I was digging in storage for something to work on and found this (FK A2 UPPER)
It was covered in dirt and dust. Must have been in there for several years.
The upper doesn't have any feed ramps, so I am guessing it is an early upper receiver.
Someone had asked me about an A2 upper that didn't have a feed ramp, this may have been the one, but I think I have one that doesn't have a barrel.
I have not found any markings on the barrel yet, still looking.
I spent some time cleaning it up and it looks real nice. It has a few marks on it, but I would still give it 90% or better.
I dug in the safe and got out one of the A2 lowers I got in the group buy earlier this year to put with it.
It has a Small head forward assist that I will swap out with a Large head FA later, ( I have a box of them some where)
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Looks like a nice classic A2. Government profile or HBAR?

It is govt profile.

It is way down the list to build.
It is a someday build. (I have all the parts to build it)

Thanks
Ron

Looks like a really nice USGI upper as made by FN. I have two of them and those FN barrels are EXTREMELY accurate.

Nice, you've got the hard part for a A2 clone done already.

CD

I dug out the Lower I am going to use on it.
It is a little darker than the upper.
That is ok with me.
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I went and did some more digging in storage and found another FN upper.
GOVT profile Barrel. Later I will dig out some more of them to see what is in storage.
It is a little different in that the F is stamped on it.
This one doesn't have a ramp either. It is darker than the other one.
I don't like the hand guards on it. I have some like new early military A2 hand guards in storage to swap out.
NOTE: I left the COLT's in storage for later. I will post pictures when I dig them out.

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Outstanding!  I'm sure you have a M1950 weapons case to store it in

CD

I started collecting/gathering A2 parts years ago.
You couldn't sell them and most people didn't want them, they would give them away.
When I got a part it went into a box.
Over the years it has become lots of boxes.
Now I am glad I kept all those old parts.

Ron

For those that don't know:

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There are several different codes for the FN uppers

Thanks for posting the picture.

Ron

Ridiculously good stuff - all of it.

OP, you have been wise.
I sense the A2 bug will hit somewhere ahead in the future.
I got bit recently and started gathering, purchasing, assembling, researching.

I can see it get to A1 interest in a few years from now - don't see why it shouldn't.

Will see.

Happy building!

These are all new FN uppers that I had in Kuwait in 16'. Top A2, A4 (no ramps), bottom 2-M4 with ramps.
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CD

I started gathering parts (FN) and boxing the parts together to build later.
I grabbed an old box of A2 pistol grips and wonder if the FN had a special stamp on the inside.
I looked for a "F" stamp and so for nothing found.
I looked in the archives and didn't find anything.

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks

Ron

So, the FN rifles could have "F then a number,  or reversed, a number followed by F." ?

Thank you.
Ron

And I was under the impression the “1 - hole - F” marked grip was FN. Here is that grip on the outside and it lacks the dull powdery finish of most Colt grips. I’ve read the FN’s have a grainy finish and this one has that.

Correction, the third photo is the one that I bought from SAW that they advertised as an FN grip. However, the Bushmaster grip that I started the discussion linked above with appears to be marked the same way (with the addition of the impressions from the star washer since it was used).

Great photos of all the FN A2 uppers. From CD’s photo, we can add FN / Brass Aluminum to the list of upper variations. I was thinking about starting a discussion with a list of FN upper receiver photos (A2,A4, and M4). Would you all mind if I linked to your photos?

Edit to add: I wasn’t all that interested in A2s for a long time. I came in as M4s were taking over, and our A2s looked really worn out. I was never issued an A2 on active duty - I went from an A4 to an M4. I shot A2s a number of times in training but never carried one. But now as I’m getting nostalgic, I’ve gotten interested in building an FN A2. I bought an FNMI marked A2 barrel a few months ago, thinking it was an A4 (with F-marked FSB). When I got it and realized it was an A2, it started me down the road of cloning one.

Cleared to link photos.

CD

So, does anyone know who the circle 1 grips were made for? Mine obviously came off a rifle/carbine that saw a lot of usage.

