Colt AR-15 uppers

[Deserthunter]

Are Colt AR-15 complete lowers, which are both pricey and hard to find, all they much better, top shelf and ahead of the herd than the competition. say Bravo complete lower receiver? I know the Colt brand is good and all that jazz, but is it really the best bar none? I'm no expert, but I think not. Please chime because I want to hear from you guys in the know.

 

[mcb]

JMHO I would not pay extra for anything Colt. They are not bad but there is better out there especially for the same money. You are paying for the name as much as anything IMHO. YMMV.

Sincerely

Your resident Colt hater.

 

[entropy]

No. You are paying for the name, as mcb said.

 

[taliv]

in 2005-2010 timeframe the 2nd tier and 3rd tier brands took giant leaps forward. prior to that, colt was in a totally different league, undisputed by anyone who knows what they're talking about. colt was "mil-spec" and everyone else was a lot worse.

over the past 10 years, colt has mostly stuck with "mil-spec", which is good. but the rest of the world realized mil-spec is just a baseline, and a fairly low bar at that, and have greatly exceeded mil-spec in many different ways. the downside to that is without a spec, things are unknown and a risk. mil-spec comes with a lot of testing and you know, specs. the various commercial offerings are probably a lot better, but buyer beware, as no one other than the seller is really testing them and they could change without warning. but a bazillion reviews on the major players seems to indicate quality is quite good. meanwhile, colt is dealing with bankruptcy and a sale to cz? so if it were me, i'd probably take a pass on them. but if you have a chance to pick up a 10 yo 6920 or so at a decent price...

 

[Deserthunter]

Check this out for what I consider outrageous. A new Colt AR15 upper, probably from a takeoff from a LE6920, has a $999 bid going for it and bidding remains ongoing on Gun Broker. Is that insane or what?

 

[C-grunt]

Colt makes a good lower. Better than BCM? Probably not. Id say they are about equal unless the BCM is an upgraded model.

A Colt complete lower will be higher quality than some other complete lowers though. The Colt lower will have proper springs and small parts that have good coatings and are made to certain grade specifications. Cheaper lowers will sometimes go with cheaper springs and cut corners on other small parts as well. Does that matter to you? Only you can really say. I have several PSA complete lowers that have performed very well over the years. On the other hand my first LE duty rifle was a Bushmaster and that rifle, and the other Bushmasters as well, had a much much higher failure rate than the Colts that replaced them. My gun had the entire fire control group replaced after multiple spring failures. But then again running 3000 rounds over a 4 day class when it's 115 outside will put stress on a rifle that most people wont go through.

 

[ECVMatt]

Some folks love to study the AR-15 into minutia. They memorize the Technical Data Package and critically exam each rifle against it. I am all for people enjoying firearms however they please. However some of us just want to go to the local gun store and buy a better than average AR.

I think that is where Colt falls. If you live and die by the TDP and want mil-spec plus there are better choices out there. If you want to buy a solid AR for a known maker then the Colt LE series are hard to beat. I bought mine when Colt was selling stripped rifles with no handguards or butstocks. I bought two for around $750 each. Both rifles have been flawless and show no signs of slowing down.

My S&W Sport had to go back to Smith before I could even shoot it. It is now a decent gun, but not near the quality of the Colts. So for folks like me, Colt has an established value above say a M&P Sport or a PSA.

Right now I think AR's are as valuable as the buyer perceives them to be. I lived through all this before with the first AWB and learned to never be astonished by price a person is willing to pay for something that might or might not go away.

I think economist call it the Scarcity Principle.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

In point of fact - until one gets to the extreme ends of the spectrum - there really is no best AR platform.

Either one is built properly or it is not. The arena of *best* is shared by many manufacturers at any given time. Status varies with individual manufacturers' quality control, availability of quality components not made in-house and penny-pinching decisions made in-house.

Colt's value is in name recognition and a fairly strict adherence to quality control over the decades of producing the platform. They've had some glitches like others and made some asinine decisions like integrating political-correctness into pin/hammer/trigger/carrier design alterations in the past.

All things considered, Colt's offerings are generally worth the price bump to most folk and the name makes resale considerably easier in most cases.

Todd.

 

[mcb]

In today's market combined the wealth of knowledge on the internet (and other sources) the wise AR buyer does his homework and then build his own AR from selected parts to get exactly what he wants/needs for his given application. I bought my first complete AR, all the rest I have build from parts and even that original AR I bought is no longer configured the same as it was when bought.