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Posted: 1/12/2011 3:14:55 PM EDT
| May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. You'd be better off buying a complete upper, then mating it to the lower of your choice. I know of no manufacturer who offers a completely correct A2 complete rifle. I would buy one of these uppers (you have the option of selecting an A2 upper). Most everyone over in the AR Discussions Forum will recommend BCM, even though you specify an A2 upper. |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. Where do you see FN Lowers on occassion? |
You can still buy complete Colt M16A2 (Sporter H-Bar, Match Target, etc) style on Gun Broker. I just put this M16A2 clone together this past weekend, and the upper is USGI FN M16A2. I bought the complete upper from here (EE) and it's 1/7 twist. 1/7 twist is very common nowadays with FN and Colt barrels. I've never seen an FN lower for sale anywhere...
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You can still buy complete Colt M16A2 (Sporter H-Bar, Match Target, etc) style on Gun Broker. I just put this M16A2 clone together this past weekend, and the upper is USGI FN M16A2. I bought the complete upper from here (EE) and it's 1/7 twist. 1/7 twist is very common nowadays with FN and Colt barrels. I've never seen an FN lower for sale anywhere... http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac47/U5512/AR15/Picture1230.jpg Yup...weapon looks good. I see the uppers...but most of the complete Colts are post ban. Mine must have the evil features. I'll keep looking or build one up. |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. Where do you see FN Lowers on occassion? They are out there FN lower. Legit or not, don't know. Certainly won't have the fun switch requirements for internals but... |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. Where do you see FN Lowers on occassion? They are out there FN lower. Legit or not, don't know. Certainly won't have the fun switch requirements for internals but... If that is legit, it is the first one I have seen. |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. Where do you see FN Lowers on occassion? They are out there FN lower. Legit or not, don't know. Certainly won't have the fun switch requirements for internals but... If that is legit, it is the first one I have seen. Same here. I'm off to see if anyone in AR Discussions knows about them. |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. Where do you see FN Lowers on occassion? They are out there FN lower. Legit or not, don't know. Certainly won't have the fun switch requirements for internals but... If that is legit, it is the first one I have seen. Same here. I'm off to see if anyone in AR Discussions knows about them. I already did the same. |
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Here's a brand new pre-ban Colt with all of the evil features.
Colt Sporter |
Never seen an FN lower that was semi-auto civie legal but here's mine witha McKay lower and an FN upper though.
I guess the Colt rifles are pretty close to the real thing if the prancing pony is important to you but the ones I've seen linked here are lacking their bayonet lug (makes the rifle look odd IMHO) and their internal parts also are different than the industry standard in regards to pin size which for me also leaves me cold on Colt ARs. No, I am perfectly happy with building my own rifle with the correct parts even if my lower doesn't have the pony on it. |
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It's a little hard to tell, but that particular one seems to be lacking the evil feature bayonet lug, but does seem to have the pin on the right hand side indicating the evil feature trigger block. I have one of those bastiges locked up in the safe, bought new in '94 shortly before the crime bill passed (a) because I still could and (b) because I was planning on returning to service rifle competition and at the time, about the only way to build a rifle was to start with a complete one. The purchase was about 10-years before I actually got around to doing anything about returning to SR competition, and by that time, the world of how to build a SR had changed, and the rifle has sat in the same place since, unmolested. I may get it out for its 20th birthday and see if it works. Or not. |
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May be a bit "off" for you guys but I'm in search of a good ol' M16A2 clone. I'm at a loss for a specific colt model that may fit the bill. I see FN lowers and uppers on occassion. It seems the 1/7 twist barrel is difficult to find. Plenty of 1/9 twist wanta-be's. Where should I start for a complete rifle purchase...or build. My SP1 needs a younger brother. You just missed these for sale in the Equipment Exchange. Keep looking there as the seller continuously sells this type of item there. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=7&f=119&t=831075 Also, Colt A2 uppers appear in the EE frequently as well. An A2 lower can be found inexpensive as well. Here are two that I would build for an A2. http://nodakspud.com/newstuff.htm http://wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=8913&dir=700|863 My M16A2 clone built by using a Colt A2 upper with an FNMI barrel on a LRB lower. 
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The Colt MT6601 Match Target HBAR would be a good starting point. From there you could yank the HBAR and sell it or trade it and grab an A2 barrel off the EE, and you'd have an M16A2 clone basically no effort. The MT6601s I've seen typically sell for less than carbine types anyways.
~Augee |
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The Colt MT6601 Match Target HBAR would be a good starting point. From there you could yank the HBAR and sell it or trade it and grab an A2 barrel off the EE, and you'd have an M16A2 clone basically no effort. The MT6601s I've seen typically sell for less than carbine types anyways. ~Augee Problem with that would be the larger than normal FCG pins and the possible sear block that would come with it. Those two would make the clone less authentic if the OP is trying to get as close as possible. That being said, I don't think the newer Match Target models have large pins and sear blocks. |
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I would source all the parts and build it yourself. This is the way I went this summer and got as close as I could to the issue A2s that I've carried over the years and it turned out to be more affordable than you would think.