I thought I’d share my own FN A2 clone progress here, since mine is similar to the FN / Cerro upper above. I only have the upper so far - I plan to go the 80% route with the lower, which will probably take me a bit longer. This was my first experience assembling an upper receiver. I figured it was time to learn, and I had a great time figuring it all out. Had to buy a new torque wrench and a few other accessories, of course...  The upper receiver, barrel, BCG, and charging handle are all FNMI surplus parts. The gas tube, muzzle device, and handguards are Colt. My apologies for the mediocre photos - I just haven’t had any luck catching a day with good lighting for outdoor photos:

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Here’s a look at the upper with its FN / Cerro markings. Other than this one and the one above, I haven’t seen many of these online:

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I’m curious about the color of the receiver. I keep hearing about gray FN receivers, but this one is a very dark gray, almost like faded black. I’m guessing that means it’s a later production A2.

Here’s a look at the FSB. It doesn’t have “FN” forged into it like the A4 FSB I have. That must be a later feature, or FN just used whatever FSBs they had on hand at the time.

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The most challenging part of this project for me (after learning how to torque the barrel to align the gas tube hole) was the peel washer. I grabbed a 6-pack of them off Amazon, messed up the first one, and got it right the second time after salvaging one of the layers I had removed to add a little back onto it. I like the late ‘90s look of the shiny washer:

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A big thanks to @Tigwelder1971 for the heads up about the FNMI barrel at Shark Arms and the upper receiver on the EE. This was a really rewarding project as my first upper build and brings back great memories of my early years in the Army. It’s been about a decade since I last handled an M16A2.

That looks great, brother. I'll have to dig my A2 out to see what markings it has. I bought as a complete FN M16A2 kit less lower and go-fast parts. One of these days I'll get an 80% engraved, finished and anodized to match my last issued musket.

Here's a pic of it on a placeholder lower, along with the HSLD 3-point sling and mag pouch I used in Bosnia. (At least it was at the time! )

Thanks, guys, it’s been a lot of fun researching these rifles and acquiring the parts. I know I’ve said this before, but I wish I could have picked up one of those complete FN kits. Not so much for the upper parts, which haven’t been that difficult to find, but because I would know that the furniture was actual FN-sourced parts. I know that manufacturers like FN outsource these sorts of components, and that the furniture isn’t actually made by FN, but I’d like to get as close as I can to what they use, hopefully even parts from the same supplier. I just wouldn’t know what to look for if I saw a pile of surplus stocks on a table at a gun show, for example.

@grondike, are there any markings of any kind on your FN stock? Numbers inside the door in the butt plate, maybe? I’m really just trying to find anything that would identify the “brand” of stock that FN used (I’m sure they outsourced them from a supplier, maybe even the same one(s) that Colt used). Using the gun show example again, if a dealer had a furniture set labeled as FNMI surplus parts, I would have no idea how to confirm if they were legitimate.

If I can’t figure out what to look for, I’ll just end up using a Colt stock, since it’s quite possible that they both used the same third-party components at one time or another.

Thanks!

@3ACR_Scout - Just pulled it out and there are no markings inside the metal door or inside the stock itself. I did not remove the stock from the extension, so I'm not sure if there are any markings on the other end. I think you'll be good if you find a used A2 stock with a metal door rather than plastic.

While I had it out I took a few pics. This seems to be from a relatively late A2, with the finish matching a black LRB lower pretty well (the upper is smoother than the lower, though) and a barrel date of 01/01. I couldn't get a decent picture of that, but here's what I ended up with.

FN/Anchor Harvey forge marks.


Heavy F on the bolt carrier, and MPF on the bolt.




C, circled FN, 2 on the right side of the front sight base. Nothing on the left.


Typical FNMI barrel markings. It has a crush washer rather than peel (I assume because of the date), but I didn't get a picture of that.

@grondike, thanks a lot for the additional photos. Those raised “F” forge marks seem to be more common in the photos I’m finding from the early 2000s. Would you mind posting a couple shots of the butt plate with the door closed and open? I’m curious if there are any variations in the stock that I should look for.

I opted for the peel washer on mine, both because I found photos from my unit’s deployment in 2005 with them and because I wanted to learn how to install one. My M4 from that deployment had a crush washer, and I believe my M16A4 did also.

When I get around to cloning the lower, I’m going to try to match the serial number of a friend of mine’s rifle who was killed in a helicopter crash on that deployment. I still have my supply records from that unit and may have his serial number recorded. His rifle was destroyed in the crash, so I thought it would be a good tribute to him.

