Ok here's the latest. Today my son and I went to a shop about 45 min from my house that had a load of AR's. I found an old LE model Colt circa 95, stamped AR15-A2 on the lower as well as "LE ONLY stamped there as well. It came with a heavy barrel and flash suppressor, 1-9 twist, no mags slings etc. (Please forgive my inexperience with these firearms). Short and long of it, to our limited eyes, it resembled a Vietnam War era CAR15. It appeared perfectly USED, although the barrel didn't have a scratch on it. My son, who was wearing a Vietnam Era helmet was WIDE EYED and pressed me to buy it. I almost completed the paperwork, despite my misgivings about buying a 90's era AR. Reliability. If it crumped, how much would it cost to fix. There were no guarantees with this one. With the asking price being 800, it would cost another 100 dollars to make it NY compliant, and I still would have an old gun, albiet a cool looking used police AR. Further questioning to the shop owner revealed that he had a NIB Colt LE6920 for 1099 in the back room. Add another hundred bucks and viola, I had what I would consider a real bonafide M4 and a Colt to boot. My son was almost in tears and wouldn't talk to me for a whole 10 minutes. Oh well. Does daddy know best?
The LMT costs 1500 and has a non threaded target barrel. The Colt will have to have the Flash suppressor removed and a brake added in it's place, the bayonet lug removed and the stock pinned per NYS regulations. It should be ready next week. I asked the guy if he can make a deal on both guns but he would not, saying, "they're flying out of here". As you can tell, I'm pretty green when it comes to these things, but it appears that the consensus from various posts is that both rifles are quality. I feel that I would have been ok with either rifle, ie LMT, but I'm happier with the Colt.
Thanks for all your input. Everyone has been a great help.
PS. I'm still thinking about that Colt AR15 A2. Any experience?
