Original Colt AR-15's -different than the rifles of today

[dlagrua]

I have an old Colt 6450 9mm carbine with a sear block. Does anyone know the best way to remove it?

From memory I believe that block was held in place with a roll pin that can be driven out from the side of the receiver with a pin punch. The holes may have been the ones originally used by the auto sear but they opened them up to make them no longer usable for this purpose. Just check to be sure. Its been a long time since I had that rifle. Sold it long ago and as stated before; the thing that bothered me the most about that rifle was the lack of a take down pin spring and holding pin. You could easily pull that sucker out and lose or misplace it it. The rifle shot great but that feature sucked.

[jaygee]

I encountered this issue a few months back. My rifle in this case was a single pin retained sear block Very careful cutting with a Dremel tool with abrasive disc cut-off wheel, running as close as I dared to the right side wall....all through the steel pin, got it started. I was then able to gently rock the block front and backwards until the bottom roll pin snapped off. From that point the sear block was easily removed. I then cleaned up the old side pin flush with the inner receiver wall, and buzzed enough of the bottom roll pin until it too was flush. Touch up with cold blue, and we're GTG. I understand the two pin versions are a LOT tougher to get out !

[dlagrua]

IIRC that sear block was held in with two roll pins that didn't exit the other side making them difficult to remove. Drilling the pins out very carefully would probably work. I do not understand how a big company like Colt could do something so stupid as to put a block in the receiver. If you need to clean, lubricate, change a spring, sear, or upgrade the trigger its got to make the job extremely difficult. I soured on Colt rifles a while back when there were reports of the muzzle brakes on the AWB rifles kept blowing off. They were just held on with two 1/8" roll pins and they were breaking off.
Don't believe that there is anything so special about Colt rifles anymore. I now shoot the Wyndham brand as that company uses mainly all mil-spec parts including the barrel and bolt. Just a tiny bit less accurate as the Colt but super reliable and they are finished and work very nicely.

[dsk]

Well the 90's guns were not early semi AR-15's that honor go's to the SP1 of the 60's-70's. Colt has never been civie friendly from the start they changed up the semi rifles to make them unable to use M16 parts, starting with the SP1 oversized front pivot pin, later at different times they went to oversized trigger/hammer pins, sear block's, redesigned lowers etc. In other words unlike the majority of AR mfg's who just changed internal lower dimension's they spent extra $$ to make it harder for us lawbreaking civilians to break Federal law, like they really needed to do so. I never liked that attitude with them, the SP1 and CAR15 were sweet little rifles but having my first experience being M16A1's and early on believing in the need to clean more than needed those stupid oversized double screw front pivot pins always pissed me off. I always liked Colt uppers but their lowers sucked.

I'm old enough to remember reading the copies of Shotgun News my dad had back in the early 1980s. Ads for drop-in full auto AR parts seemed to be on every other page, which is why ATF finally classified even the small parts themselves as machine guns. It might have been hard to convert a Colt to full auto but there were plenty of third party lowers out there that could easily be converted. Colt's corporate attitude back then was little different from Ruger's, yet it seems everyone is quick to forgive Ruger for things they did like refusing to sell 20-round Mini-14 mags to civilians and ultimately backing the federal hi-cap mag ban. And yet plenty of people still hate on Colt even today for decisions they made decades ago.

[MistWolf]

I now shoot the Wyndham brand as that company uses mainly all mil-spec parts including the barrel and bolt

Are the barrels and bolts properly documented to show that the processes and materials are in accordance with requirements of the government specifications? Without that documentation, the parts do not meet mil spec

[TomMcC]

Was converting semi-auto AR's to full auto a big prob back in the day. Or was it a sort of mythical prob jinned up by the anti's?

[Renegade04]

Was converting semi-auto AR's to full auto a big prob back in the day. Or was it a sort of mythical prob jinned up by the anti's?

As long as the Sporter was manufactured in 1986 or earlier, there was not an issue having them converted as long as the proper NFA paperwork was done. I have seen a few of the pre-1980s SP1s done with a full-auto conversion.

[TomMcC]

I do remember the days of the "drop in auto sears". Actually saw a few of them before they were ruled machine guns. I did meet a guy with, as I look back now, an illegally converted AR. At the time I didn't really grasp the "illegality" of his rifle. I just thought it was cool. Never was really aware at the time of real machinists and quality gunsmiths doing the pre-86 conversions, just didn't know any.

[GRA556]

As long as the Sporter was manufactured in 1986 or earlier, there was not an issue having them converted as long as the proper NFA paperwork was done. I have seen a few of the pre-1980s SP1s done with a full-auto conversion.

Right, but this is no longer possible, am I correct?

[Renegade04]

Right, but this is no longer possible, am I correct?

The lower would have to have been converted before 1986 or a device (RDIAS) made prior to 1986. Anything afterward 1986 would not be legal for civilians to own.