The most expensive "scrap" I ever purchased. Worth it!

I live near Fort Carson near Colorado Springs and I always slip a few bucks to my local scrap metal guy for when military brass gets dropped off to be melted down. I get a call in January, "Judah, you should come down here now." I drop everything, pull up in my truck to 4 guys looking into a 55-gallon drum. NICE, I get a grip of brass, right? Wrong. An Army officer is standing there with his arms crossed sort of frowning. I peer into the barrel and see HUNDREDS of crushed Colt M16A1 lower receivers. He said they must be from Vietnam or some other conflict, but all I could do is ask how much he wanted for the barrel. Long story short, he got a down payment for a new vehicle and helped load it in my truck. The top of the barrel had nice stuff, the bottom of it just shards, but I managed to get my metal buddy some work by making these. What do you think?

 

What are you planning on doing with them? They look pretty well de-milled to me.

 

I think I have read this post before...

 

That's a sad sight. Cool keychain though.

 

Whoa weird, I just found it on 4 other sites. Wonder what the deal is. Sales approach?

 

Fishing !!

 

Uhhhh, even cut up are they even legal to own, being machine gun receivers and all......

 

Like on WWW.ATFENTRAPMENT.gov? Lol.

 

They've been demilled - which means scrap metal. You can legally own scrap metal in the US, last I checked.

https://www.apexgunparts.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=demil

 

I don't see a down payment for a new car in those pictures! Am I missing something?

 

Legal to own, yes. Entrapment, no. Trying to pay down my nursing school loans, yes. The M16A1 has seen some stuff. Packed full of history. I have sold them to guys who have riveted them to their cockpit, welded them to their racing vehicle dash, yet another to his chopper, welded to 80% for retro builds, made keychains, bottleopeners out of the rear pieces. One guy blocked them in epoxy for book ends, another guy mounted to block of walnut for display piece, paperweights. One guy turned the machine gun rental guys face white when he rented a full auto ar and then walked up with these pieces in his hand.

 

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

What a shame to see that. Makes one cry.

 

Tallestjudah Member
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Weirdest member debut in the history of THR?

 

Copy that my good man. As of now, they are not for sale.

 

There is something rotten in Denmark.

FWIW I was assigned one of the last units on Fort Carson that had M16A1s and that was in 1992.

And when we turned them in they packed them up intact and I think they sent them back to Redstone Arsenal.

They most certainly did not store them on Ft. Carson for THIRTY YEARS before scrapping them out.


I'm also fairly certain that military brass isn't sent to civilian scrap metal yards to be melted down. My understanding is that it goes back to the factory and gets remanufactured

 

You're right, there has never been a blackmarket for military items. Also, I said brass in general, but yes I get some nice mil brass too. I know what I'm told, offer what I know, and that's all I know.

 

Most brass is auctioned off in large lots.

 

As an Armorer, I've seen a lot of M16A1 lowers. I'm not convinced these are the real thing.

1.) The rampant pony is larger than the issue rifles I saw.
2.) If they are legit, they were not produced for the US military, as Colt M16A1's thus are stamped with a smaller rampant pony and 'property of us govt. M16A1' above the serial.
2.) The stamping on the back lowers (trigger group area) looks more like that of an A2 than an A1; perhaps these were from test guns for the A2 program. I wish Hummer 70 still posted, he was in on that program.
3.) According to this chart, your demilled lowers were made AFTER the M16A2, though with other markings matching serial numbers in the 4,000,000 range.

Source: MachineGunBoards.com

Some of these same serial number series lowers were available for sale commerically.

I think you've been had.

 

Hers's something to really make you cry. My Officers Model Match suffered the same fate.

 

I see at least 3 OMMs in that pile...what happened there?

 

These horrific and graphic pictures should be predicated with a warning for those with weak constitutions or those with very big hearts...

Those poor firearms!

I keep hearing “In the arms of an Angel...”

 

Maybe on a YUGO...if they still make them.