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Colt Ar15s

6K views 57 replies 24 participants last post by  DSC 
#1 ·
Thinking of buying a Colt 6960. I hear a lot anymore about Colt farming out their parts now, Do you think a Colt is worth the chance anymore?
 
#4 ·
When I served I was issued Colts (not to mention General Motors and H&Rs too) and then later FNs. Unless Colt has done something lately to improve, I would take the FN over the Colt any day.

Al
 
#6 ·
My FN during basic training was an excellent rifle.

To the OP, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Colt 6960. But then again, I wouldn't hesitate to buy an FN, Spikes Tactical, Daniels Defense, BCM, Larue, LWRC, Noveske or several others.

I would go into several different gun stores and look over any that I was interested in. If you can rent some rifles at a gun range then that is better. If you have friends and family then I would ask their opinion and see if you could fire their rifle. Ask people what their next AR purchase will be and ask them why.
 
#48 ·
Colts OEM rifles are a decent offering at $750ish. They are the bare basic combat grade AR, I would not spend too much more then that though. You are paying more for them over say A PSA due to their for QC standards. They are gtg but alot of their offerings are over priced. I love my 6920 though, its at 7500 rounds been cleaned twice and been through 6 carbine courses that range from 300 rounds in a day to 1200 rounds for 2 and 3 day courses. I lube it every 2-500 rounds , use good mags and it has been nothing but reliable, ymmv.
 
#12 ·
To the OP I'd say to 1st decide what the primary roll it would play. Is it going to be used for home defense, target shooting, plinking, or a SHTF primary rifle, etc.?? While I'm not a Colt fan boy by any means, I also am not a hater. I do think you can get rifles of equal quality for less, or at least of ~90% as good of quality for ~2/3 the price (or less). So is that price difference of no significance, or the slightly better quality of the colt worth a few hundred extra bucks? That's something only you can decide IMO. Maybe you've just always wanted a colt, price & quality be dammed! Then go for it. Some things we buy just because we want them. I wanted an A2 for the only purpose to have an AR that looked like the M-16A2 I carried when I was in the army. I also wanted to be able to set it right next to an M4 clone for my son to show him what the difference was before he went in the army (albeit w/ an 1 1/2" longer barrel on the M4Clone). I really don't care to do anything with it honestly, other than let it hang on the wall & be a conversation piece as well as a reminder of my time in. I generally keep fairly good tabs on how much a build costs me, that one I didn't cause I was going to build it anyway. I would guess I have at least $700 into it, maybe closer to $800 & I still need to find a rear sight assembly then it will be 100% finished. In the end the only one who can decide if it's "worth" it. Either way, good luck!
 
#14 ·
It's TRUE about Daniel Defense being anti 2A. You can do a Google search to find out the details...after their initial anti 2A statements they did some back peddling.

They make a good rifle. But they are way overpriced and a lot of people make a good rifle.

+1 for colts. I have 2 and never a problem.
 
#22 ·
No, I said they didn't WANT to sell to civilians.

And when they did, they modified them. Additionally, Colt is the reason we have some bolt carriers that look like this:



Most new AR15 owners won't even recognize that because most manufacturers have gotten away from that now, IDK if Colt still does. And they also did this:



Not a huge deal? Maybe. But you have to ask yourself WHY?

I remember reading about how Colt resisted selling to civilians 12-15 years ago, and it's not talked about a lot now. But I haven't forgotten.

It doesn't matter to me what people buy. It's a free country. I just know I won't go out of my way to buy a Colt.

.
 
