1990s Colt 2: Electric Boogaloo
So, I remain pretty happy with my R0719 kit that I posted about a little while ago, but I've also acquired something else that I'm fairly excited about.
So not too long ago Botach had what appeared to be LE trade-in R0733 uppers for sale. Thanks to the movie Heat the 733 "Commando" has always been my favorite 700-series Colt AR, last year I had built an SBR clone of one in fact. But the opportunity to get a real-deal 733 upper was too good to pass up.
I did have some trepidation about ordering from Botach. I'd bought mags from them in the past and never had issues but with something like this I was worried they had used the wrong picture, or it was going to be a hodge-podge of non-Colt parts, or they wouldn't ever actually ship it, or whatever.
Thankfully my concerns proved to be unfounded as I received it yesterday.
These were described as "Department used" so the one I received had some wear and tear but seemed to be in decent shape overall. It did look pretty rough when i unwrapped it but a lot of that turned out to just be dust and grime as a bit of cleaning with a rag and some Ballistol had it looking better. It also had chunks of something stuck to the barrel near the FSB which I suspect might be where a nylon sling or something melted to it after contacting the barrel while it was still hot from firing. I melted a sling to a barrel in similar fashion once myself so it looked familar. In any case it cleaned off easily enough with a hobby knife blade.
so lets go through the pics....Imgur has been weird for me lately so I'm hoping they show up.
The whole upper. Front sling swivel is absent. Presumably removed by the end user for.....reasons? Perhaps it interfered with fitting the gun in a rack?
https://i.imgur.com/5wdhkp0.jpg
Much like with my 719 upper, there is no forge code on the upper.
https://i.imgur.com/3NReLVA.jpg
There is a proof mark in the usual location in front of the ejection port though.
https://i.imgur.com/kPulkUM.jpg
this is probably the most "significant" wear on the upper. To me it looks maybe more like sustained rack wear over a period of time, perhaps in a vehicle or something where the gun is being jostled or vibrated and it's rubbing up against something vs wear from a single event (like being dropped)
https://i.imgur.com/LTvwYdc.jpg
At the front of the receiver we have a "4" mark.........
https://i.imgur.com/i79CgA4.jpg
.......Which would suggest the presence of.......yep, M4 feedramps, vs the "extended carbine" ramps you might expect to see in an earlier production 700-series carbine.
https://i.imgur.com/94OAxU1.jpg
Here's something interesting, the rear sight is the type you would be more apt to see on a Colt 9mm SMG, with the “50 meter” large aperture flipped up in the pic. Whether it came from the factory this way or was changed by a department armorer, I can't say.
https://i.imgur.com/NG2QXfG.jpg
It has the much sought-after six-hole handguards
https://i.imgur.com/iCR1La5.jpg
"O" Marking. Something to do with the chrome vendor IIRC.
https://i.imgur.com/re3QmKP.jpg
Barrel date "4/96".....the 9 kind of looks like an 8 in the pic, but in real life it is definitely a 9. So this goes along well with my 1997 R0719 kit, and 1999 6520 carbine,
https://i.imgur.com/pgiuZEB.jpg
Barrel markings - C MP CB. No caliber markings or twist rate present here or under the handguards. I'm assuming it's 1/7, but I know Colt did do special runs of LE guns in 1/9
https://i.imgur.com/BuGDSul.jpg
Ohh great, another dead night sight of the same type that my PD trade-in 6520 had on it when I got it. Really complicates zeroing as the front post now needs to be rotated in 360-degree increments. When I took my 6520 out to the range for the first time before changing the post out, the elevation was laughably far off at 50yds. I wonder if this has something to do with why this upper is using a SMG rear aperture....
https://i.imgur.com/rc9jS2D.jpg
C-marked BCG, full auto profile.
https://i.imgur.com/YmOHWNn.jpg
MPC-marked bolt.
https://i.imgur.com/MMUvqTU.jpg
Extractor has a black insert.
https://i.imgur.com/tuPge1J.jpg
The BCG also passed a gas-ring check as well.
Pictured next to my SBR 733 clone.
https://i.imgur.com/Svrs0oO.jpg
So there you have it. What I'd really like to do is somehow get a grey Colt A2 lower and SBR it, then stick this upper on there (EDIT: although I’m not sure Colt even made grey A2 semi-auto lowers, I think by the time they started using A2 style lowers on their commercial guns they may all have been black). Failing that, I could SBR a Brownells grey A1 lower, since 733s could be found with A1 style lowers....although a 1996 production 733 would probably be on an A2 type, so we'll see.
Since I'm nitpicky, I will also need to get a Colt front sling swivel. Perhaps I can find a surplus M16A1 unit from one of the various parts vendors out there.
