No, I doesn't mean that just any Remington, DPMS, or Bushmaster is good to go upper tier kit and fully guaranteed to be milspec.
A number of us have been saying exactly the same thing about Colt - only the inspected and accepted issue weapons in Government inventory are "milspec," because they have been fully certified as built to the specifications, have the paperwork, and the final Inspectors sign off.
A 6920 - no. Sorry Colt fans, all this does is point that out - not milspec, sorry. Now a Remington could be just as "Not Milspec" as a Colt.
No government package of documents, not milspec. No signature, not milspec. Colt, Remington, LWRC, Bushmaster, Sabre: got your papers? No? Not milspec.
If Remington turns out a LE version with all the mispec parts except full auto, it's your guess whether it's just as good. After all, Colt didn't even forge parts - they bought platters out and machined them.
If you buy milspec parts and assemble them, it's accepted, and issue, what's the difference? After time goes by, reports of weapons in service come back, and a real reputation is built.
Entirely why COLT LOST THE M16 CONTRACT TO FN. But Colt fans don't like being reminded about that.
And now Colt has lost, at the very least, exclusive rights to the M4 contract. All that really means is that they aren't the only supplier. Brand fans are going to need to accept the simple fact that others can build something to the TDP, which is just blueprints and operating reliability.
FN does it, Beretta can certainly do it, they are fielding a competitor in Italy, HK can do it, LWRC can do it, Harrington Richardson did it, GM Hydramatic did it.
If you can build a three speed automatic that transmit 450hp for 250,000 miles, you can build a firearm that shoots full auto reliably for 50,000 rounds. It's not black magic, just engineering.
It's not what sticker you have in the back window, it's really whether you can use it to its full capability. One M16 to another, the only difference I saw was the roll mark. Frankly, that's just advertising legally required. Whatever it was just launched a bullet - albeit better and more easily than a lot of others.
The best thing that could happen is for most of the speculation to die down to dull boredeom, and nothing much come out of it. When Remington becomes just another supplier of M4s, the best thing will have happened, not because they were somehow better or whatever, but because they were equally useful when needed. That's the real requirement, not a bunch of hoopla for Brandinistas who need ego enhancement because they own one.
And if that doesn't quite work out, well, no worse than Colt. Don't forget, they lost a contract more than once.
- Houston - we have a problem! Anything that the Freedom group touches cant even meet consumer standards....