I'm going to try a Canadian clone build.  Can someone tell me the difference between the c7 and c7a1?  

Thanks.

I believe the plain jane C7 was basically an M16A2 rifle but using the C7/A2-field-sights upper. The C7A1 had a flat top typically with the C79 Elcan on it. C7A2 added the collapsible stock. I'm sure there's more to it but I think thats the gist.

Do you have a source that knows the correct id markings on the variants of lowers?

Might find something useful here.

C7 FAMILY OF COMBAT WEAPONS

https://www.coltcanada.com/news-media/

Here's another site.

http://pullig.dyndns.org/retroblackrifle/ModGde/4nGde/C7.html

C7A1 is the one I needed up with after trying all of the other types. Not a 100% correct but exactly the way I like it.

Attached File

Awesome rifle.  Three questions, what bus iron is on there?  What weight barrel is the the rifle and is that the right weight for an c7 build, three is that a real elcan and do you like it?  

Thanks
Jeff.

Hi Jeff
Thanks!

The Buis is a Diemaco unit, impossible to find, however you can 3D print one, someone uploaded the file for free on the net.

My rifle has a 20” pencil 1/7 with and extended A2. I prefer the pencil with a RAS to offset the weight. Issued rifles use the A2 government profile.

Let me know if you need close ups of anything.

It’s a real Elcan bought it new in the late 90’s / early 2000. Love the scope. There are air soft replicas that are pretty close, but super short eye relief and a the mount wiggles, but looks 90% correct.

Oh and the magazine is a maple leaf 🍁 marked Themold, though I think that CF have moved on from these.

Was the pencil barrel spec on the c7 or did they use the heavier a2 barrel?

Did you 3d print your buis?

Issued CF rifles had the government A2 barrels.



Mine is genuine, however the clamping bracket is 3D printed. Mine developed a crack sometime over the 20 plus years of ownership. The printed one looks identical, however with the nature of the material, you’ll probably want to sand and paint it so it doesn’t look printed :)

There are others that have much more correct clones to mine, hopefully they will chime in. There used to be quite a dedicated cadre of Canadian clones here.

Here's a poor photo of one in the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum in Shiloh, Manitoba.

That’s sobering, I still think the C7A1 is somewhat relevant, I remember when they came out and thought they looked so futuristic, and here is one in a museum!!

Do you know if KAC made the locking bottom rail for Canadian's rifle M5 RAS like they did with the M4 RAS?

Don’t know off hand, but mine has the SAS style locking bottom rail. I would imagine the CF and SAS followed each other laterally in kit and upgrades as they were both commonwealth / dominion forces with Diemaco rifle fleets. Not sure if the M5 was officially adopted like the M4, but for sure in use with individual upgrades. Would wager a nice lunch the C8 CQB uses the SAS RAS :)

That is beautiful

That’s basically it.  What people refer to as the C7A1 was a flattop Weaver rail as it predates the 1913 spec.  Rail was the proper height so that an F marked FSB was not required.  Short and long (spacer) stocks were available to those that needed them for proper length of pull.  Triad mount came out sometime in the early 2000s. I definitely had one on my first deployment to Afghanistan in 2003.  It was still called and marked C7 as the only new part was the upper.  A mix of large and small forward assists.

C7A2 came out in 2004 and was when the ambi mag release was adopted along with ambi selectors, although they didn’t have enough parts when they were initially upgraded. Stock colour was changed to Canadian Average Green at that time as well.  Buttstock is a pebble texture but looks like the old Colt carbine stock.  There are some smooth N1 marked buttstocks that are a darker green and I assume they were made by Colt.  Peel washer on the initial conversions since it was the same barrel.  What else?  They came with the old style castle nut, I’m not sure if new factory ones use castle nuts or not.  Four position receiver extension.

All of them were marked C7 since the A2 upgrade reused the original parts. An A2 stamp was added beside C7 during the conversion and looks silver since it went through the anodizing.  New ones are marked C7A2 from the factory.

Excellent Info as always! Glad to see you are still around Leg.

I pop in occasionally. The Cdn government has ruined the hobby for me by banning the AR-15 up here in 2020.

H2 buffer for the C7A2 and we still use rifle ramps in all of our rifles, including the C8A3.  We are also still using the old black “tilting” follower in our D&H black Teflon aluminium magazines. I believe we switched to aluminium in the mid 90s due to cracking feed lips in the Thermold magazines.  That would mean that Thermold is the only correct magazine for a C7.  C7A1 used both during their service life, same for the C8 since we didn’t change them until 2003.

In Afghanistan in 2003 we also had some some new C8s show up mid way through the tour that had a flattop weaver rail upper and the old 14.5” skinny barrel unique to the C8 with .750 FSB. They came with the EoTech 552 and I believe they had four position receiver extensions with N1 stock.  I never came across them again and I assume they were procured solely for operations in Afghanistan.

As far as I’m aware Canada never adopted the M5 RAS.  The PPCLI did purchase some for one of their deployments to Afghanistan but it would have been an off the shelf purchase and not an issued item.  It was JTF 2 that used the RAS on their C8s with Cdn spec bottom rail.  Us peons in the green army have only ever adopted the Triad rail.