#26 ·
I thought you wanted a link to where Daniel Defense's owner was supporting anti-gun laws. Anyway, I'm curious too if Colt did that. I think you are mistaking S&W for Colt. S&W around 1999-2000 worked with the klintoons & agreed not to sell any weapons to civilians, only to military & police (M&P ring a bell?). The closest thing I can think of Colt stopping sales of AR's is back in the 80's when the AR assembly line workers union went on strike at the same time as there was some traction for assault weapons bans. As I recall Colt said they would temporarily halt production of the AR15 (which was already shutdown due to the strike) until either the bill was passed or defeated. That was a two for one no brainer, they put the scare in the union to get them back to bargaining & got some positive press from the MSM, who would normally be on unions side, but either didn't figure it out, or were more for gun control than they were the union. They also got some good will from the anti-gunners (if there is such a thing) all without spending a dime. That was ~30 years ago, I'm fairly sure ownership & management has changed a few times since then. I have never owned a Colt either. I've also never owned a S&W. I do own Ruger's though, but Bill Ruger has been dead for close to 20 years now too. I also think Bill Ruger's sins are less than that of S&W's as Ruger was just for the 10 round mag limit, not stopping sales of firearms to civilians, but both are infringements. What about Springfield & Rock River? Do you lump those in with Colt? How about S&W, Daniel Defense and Ruger? What about MFG's like Troy & H.S. Precision, Inc.?


Here's some links to the S&W deal.
.

https://rense.com/general/wesson2.htm

.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20000320/the-smith-wesson-sellout

.

https://qz.com/1215914/parkland-flo...eader-in-gun-safety-until-the-nra-stepped-in/

.
 
#33 ·
For awhile there, Colt went a lot farther than that little bridge in the pic above. Im going to say it was back in the 90's, and it was a hardened "block" specifically there to stop any kind of conversion to FA, which included a LL. Supposedly, you couldnt remove the block, without destroying the receiver.

This is what the block Im referring to looked like.



A lot of the big makers seemed to side with the feds back then. HK really put a screwing to us, and then again, made some of us a good bit of money because of it. As did some of the guns during the various "bans" everyone seems to forget about. Funny how things become more valuable, when you arent allowed to have them.
 
#37 ·
Back in the early to mid '90s, Colt had to weather the "evil black rifle" gun-control storm nearly alone. Because back then, they owned about 99% of the AR market. The AR-15 was their flagship rifle. There weren't 50 some other manufacturers also pumping out the design. In the main, from the 1960s through the mid 1990s, if you wanted to buy an AR... it had a Colt Pony stamped on the receiver.

Volume AR vendors like Bushmaster, DPMS, et al. came later. Bushmaster themselves getting sued massively in the early 2000s.

Whatever Colt did back then to survive litigation from advocacy groups (and laws passed by the Clinton era federal government)... was what it took to keep ARs viably offered for sale to the public. Those were tough times and tough political opponents. Opponents whose strategy was to sue specific gun manufacturers right out of existence. For the Children.

That was also a time when Colt already suffered under tremendous financial, union, and ownership troubles. They had to give a little in that political clime... or go under.

When it comes to ARs, Colt had a kind of Horatio at the Bridge moment. And held that bridge against all comers. Which is why you can buy a bazillion varieties of complete ARs (or components) today. Had Colt caved completely back then, that proprietary design would likely have been outlawed for civilian sale. Had Colt been forced to withdraw that weapon from the market, emergent (and much smaller) AR startup vendors would have also soon folded.

Every single M4A1 I took to war was made by Colt. They all worked reliably, accurately, and effectively. Still my personal gold standard for ARs. I can buy better-than-TDP versions (for a lot more money), but I don't really need to. Colt 6920s deliver my mail just fine. YMMV.
 
#46 ·
^^^ Yeah, I know but I haven’t decided how far I wanna go with this rifle. I bought it because it had been bubba’ed a little (Commercial M4 stock & H3 Buffer). I reinstalled the stock that came with it but it’s still not reliable. Not sure if it uses the same Rifle Buffer as a 5.56 but I’ll need to acquire the right part. To date, it has been totally unreliable in either configuration. I just want to restore the weapon but might have that stupid sear block removed in the future. Funny thing, I’ve got several other AR’s (made by Colt, BCM, ArmaLite, and S&W) and I’ve never felt like buying and installing an auto sear. I can hardly afford to fire semi auto rifles let alone rock & rollers.
 
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