A couple of small things for a A2 build. The EE has the right barrels which pop up alot, along with A2 upper receivers. I went with a Colt upper and a Colt Barrel I got off the EE and then sourced all the other parts either from my spare parts bin, the EE or from vendors on the site. And you can usually get a good deal on them since the A2 doesnt get as much love. Almost any LPK will work just make sure you get a AL trigger guard since some use plastic for this. And you want a slotted screw for the pistol grip, not a allen head bolt. (I used a DPMS LPK, which I got on sale from Midway) Also, you want a forged Charging handle. I orginally used DPMS CH but have since replace it with a Colt one off the EE. The stock is the hardest thing if you are trying to get as close as you can to a issue A2. The commercial stocks are almost all a rougher gray finish, you want a smoother black finish. Armalite's A2 stock body is the closest I've found outside of surplus stock bodies. Also the Trap door on the butt plate should be aluminum (DPMS), not plastic (Armalite and some others). I used a Armalite stock body with all the other hardware out of a DPMS A2 stock kit. |
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The Colt MT6601 Match Target HBAR would be a good starting point. From there you could yank the HBAR and sell it or trade it and grab an A2 barrel off the EE, and you'd have an M16A2 clone basically no effort. The MT6601s I've seen typically sell for less than carbine types anyways. ~Augee Problem with that would be the larger than normal FCG pins and the possible sear block that would come with it. Those two would make the clone less authentic if the OP is trying to get as close as possible. That being said, I don't think the newer Match Target models have large pins and sear blocks. All current production Colts, as far as I know now have .154 FCG pins, and haven't had sear blocks in years, unless you consider the incomplete machining of the sear area (the "web") to be a sear block. The MT6601 is still a catalog item. In all honesty, however, I don't think that the .170 FCG pins (all my Colt lowers have such) are that big of a deal. The don't detract any more from the authenticity than not having a select fire FCG does. The sear block is a little more annoying, if only because they prevent the use of a standard weight carrier. However newer Colts no longer have them, and have, for the last few years, shipped from the factory with standard weight carriers. ~Augee |
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I ended up getting a Colt 6551 as my "general purpose" plinker, 3-gun rifle and self defense rifle. Mine is post ban. I intend to eventually get the barrel threaded. If you absolutely must do bayonet charges, it's costly but the FSB can be replaced. ETA: Unless you want an aftermarket match trigger, don't worry about the .170 trigger pins found on used colts. New ones, if you want hbar, are now sold with standard pins. |
Here's my all Colt M16A2 clone I built way back in 2005, I still have it now but it have the proper Colt A2 grip instead of the Duckbill grip shown Details: Upper half: Colt USGI M16A2 (new never issued) BCG: Colt M16 auto CH: Colt Lower receiver: stripped Colt Match Target HBAR MT6601 (large FCG holes) LPK: Colt large pin (from SAW) Buttstock group: Colt M16A2 Colt A2 upper/ barrel are harder to find now than in '05 but some of the machine gun dealers, GB, EE, etc still have them every now and then. No problem with my large pin FCG lower, I had been using them on some of my older former Colt rifles and carbines since the early '90s, if I want to get small pin lower I could just get a newer Colt MT lower made around 2009 or later with the standard pins. The only slight mismatch with my build is that the lower finish is black and the upper is Colt gray, next time I have time I will send my lower to be refinished Colt gray. |
| An A-2 build is probably the least expensive and easiest AR build to do right now. How correct do you want to get? First figure out if you want it Colt grey or black those are basically your options. A-2 lowers and lower parts kits are very in-expensive right now and NDS now offers a Colt grey lower. Do you want all Colt? You usually need to know an affiliate to purchase a FN semi lower. Is it worth the extra coins? Keep in mind a parts rifle is just a parts rifle. Do you want a 1-7 twist barrel? These prefer heavier weight bullets and are not as ammo friendly as a general rule. I'm guessing your SP-1 is 1-12 twist (lighter bullet). Lots of complete Colt and FN A-2 1-7 twist uppers out there right now for cheap. Do you want to build your rifle or buy a complete rifle? I prefer to build my own and go more for rifle performance than re-sale, but I also don't plan on selling them. Make a plan, buy the parts once and have a great time. I also personally prefer an A-3 as it offers more options, but that's just my opinion and I like to switch parts around all the time. It's better for me. I'd say you can easilly build a nice A-2 clone for less than $700 if you want to shop a little and most every part would be new or like new. You will need a few tools to assemble it yourself but I do them for my friends as requested as a hobby. I'm sure there are people in Alabama that do the same. You're talking a couple of hours to build tops. A Colt complete rifle with bayo lug and FH is probably going to run a little more dough because they are more in demand than post ban. Also keep in mind that with the economy like it is there are a bunch of deals out there. Bunch of Colts in my area for cheap right now but you have to be there with the cash in hand. Figure out what you want and make it happen. Having fun and enjoying your rifle is the main issue here. |
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Bravosector1,
Just checked gunnyssurplus site and he is still showing USGI A-2 uppers for sale. He had FN's and Colts. Would recommend a call if that's what you want. |
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Would advise caution with Gunny's some folks have had trouble with him in the past. Like the picture of the 604 upper on his site is stolen from NDS.
I've heard that also but never had a real problem myself. He gave me some stuff one time that was kinda beat but it was free. I'm not defending him but everybody steals pics. It's what the web design college books tell you to do. Pisses me off also, especially when they are my pics, but it's the easy way to do things. One of the reasons I quit doing pics a long time ago. Heck if you don't like the upper send it back, the excellent condition uppers I've seen from him were better condition than most on the EE for less money. |
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Here is a kit for sale.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=209617754 |
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