Hi,
See below for pics. Hoping to help shed some light on the dubious "raised C" colt uppers with keyhole/cerro forge markings...
Descriptions of the 4 upper receivers pictured below:
- Colt raised C + keyhole/cerro forge marking. This is new/take-off from a Colt LE6960 CCU upper sourced from Brownells.
- Colt square/bafe forge marking - No C stamp or cage code. This is also a new/take-off from a Colt LE6960 CCU upper sourced from Brownells.
- Colt cage code upper with square/bafe forge marking. This is virgin upper, purchased from Primary Arms, late 2019. The cage code on this upper is of "dot-matrix" variety.
- Colt cage code upper with square/bafe forge marking. This is also a virgin upper, purchased from Geissele during 2019 BF sale. Cage code on this one is stamped.
Some notes/observations:
- Forging shape/characteristics: All 4 receivers have forging contours that are characteristic of BAFE-marked uppers.
- Machining: Receivers 1, 2, and 3 are similar, and appear to machined by same shop. Receiver 4 is different. Focus on the cut milled into the uppers beneath the picatinny rail.
- T-markings: Receivers 1, 2, and 3 have same engraving/font. Receiver 4 is different. As noted in other threads, this is most visible with the "6".
- Dry-film lube: Receivers 1, 2, and 3 have heavy coating, and overspray visibile on bottom surface. Receiver 4 has much lighter coating applied.
- Small parts: Ejection port door and FA are all typical of Colt factory rifles. FA assembly has roll-pin visible. The doohicky which houses the detent/spring has heavy crimp to keep it secured to the door. Small parts used by cheaper vendors don't have the roll-pin and the heavy crimp.
- M4 stamp on front: Receivers 1, 2, and 3 have same stamp/font. Receiver 4 is different.
Based on all of this, I would say that this "raised C + keyhole" upper is not a fake.
I will speculate that it may have been forged by BAFE for Colt, perhaps for some special edition run (ie. military classics)...
Or perhaps it was made by Cerro for Colt using newer/updated forging plates sourced from BAFE.
The "flaking" issue reported in the other counterfeit thread is real - the C and they keyhole are very thin compared to other older production C-stamped/keyhole receivers.
Perhaps this is why they dumped on the market as stripped receivers - they were considered "blems".
It should also be noted that Receiver 1 (ie. raised C + keyhole) is also almost identical to the SOCOM "sanitized" upper in ProbableColtAddict's post:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Industry/I-Think-I-Have-a-Colt-Addiction/29-293947/?page=4#i3644320
And also mentioned in Minuteman1636's post:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Industry/Colt-6920-SOCOM-Upper-Receiver-sanitized-Marking-Variations/29-294990/Another bit of speculation... Maybe the receivers were "sanitized" for legal reasons?
If there were forged by BAFE with the "raised C + keyhole", then I'm sure Cerro would not be happy about that.
Pics: