hi, I purchased a DPMS M4 .22LR upper with permanitly attached A2 style muzzle brake
postban legal from Cheaperthandirt.com back in june, it was great untel a minor problem and I had to send it back for a replacement and sense then they have been out of stock. so far they are the only people I have found offering a postban legal M4 upper with the welded A2 muzzle brake.
does anyone know of any place else selling this upper in postban form with an fixed A2 muzzle brake? thanks much

I have news for you, what you had was a preban unit with standard A2 flash hider, not a postban legal muzzle brake. I know, I have one. CTD for some reason is not offering the postban version and I haven't seen it anywhere else for anywhere near CTD's price. Sorry.

Duplicate posting deleted.

thanks Snake45, ya from what I found out there just using preban units and permanitly fixing the A2 flash hider on pinning and welding in place calling it a muzzle brake and cut off the bayanet lug and calling it postban legal and swearing it is legal to use on postban rifles. I don't really know how legal doing that is but. there doing it. then the price..there price is far better than anyones I have seen for an actual postban model and it looks far better with the A2 hider on the end so there is my problem. keep on waiting for my replacement or purchase a unit somewere else without the A2 hider and pay about $100 more.

Hi Snake45 and Debose03, I am interested in getting a DPMS .22LR upper too, but I have some questions: Are these upper forged alum or casted alum.? I cannot find the model number listed by CTD in DPMS website. I also heard that the forward assist is inoperatable, is that true? then what is its function? only for the look?

Thanks,

Hi ShootAndHunt, I beleave these uppers are forged but can't remember anymore and can't find my DPMS parts book. as for the CTD or DPMS model number CTD kinda has a unique DPMS .22LR M4 upper it's slightly differn't or just modified than any others I have found.  seems it's a DPMS preban M4 or on DPMS's website A4 .22LR upper that has the A2 flash hider permanitly attached A2 flash hider and cut off bayanet lug and claiming it's then postban legal. I don't know if they get them from DPMS like this or having it done somewere else but so far CTD is the only place to get the DPMS M4 .22LR upper configured that way. it's is very authintic looking and I like it very much your right about the forward assist it does nothing but look good because the bolt is of such design that it's just not used.

Wow, this is a mystery!

DPMS's catalog shows the .22 M4 whole rifle, preban, LE only, as having forged receiver, A2 flash hider, and NO bayonet lug.

The catalog shows the .22 M4 upper as having the bayonet lug and A2 FH. Does not say the FH is permanently attached, and does NOT say the upper is forged!

The uppers section of the catalog only mentions forging on a couple of the receivers, not all. Have to assume the rest are cast.

The DPMS .22 M4 upper I bought from CTD has the A2 FH and NO bayonet lug. I can't get the FH off (yet) but that doesn't mean it's "permanently" attached. I've heard they're loctited and will come off by soaking in acetone or similar. The FH looks identical to the one on the preban M&S midlength upper I just got, so I don't think they can get away with calling it postban legal. (Hopefully that won't matter soon.)

Could the CTD gun be built with a cast receiver and the regular one built with forged, which accounts for the $100 cheaper price? I have no idea, just guessing here. Either way, the gun runs fine and I like it a lot.

And here's the dirty truth on how I got my DPMS beauty:

Dec '03, ordered the flattop M4A3 DPMS .22 upper from Cheaperthandirt.
The original price was $380.

Jan '04, CTD says, "It's on backorder."

Feb, CTD says, "When an item is on backorder for more than 30 days, we cancel your order."  
I say, "Well hell, thanks for the notice.  I'd like to re-order the unit please."
CTD was like, "Okay, that'll be $399."  
We discussed my situation and they brought the price back to the original $380, which I appreciated.

March, no news, still on backorder / out of stock.

April, something black and beautiful arrives at my house.
Now, I'm still very much an AR-15 newbie.  But I was pretty sure that I just purchased a .22 upper in true pre-ban configuration.  It was a no-BS A2 flash hider (not muzzle break) on the barrel.  No bayo lug, but whatever.

I wrote DPMS.  This is how I came to appreciate their AWESOME customer service.
Swiftly, they replied, "We're aware of the situation, here's some options for you."
So, per our arrangement, I shipped my pre-ban M4A3 back to Panther.  For a very reasonable fee, they swapped my unit for a post ban AND (per my request) swapped the A3 flattop for a totally kickin A2 iron sight upper receiver.

When it finally came home, I hooked it up to a DPMS A-15 lower with an ACE stock from CMMG
www.cmmginc.com/inventory_a/AR_Rifles_and_Receivers_IItbl.html

And from that day forward, I've been looking to sell my Ruger 10/22.  Really, nothing is cooler than those rimfire DPMS ARs.