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Posted: 10/4/2008 12:14:33 PM EDT
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A couple weekends ago I picked up a new Colt AR-15A2 Government Carbine (model AR6520). It has a 16.1" lightweight barrel witha 1:7" twist, 4-position telestock, and A2-type upper receiver. Although Colt's website lists it as coming with traditional carbine handguards, mine shipped with M-4 handguards. The M-4 handguards are fatter and have double heat shields. Unloaded weight w/o a magazine is 5.8 lbs. Initial inspection of the rifle showed it to have a nice uniform black finish with no handling marks. Inside it was clean and with a light coating of some lube. Unlike my Colt AR-15A3 Tactical Carbine (model AR6721) it came with an M-16 type bolt carrier. I cleaned and relubed, using ATF. The rifle came with a cleaning kit, sling, and 2 20 round mags. (One of the rod sections came with damaged threads and won't screw into the rest, which I need to call Colt about.) Today I took it to the range and put 120 rounds through it using the factory magazines, along with 2 20 round Magpul P-Mags. I started with 80 rounds of Lake City XM-193 5.56mm Ball (55 grain FMJBT), followed with 40 rounds of Wolf 55 grain JHP .223. I experienced no malfunctions with the rifle even after getting it hot and putting steel cased ammo through it. Zeroing required minimal adjustment at 50 yards. Compared with my 6721, the 6520 is noticeably lighter and less steady to shoot offhand. The 6721 has a 16.1" 1:9" twist heavy barrel whose weight dampens a lot of a shooter's trembling during offhand slowfire. But the lighter 6520 is faster on target. 5.56mm recoil is of course mild but the 6520 does have more muzzle jump than the 6721. Cleaning after shooting took only a few minutes, using a GI-type cleaning kit. Hoppe's No.9 got the gunk out easily. Since I shot steel cased Wolf in the rifle I paid special attention to the chamber. The steel cases don't expand to seal the chamber as well as brass cases, so the chamber gets quite dirty. This can lead to FTEs after switching back to brass cased ammo. It's only one outing but so far I'm pleased with the new rifle. Accessorization will be kept to a minimum. I've put on an Israeli patrol sling and an elastic handguard wrap from Zahal.org. I may also put an Aimpoint on the rifle. The red dot should enable me to shoot more accurately than the irons, due to the short sight radius, plus be much more useful in low light. With the 50K hour battery life I'm not worried about it going out on me, and the irons will remain as a backup anyway. Being left handed I ordered an ambidextrous selector and a Gapper (to fill the hole at the back of the trigger guard) from DPMS. The ambi selector came last week but instead of a Gapper they sent me an Accu-Wedge, designed to reduce slop between an AR-15's upper and lower receivers. I put an email into DPMS and they are supposed to be sending me the Gappers (I ordered one for each of my AR-15s). |
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The sexiest piece in the LE Colt line up! Ultimate KISS right outa the box. Been loving on mine since the day I got her back in Sept. '07. Added a MIAD grip, gapper, accuwedge, O ring and that's it. She came with Trijie night sights already installed, as she was a dept. trade in. It gets better folks, but not on this planet! |
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i recently got a 6520 {2 days ago} took it to the range with iron sites and shot a 4 inch group at a 8inch target at 125 yards ....kneeling...I have own 5 of the most popular brands and several styles and i am falling for this oneh.gif . |
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