Colt 733 Commando question

[Ed L.]

I have a question on this Colt I encountered. It seems to be an earlier Colt M-16A2 Commando 733. The selector is a safe, semi, and burst, and the gun has the select fire internals.

It has an 11.5" barreled A1 upper with A1 rear sights. The lower does not feature the name Commando, but is marked as a M16 A2 and comes with an M-16A2 style pistol grip, which was later replaced by a Tango Down pistol grip. Also the name Colt and the stamping of the rampant pony seem to be very shallow when compared to every other Colt AR-15/M-16 that I have encountered. The light stampings for the Colt name and symbol make me wonder is this gun legit, or some unusual sample done on a day when they were not paying a lot of attention to the stampings?

Attached are some pictures.

colt 733 to post A.jpg

733 to post B.jpg

Colt 733 to post c.jpg

Colt 733 to post d.jpg

[JoshNC]

Can you take some photos of the castle nut and receiver endplate staking on both sides? Never say never with Colt, BUT I gave it on good authority that no Commandos left the factory with burst marked lowers. There were a good number of transferable stripped m16a2 lowers that were sold off to a handful of dealers in the 1990s, those trickled our and were built up by owners. Before paying big money for an A2 commando, I would do some due diligence re: the provenance of the configuration. Or just price it like a regular A2, not a rare transferable 733.

Many factory Colt m16s and AR15s have light rollmarks on the magwell. My 614 is similarly light in the magwell rollmark. I’ve seen many A1 and A2 posted for sale over the years like this as well.

The vast majority of A2 commandos are not marked “commando”.

Personally, if I was in the market for a A2 Commmando, I would only buy an auto marked lower unless the price was just amazing.

[Circle_10]

I'm no expert at all, but my vote would also be that this is an M16A2 rifle lower that someone built a 733 clone on.

It also looks like it has a crush washer behind the flash hider, and I believe a factory 733, particularly an earlier one with an A1 style upper (vs the latter C7 style they had later on) and vinyl coated stock, would use a peel washer instead.

[sinister]

Looks like a mid-80s thru early-90s commercial A2 carbine prior to SOCOM adopting the M4A1. It should have an A1-profile barrel with 1-7 twist and A2 flash hider.

The proper buttstock would have been the plastic carbine stock vice the vinyl-acetate covered "CAR-15" stock -- but those were "iffy" as well, depending on contract dates.

[Ed L.]

Maybe I misnamed it a commando. I am not sure what it is. It does not have the name Commando written anywhere on it. I am not sure what model it is.

Here are some photo of the staking:

733 staking left.jpg

733 staking right.jpg

[sinister]

Your A1-series nut is not staked and the upper has no brass deflector hump.

Looks like somebody built it from a rifle. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you'll need to write Colt for a letter of provenance to know how it left the factory.

The US Government A2 carbines I had were stamped M16A2 but the selector stops were "Safe-Semi-Auto" like the M16A1 carbines.

[Ed L.]

I'm no expert at all, but my vote would also be that this is an M16A2 rifle lower that someone built a 733 clone on.

It also looks like it has a crush washer behind the flash hider, and I believe a factory 733, particularly an earlier one with an A1 style upper (vs the latter C7 style they had later on) and vinyl coated stock, would use a peel washer instead.

The Upper appears to be an A1--it has an A1 flashhider

Here is a closer picture of the flash hider.

flashhider.jpg

[Circle_10]

Ah, seeing it up close that's the old style lock/split washer. That's what the A1s and presumably also the pre-A2 carbines like the 653 used.
IIRC A2 flash hiders, along with Delta rings, A2 grips, and 1/7 barrels were one of the few "constants" in the otherwise pretty variable Colt 723 and 733s.
I think the only pre-733 11.5" guns Colt made were the 629(XM177E2) and 630/649(GAU-5/A and GAU-5/A/A) which usually had the long "moderator" muzzle devices. Later when these devices were reclassified as "silencers" I believe many of the guns were often refitted with conventional A1 birdcage flash hiders.

Is your barrel stamped 1/7? Or can you determine that the twist is definitely not 1/12? I'm curious if maybe that's actually a 1/12 upper.

[CoryCop25]

Definitely looks like you got a lower from an A2 and someone wanted a shorter rifle so they put a different upper and receiver extension and stock on it. Luckily for you, A2 rifles are about $5K more than A1s right now.

[Renegade]

Lower looks legit, I have a similar one. Gun most likely left factory as an A2 variant- full stock and 20 BBL.