Thanks to this thread I took an extra close look at my A2 upper, never been one to really care about markings and I honestly cannot remember where I got this from.



Looks like it's also a FN upper, I thought it was interesting that it has a rebated front lug, do you guys also have rebated front lugs on your uppers?

Yes; it does like a nice upper. Mine is not rebated.

@3ACR_Scout - here are a couple of pics of the butt stock door, closed and open. Let me know if there's anything else you need.

That’s a great looking upper. Mine is in pretty good shape, but that one looks almost pristine for how old it probably is. I actually didn’t know what “rebated” meant and had to look it up. Yes, my front lug is rebated also. Maybe a Cerro trait?

Thanks, those are very helpful! The hunt for a stock continues...

I wouldn't think FN would have had to worry about mating up to a 601 lower by the time the A2's were being made. Maybe some Airforce contract, they never throw anything away and could still have some 601 lowers floating round.

@Tigwelder1971, thanks you! Again! I just talked to Chris, what a super nice, helpful guy. Got two FN stocks on the way, one for this A2 and another for my A4. I appreciate it!

That's an A1 trapdoor. The A2 doors have a radius ended cut and a tab on the opening latch.

I emailed him at 3:30 this morning when our little guy woke up and I saw your post. I feel like I check his website every couple days but still manage to miss new product listings like this. He said he had people ordering 3 or 4 at a time, so I called him this morning to confirm and pay. Thank you again - it’s amazing how after months of looking around, watching the EE, etc, something will just pop up like this. You saved me a lot of trouble!

Just revisiting this discussion, I noticed that your upper has the exact style of FK markings, with the K below and to the right of the raised F. That seems to match almost every early production Army A2 that I have photos of from my old unit, and later production ones that I saw recently at my current unit. It’s good to know that those uppers are “out in the wild,” so I can keep an eye out for one. I really like the FN Cerro upper I posted above, but an FK upper would get me closer to cloning the specific rifle that I’m after.

I’ve learned a lot from this thread, so I had to bump it up again with a few photos of one of the FN stocks that I ordered from Shark Arms. I was really glad to get hold of actual FN stocks to make my A2 and A4 clones a little closer to correct (still in progress). One thing I’m curious about - but won’t worry about too much - is whether a late ‘90s FN A2 had any significant differences, when it comes to furniture, compared to an early 2000s FN A4, or a more recent A4. I’m guessing these stocks from Shark were very recent production, maybe from the same batch as their FN Military Collector series, but maybe they were actual military surplus since the A4 has been phased out of production. One difference that I keep seeing people mention is the metal vs. plastic trap door on the stock, but I don’t know when that change happened, and I don’t recall my issued A4 having a metal door. The plastic door and buttplate on this FN stock from Shark seem very familiar to me.

I would have thought there would be more differences between this recent production A2/A4 stock and older A2 stocks, but mine looks like the one that came with grondike’s FN A2 kit, so I’ll go with it for my A2 project.

I’m having a hard time telling the difference between the stock in his photos and mine in these pictures below. His photos are a little dark, but the door appears to be the same as the one on my A2 stock. If you can point out the difference, I’m curious to learn more about these variations.

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I was issued an FN M-16A2 many years ago at Basic training.

It had a small head FA....

I do especially remembering that the upper and lower were horribly mismatched, and the "dot matrix" type of engraving.

I want that lower!!!!!!  

I used a newer FN lower for A2 upper (fk).

After a lot of patient searching, I finally found an FK upper on GB, and it arrived yesterday. It’s interesting - the placement of the K is slightly lower than on the OP’s upper, and on some of the Army ones that I have photos of, but it’s very subtle and maybe just represents a minor production variation. I had to pay a little more than I would have liked, but it gets me much closer to the correct clone I’ve been wanting to build:

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There are some small issues with this upper that I’ll comment on in a separate post. Right now I’m just enjoying the end product. Here’s a comparison with the FN / Cerro upper that I started with. It’s interesting to see the color difference, which may not show up well in this photo. The Cerro upper is black or very dark gray, while the FK is a nice medium gray:

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And here is my upper rebuilt with the FK receiver. I’ll have to track down a gray charging handle to match the receiver:

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