Colt AR15A4 and FN15 - Side by Side Picture Comparison

[Clyde]

Hello. Long time reader, first time post. First off, thanks for all the knowledge I have learned from this Forum. It is because of M4C that I decided to get into ARs. Previously into gas piston guns primarily...SCARs, SIG 556s (Swiss parts), M1As. My first AR was actually a Remington R-25 for hunting, then I picked up a Colt LE6940, and instantly caught the contagion....

I have always wanted to buy a rifle-length AR similar to the M16, but I wanted one from Colt, heard about the AR15A4, and it was on. Then I learned FN was going to release the FN15. So I decided I would like to own one of each, and now I do.

There seems to be a considerable amount of interest in these rifles, so I thought I would post some pictures showing the differences between the two as delivered from the factory.

I have not shot these yet - just bought them, but I plan to clean them and go shoot them ASAP. I know Brand X versus Brand Y comparisons are verboten, so I am staying away from that intentionally. Anyway, on with the picture show....

FN-15 out of the box (I bought it first while awaiting the Colt's arrival; comes with a D&H Industries mag with an FN baseplate):



Colt out of the box (comes with a P-Mag):





One of these things is different from the other:



There has been a lot of discussion on the Web about "F" marked front sight bases - the FN comes with one, the Colt does not. I plan to run these with iron sights for the foreseeable future; if it is an issue, a $15.00 part will make it a non-issue (at least for me...FN FSB first, Colt second):







FN-15 - sure would be nice to see a milled FN logo here:



Colt - in my opinion, Colt did this right:



Colt has an ambidextrous safety selector - a definite plus..., and note the marking differences:






Quality niggle - the FN hand guards inner aluminum heat shield was misaligned - minor cosmetic issue, but the Colt's was aligned perfectly, suggesting more attention to detail in assembly, or perhaps better vendor quality control on the part:





FN laser etching - looks okay to my eye, but I would much rather have a milled logo - the difference in price between the two rifles was ~$100ish; not sure if I would pay the extra for the milled logo, but I probably would, in all honesty:



One final discernable external difference - the FN is about a quarter-inch longer:





I will post some more pictures once I break the guns down to clean off the factory rust preventatives and machining crud.

My overall impression thus far is these are two high-quality rifles, and I am very pleased with and proud to own both of them. There are some differences between the two, for sure, but I have waited for a factory built and factory warrantied 20" barreled AR15 for as long as I can remember, and now they are commercially available, and affordable. It will be interesting to see how well they shoot.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed seeing the photos and some more details....

[Caduceus]

Thanks, welcome, and congrats!

[JS-Maine]

Nice pics and comparison. I've been waiting to see the FN. Odd they went with a laser etching. That seems kinda weak IMO. I'm guessing the FN was the cheaper of the two?

No "f" marked FSB on the Colt? What the F? ...had to go there.

[Eurodriver]

With posts like these you're more than welcome to continue. I think my quality post to useless banter ratio is 1:2000. Thanks for the info!

[Slvr Surfr]

Clyde,

If you have the opportunity, please take pics of the internals on the FN such as the bolt carrier group to include the staking on the carrier key.

Thanks for the pics thus far!

[MistWolf]

No "f" marked FSB on the Colt?

The 20" rifle doesn't use the F marked FSB. The extra height of the F marked FSB came about to fix problems with the shorter sight radius of the AR carbine

[user]

How about the bcg differences and the buffers in each? Thanks and nice write up

[MSparks909]

Nice first post! Thanks for the pics. Sub'd for pics of the buffer, BCG and chamber/feed ramps. Is the FN's barrel 1/7 or 1/9?

[sadmin]

Great post! Thanks for info.


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[joeyjoe]

Excellent pictures! Obviously its just cosmetic, but the FN laser etching above the magwell on the lower looks horrible imo (screams consumer level rifle). As far as the F marked FSB issue on the colts... Grant mentioned that some were shipping with the F marked FSB and some were not. I was under the impression that M16 A4's were supposed to have F marked FSB's. ??