Colt 733 Commando question

[JoshNC]

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:

Attachment 55632

Attachment 55633

If a carbine, it did not leave Hartford without being staked. So someone either swapped stocks for a modern 4-POS RE or it’s a parts gun. I suspect the latter. Not undesirable, as it’s a transferable Colt A2 lower. But from a collectability standpoint it has a few black eyes. I would not pay any premium for that. I personally would not pay much more than FMV for a garden variety Colt m16a rifle for that particular Colt. If it did start life as a m16a2 rifle, some of it’s collectibility has been lost as a result of it no longer being in the configuration from which it left Colt.

Bottom line, don’t pay top dollar.

[MistWolf]

According to Black Rifle II the 733 is an M16A2 Commando with an 11.5" A1 chrome lined barrel in 5.56 with 1/7 twist. No bayonet lug.
Fire control: AUTO.
Upper receiver: A1M.
Front Sight: A2.
Rear: A1.
Muzzle Device: Flash suppressor.
Handguards: Carbine.
Stock: Sliding.

The 734A and 735 M16A2 Commandos are identical to the 733 with the exception of having the "BURST" fire control.

It's possible the AR in question is a 734A or 735. It could be a 735B, but what are the chances?

[Ed L.]

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.

The barrel isn't stamped anywhere--even below the handguards.

[MistWolf]

You might be able to get info by plugging in the serial number here- https://www.colt.com/serial-lookup

[Circle_10]

The barrel isn't stamped anywhere--even below the handguards.

I'm not enough of a Colt expert to say this definitively but I'm pretty sure Colt stamps all their barrels.
Although I suppose it could be a 14.5" or 16" Colt barrel that was cut down behind where the markings were.
Either way the odds of this gun being a factory 733 seem pretty low at this point.

I've never tried this because I don't own a 1/12 AR, but if you have access to a 1/12 twist AR barrel I've heard if you look up the bore you can visually distinguish 1/7 rifling from 1/12 rifling.

[MistWolf]

According to information on TOS, ARs with serial # in the 8,000,000 range are 8,000,000 were made in the 1980s. They are generally 700 series commercial/export marked models of the M16A2.

[Ed L.]

If a carbine, it did not leave Hartford without being staked. So someone either swapped stocks for a modern 4-POS RE or it’s a parts gun. I suspect the latter. Not undesirable, as it’s a transferable Colt A2 lower. But from a collectability standpoint it has a few black eyes. I would not pay any premium for that. I personally would not pay much more than FMV for a garden variety Colt m16a rifle for that particular Colt. If it did start life as a m16a2 rifle, some of it’s collectibility has been lost as a result of it no longer being in the configuration from which it left Colt.

Bottom line, don’t pay top dollar.

It has a two position collapsible buffer tube--like an A1.

At this point I have no idea what this is.

Interestingly on p, 354 of the book The Black Rifle Volume 1, there is a picture of the 700 Series A2 weapon family that shows a Colt 733 Commando with an A1 style rear sight and no forward assist.

However, on page 355 of the book there is a picture of a Colt Commando that shows an A2 style rear sight.

However the markings on the lower of the gun in question are identical to the markings of the lower in the book.

Below is a picture from the book:

Commando pix from book.jpg

[Ed L.]

You might be able to get info by plugging in the serial number here- https://www.colt.com/serial-lookup

Thanks. I looked it up. I got the response of Serial number not found.

[MistWolf]

I tried several Colt AR Ser# and got the same result. Ed, the photos you posted of the Commando from Black Rifle match the description of the 753B listed in Black Rifle II pg 273.

With the exception of the bayonet lug, your rifle matches the description of the 734A & 735 listed on the same page.

[Ed L.]

Thanks, Mistwolf.

To make things more interesting, I managed to find a picture of a Colt Commando receiver on my hard drive. No telling where I got it from. It is actually marked Colt Commando.

I also found a picture of an advertisement for the Colt 733 and the Colt 723, which seems to be the predecessor of the M-4.

I am attaching the pictures:

Commando-3.jpg

733 advertisement.jpg