I ran across an interesting flavor of LE6920. They were originally destined for the Mexican police, but Colt made too many or the contract fell through or whatever, and they were sold off as surplus basically to the US consumer market. So they're kind of interesting in the sense that they're legit contract rifles that ended up on the commercial market. Now that contract was with Mexico, and maybe they have lower standards than the US government-I don't know-but one would assume being a government entity that they would get the full TDP treatment.

The rifles were made sometime around 2014ish maybe, and they share some of the same odd characteristics as the newer LE6920s and CR6920s. The barrels are marked with the separated MP, and the extractors are marked CE. The handguards do not have the glue, and the stocks, while having cage codes, do have the little circular mark where a logo can be placed in the mold.

So maybe there's hope that the subcontracted parts are being held to TDP, and that the new CR models are still full spec like the previous LE line. I wish Colt would be more transparent and consistent about guaranteeing full TDP spec on all of their ARs, like they were briefly in the late 2000s, but I guess you just have to accept the things you cannot change when it comes to them.

There is one bugaboo in this theory, though. The rifle I examined had an F marked front sight and C marked carrier. It is disconcerting that the CR models don't have F marked front sights, because that kind of implies that those at a bare minimum aren't being held to TDP standards. I think it's super strange they would do that regardless, because I didn't even know you could get non F marked front sights anymore. I thought they were essentially the stuff of retro builders these days.