Ok what are the differences?  

Which does my RRA best resemble?

www.geocities.com/helwanshooter/

Yours looks like a CAR15 not the M4 style with the relief cut into the barrel for mounting the M203 Grenade Launcher.

I was wondering what that was for?

Quoted: Yours looks like a CAR15 not the M4 style with the relief cut into the barrel for mounting the M203 Grenade Launcher.

Actually looks like neither.  If I remember correctly, the CAR15 had an 11.5 inch barrel and a long flash hider, or was it 14.5.

LarryG is correct.  Your gun is niether.  The Colt CAR-15 (Colt Commando) had the updated NATO rifling (From original 1:14" twist, to 1:12"); it didn't have the brass deflector or a forward assist.

Also, the barrel was very short.  I can't recall  exactly if it was 11.5 or a 10.5 barrel, (which isn't made any longer, 10.5) with a long 4 or 5" flash suppressor.  

They later came out with some A2 variants of the "Colt Commando" in later years.

He asked which does his resemble more, well it  resembles the CAR15 more then the M4.

CAR

LARRYG and Hk45USP,

The rifle you guys describe was the XM177E2.

"CAR-15" has become a generic, bastardized term. Inpart, because Colt originally came up with a product line - Colt Automatic Rifle (CAR, get it?) 15 - that had a number of different M16 variants. A light machine gun, heavy barreled rifle and the infamous shorty to name a few. Consult the Black Rifle for a more definitive discussion.

CAR-15 has generally become term for any AR15/M16 with carbine length handguards. Multiple barrel lengths abound, but 10, 11.5, 14.5 & 16 are the most common. To compound things further, Colt tacked on a lengthy "suppressor" (thanks ATF for that classification!) to the shorty and the result was a "shorty" that was as long as a 16" barrel. Go figure.

The original suppressor was put on to the XM177 after it was developed to help reduce the audible report from the short barrels. These were classified as sound suppressors after the war by BATF so the neutered versions were created to allow for the look of the original and still keep the rifle to the legal length.

Quoted: "CAR-15" has become a generic, bastardized term. Inpart, because Colt originally came up with a product line - Colt Automatic Rifle (CAR, get it?) 15 .......................

The "buzzgunner" has got this right.

Colts' management asses were continually frosted in the early AR-15 days because the 'AR' stood (and still stands) for ARmalite.  With the short barrel version, Colts' finally got their name on a rifle.  (Although technically, technically CAR stands for Colts' ARmaLite Rifle.  Colts' marketing folks did their best to change CAR to mean Colts' Automatic Rifle and have mostly succeeded now.)

VA-gunnut,,,,,,

I got my info out of "The gun digest of assault weapons" and "Handguns & Rifles" from Ian Hogg and "Janes assault weapon's guide".

They describe the "CAR-15" as to what I quoted, not the XM1777E2.  I don't know if there is a difference between the two, or just symantics.

 Maybe this is CAR15: No forward assist, no brass deflector, 14" or 13.5" Colt upper.


 Ignored the flowers sheet, my wife's idea.

 Edit to add:  The bottom is Bushy M4 upper with suppressor.

XM177E2 was the designation given to the Colt Commando used during Vietnam. It was the carbine with the 11.5" barrel and then long suppessor(IIRC it was a 4.5" suppressor) was added to reduce the report. The original design was classified a sound suppressor by ATF because it had baffle system in the suppressor that reduce the sound of the rifle. The style rifle you see with the 5.5" suppressor is considered an XM177 clone in most circles.

I agree that the CAR-15 can be many versions but for most respects the most common(since it won't be a NFA controlled weapon) is the carbine with the 16" barrell. As I stated in the beginning of the post, his rifle resembles a CAR15 more then an M4 in appearance.

We could go into the technical differences between barrel sizes, sights, stocks, handgaurds, slab sided, and all the other differences between the rifles but since the question was "Which does my RRA best resemble?", my original answer still stands.

www.ifrance.com/airwarrior/ARMES/colt_xm177e2__click_for_larger.htm

This is a page I found doing a quick search on MSN. Granted these are for Air Soft guns but it is just a reference point.