Originally Posted by
okie
Colt won the Mk18 contract, so that pretty much says it all. And that Henderson place is saying they get 50-100% more rounds out of Colt BCGs, compared to LMT and DD. That's not to say LMT is bad, not at all, just that Colt is ahead of the curve, for the same price or less.
There's also been rampant speculation about whether LMT conforms to the TDP for their commercial sales. Colt is still to date the only manufacturer that unequivocally says they provide the same parts to their civilian customers as they do to military and law enforcement.
Now LMT's enhanced stuff is a whole different story. The Colt heat treat, while very cost effective, is merely a bandaid, whereas the LMT bolts (and by extension KAC's as well) actually fix the problem, albeit at great expense. That said, I've heard conflicting reports as to whether the bolts will last indefinitely on Mk18s, which might be why SOCOM passed them up in favor of the Colts. Who knows. There's not any clear answer how long an enhanced bolt will last in an SBR, if they last longer than Colt's new ones, or if so by how long. They're so much more expensive, and the information is so non specific, I couldn't justify the cost or sacrifice of interchangeability. I hope in the future there will be some solid data on them.