Folks,

I also posted this question to the AR-15L list on Yahoo, sorry if I'm wasting anyone's time or bandwidth.

Back in November 1979 I bought a stock AR-15 SP1 (serial SP107xxx) from a friend who ran a small gun store that mostly catered to supplying local police departments. I bought it as NIB, and kept it that way, storing it out of state for about ten years when my then
home state banned it as an "assault rifle".

When I bought it, I took it out of the plastic wrap, squirted the action and barrel with CLP (on advice of the dealer), and just kept
it in the closet. I handled it a few times, but never fired it, never changed anything on it, and kept all the original accessories and
literature with it.  It does have a few very light handling marks on it, along with a slight stain on the lower receiver from what I
assume is coagulated CLP.

Earlier this year I decided to sell it to raise some badly needed funds, and a friend of mine with an 01 offered it on Gunsamerica, as
being a "Colt Pre-ban AR15 SP1 NIB with box all acc. Never fired".

Several potential buyers have since then questioned three aspects of the rifle, as to whether it is some kind of mismatched "mutt" of a rifle, and not an original item.

The first question several people had with it is that the upper and lower receivers are a different color; the bottom is a dark gray,
while the upper is a decidedly lighter gray. It never struck me as being that great a difference, but the digital photos he took of it do show a color mismatch.

The second is that the box it came in does not have any kind of label on it, just some rubber stamped codes such as "4-81-1" and "4-81-196", the box was then and still is, in pretty rough condition.

The third question is over the markings, or lack thereof, on the barrel; it seems to lack any indication of the type of barrel, or the
twist ratio.

I am in a real quandary here, this is the only AR15 I have ever owned; while it was out of my possession, it was held at the home of
a friend who never touched it, (he was not a "gun person"), nor did anyone else have access to it, as I had it locked up. I have a very clear sense of the chain of possession of this rifle, and I know that it is in the condition I bought it in back in 1979.

Did I buy something then that was not what I thought it was, told it was, or is there a chance that this is an out of the ordinary, but
authentic, rifle?

I don't want to offer it as something it isn't, or to doanything to impugn my friend's reputation in the firearms community, as he is
selling it for me, using the information I gave him.

I was even thinking of paying Colt to do a lookup on this rifle to
discover its background and pedigree.

Thanks for any enlightenment in the matter. I can forward copies of the photos my friend took if anyone is interested.

GM