Industry comment on the "list"
I am a FFL dealer and sell a good number of AR-15 platforms and parts from various manufacturers, so was interested in the "list." The following is an observation from an industry insider that you might find interesting.
"The sheet is flawed in so many ways that I don’t even want to go there. It has been floating around, and even been updated, for a couple years now…and the inaccuracies are at about the same level as the correct info. Amongst the failings are the inclusion of subjective criteria for what is “correct”…such as the M16 carrier.
We do what we can, when we can, to educate people about what “mil-spec” means versus what they think it means. Two companies, Colt Defense and FN, have access to and use of the Government Technical Drawing Package (TDP), and literally sign away the life of their company that they cannot and will not use that TDP for anything other than government contracted builds. They have to segregate parts from those used for commercial builds (probably why FN doesn’t have a civilian side of their line-up), have to have certifications from vendors on every part, have to open their facilities to GSA and AG/IG inspections, etc….Too many people assume that “mil-spec” just means that parts from vendors A, B, and C will fit with components from Vendors D, E, and F. We (and every other manufacturer not working off the TDP) can get close…up to and including buying the same parts from the same vendors...but the complete rifle will not be “mil-spec” by its real definition. Let’s face reality…there is no”mil-spec” for semi-auto rifles, varmint barrels, match chambers, performance triggers, current stocks other than the A2 and both CAR models, etc….Even an NSN number doesn’t equate to a spec...it is just a number assigned to a commercial part that can be bought, as is and “off the shelf", using that number."