While I don't have the cash to play in this forum, I am fascinated by it and the detail you folks go into on these builds, making them look as if they'd just left the factory floor, or the arms room.

But in the real world, parts get replaced...  I don't know if you folks have the stomach for this, but I understand particularly in the Air Force, lowers are rebuilt, and rebuilt again w/ new generation uppers.  I recently saw pics of a late '80's M16A1 wearing M16A2 furniture, as obviously the handguards had cracked & the replacement parts in the system were already all M16A2s.

So - who's willing to post pics of some mixmasters?  Obviously, we'll have to ignore the M16A2 receiver extension/buffer tube boss reinforcement on some builds - not everyone can afford a Nodak Spud lower or has access to a mill to change the profile.  But - an M16A1 clone w/ A2 furniture?  Some anachronistic port doors, obviously replaced by a unit armorer when the original was bent?

I realize this will be like fingernails on a chalk board for some folks, and that's fine - just unsubscribe.  But for some of us, it will help us to better understand the history of the weapon platform if we not only see the perfect picture of the history, but also what that history evolved into in the hands of users and armorers.

If you post up a mixmaster, post a little fictional story about how the anachronistic parts ended up on your gonne.  Mods, if this is too much fingernail on the chalkboard, feel free to delete.

There have been some pictures posted that were "mix masters" as you call them. You have to remember that the military armorers did a lot of things over the years to keep weapons going. Many were recycled over and over again. There have been plenty of A2 upper on A1 lowers. Some A1 lowers converted from AUTO to BURST (A2 format). I have seen A1s with A2 handguards. Just about anything goes in order for them to keep weapons serviceable. There are some guys on this forum that have built pseudo retro ARs. They are much like the "mix masters" you speak of. Most of the guys on this forum try to build a retro AR to be as a correct clone as possible of a particular military model. That is the challenge in building retro ARs. I am sure that there will be some that will come along soon to post their "mix masters". I look forward to seeing all of them.

Yep, I've seen plenty of pics of A2s in service today
With A1 lowers.

I think braceman has a custom engraved Air Force
Mix master.. Maybe he will come along and post a pic

Bottom line;  it's irrelevant what takes place to any older rifle after the 'retro' time frame that these reproduction rifles are built to represent.

Whatever modifications might have been made to a rifle during the Vietnam war, regardless whichever components may have been used to replace the originals, would still be period correct.

The fact that some A1 lower receiver may nowadays sport an A3 upper is not within the scope of the Retro Forum's (or my) collective concern or interest.

This is not an 'AR15 rifles with some old A1 parts' .... forum.  The rifles here are (hopefully) built to represent, or be clones of rifles that look period correct for the era in which those original A1 rifles were issued and used.

I, for one, consider the types of rifles on this forum to be a tribute to that era of the U.S.'s history, and more importantly to the guys that fought the VN war.
I've seen too many try to piss on this tradition, and I really just don't get it.
 
What may have recently been done to an old A1 rifle, or any of its components in the 80's or 90's or whenever .... just doesn't matter, IMHO.

Shotgun,
I don't think anyone is trying to piss on anyone's tradition.  Many here look at this forum as a historical research place.  True, the mods that were done to theses rifles are not technically within the scope of this forum but they are not totally out of place either.  This is a technical forum not a shrine.

I was in the USAF 1974 to 1979 and in basic  we used the Colt model 604 and we never called it that it was just an m16 rifle. I remember them as being VERY used and the upper and lowers were loose and the first time I fired it I thought the spring was going to fly out, I has never used the m16 before and that BOING was really weird to me.  I have a post card of the firing line at Lackland AFB in the early 1970s  and it shows these guns.  Remember the USAF does not throw anything away, they rebuild it NOT like the ARMY.  You will see many different parts on any given M16, they don't care as long as it is a serviceable weapon.....

I was in the Air Force Reserve at Keesler AFB, MS from 1995-2004. We still had 723s and 604s in our squadron inventory along with M16A1s and M16A2s.