of you nit-pickers may have noticed that the serial on the label isn't the same as mine, but...



you get to see what a Z-Coat label looks like, and



we may deduce that, if the serial numbers were continuous (always iffy with Colt) at least 808 of the Z-Coat Government Models were probably made.
 

Just bought this rifle today from a private buyer without the case or magazines. It's colt model is R6550CC-Z. My serial number ends with 160. I am about to speak with Colt Archives on Monday to get manufacture date letter so I can prove it is a pre-ban rifle here in CT. Verbal communication with Colt says it was manufactured June 1988 but still want documentation. This is my first AR and need a lot of schooling on it. I did field stripped it earlier to clean and lube, but it needs a really good cleaning as it has not been fired or cleaned in quite a few years. any help would be appreciated.

1360 in todays dollars is $2,737.61

These are the good ol days of the AR15!

Does yours have this marking?

No it doesn't, but it does have the Z in front of mag well.

 

While I probably wouldn't set out to paint one quite like that if I were coating it myself...as a piece of Colt history, that's a nice addition to anyone's collection!  Nice rifle.

I remember those well.  

There were ads for them in the gun rags at the time (late 80s).

 


 

I like that it's stamped A2 but has A1 profile lower