Vintage M16A1 Clone build

Well... "build" is not the right word, should be "assembly" but anyway....


I took the plunge and bought two of the surplus M16A1 parts sets offered by Sportsmans Guide. Figured what the heck, they are cheap enough and are complete save for barrel and lower. These are cut up original Colt M16's from ?? Dunno.

Inspection shows them to be in very good mechanical condition, upper was worn to shiny aluminum and then re-blacked with paint and then that's worn off as well. Looks nice and vintage. Stock has rack numbers on it, all of the parts are well woprn cosmetically but seem OK mechanically.

In any case I want to build up a pair of vintage-look rifles out of these. Figure that getting lowers marked more or less correctly would make them stand out. Do some accellerated-wear on them to bring out the shine and have them as old-school rifles.

One challenge is to get the markings on the lower more or less correct. Figure that starting with a good 80% lower is a start, then having it engraved with reproduction M16 markings and US Govt Property markings. Leave off the "Colt" marks and that would be that. No legal reason to not do so. So the only question is "who" for the engraving. Any ideas?


Willie

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Nobody has a suggestion for a tope end engraver to do this?

I'm shocked.

I'm equally shocked that no lower manufacturer has already decided to mark lowers this way. Plenty of people would want them.



Willie

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"You know just about all AR15 lower receivers are forged and machined based on the A2 version of the rifle and not the earlier A1 version,,,, Right??"


Yup. I've got a Bridgeport and a die grinder and more files than I can count, so knocking off the extra metal is no big deal.

I'm not interested in buying a completed lower, as I do not want non-authentic roll markings to be added. My desire is to finish a pair of 80% lowers, mark them with GI markings, and then to finish them to the same level of "wear" as the existing upper and other parts.

As I contemplate this, I am really surprised that no maker of completed lowers has marked them with GI type markings for builds like mine. No harm in marking a semi lower with M16 and GI nomenclature markings, no more so than putting fake full auto selector markings on them.

Need to find someone to do the marking. Hydramatic anyone?



"Look under the retro forum, should give you the info you need"

Good advice, thanks for the info!


Willie

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Perfect.

The Nodak Spud stuff is nice, but... not what I want.

The correctly engraved 80% lowers are just what the doctor ordered.


Willie


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