Used Colt Barrel

[Krazykarl]

I just obtained a 20" M16A2 barrel. Price was good (free). No front sight, delta ring, gas tube, etc... How hard will this be for my untrained skills in assembling into an A2 Upper? I have put together stripped lowers. Uppers I have not assembled before.

[HKGuns]

I am in the process of doing that right now.

If you go the A2 route it will likely cost you close to, if not more than simply buying an AR15M4 when they're on sale.

It isn't difficult to assemble, finding all the right parts will be time consuming and costly. If you've never done a complete upper before there are probably some gadgets you'll need that you don't have for assembling lowers.

However, since your barrel was free you just might make out on the good side of it financially.

[Krazykarl]

What are the odds that a predrilled front sight base will actually line up with the existing holes in the barrel?

[HKGuns]

Pretty good I would think. They're pretty standardized as long as you're using a Colt FSB.

[Krazykarl]

I would need oversized taper pins?

[JediGuy]

Hey Karl, you’ll probably get a better response in the appropriate forum. General makes sense, but you could also use Technical. Custom Builds has specific instructions on what should be posted here.

[mack7.62]

Do you know the history of the barrel? If not I would get it gauged before doing a build, I bought a cheap Colt A2 barrel one time that turned out it swallowed a throat gauge. Looked good on the outside, rifling looked good, chamber was completely shot out.

[Krazykarl]

How do I move this thread to the appropriate forum? If I can't do it, please do it for me.

Thank you!!

Ps. The Barrel came from my brother. 50 rounds fired...

[556Cliff]

Pretty good I would think. They're pretty standardized as long as you're using a Colt FSB.

Unfortunately that's not the case. A random take off FSB stands almost no chance of it's taper pin holes lining up with the taper pin holes on a random barrel where the FSB was removed. Even if they were both Colt parts it would be the equivalent of winning the lottery.

It might be possible for ADCO or Retro Arms Works to do something to get this to work, but even they might not want to mess with it. Wouldn't hurt to ask though.

[Krazykarl]

I found a local gunsmith willing to take this on. Now for the hard part. Finding all of the parts for the upper and lower.