Thanks Indian, appreciate the load advice! Where's your stomping ground?

I live outside Wasilla. Shoot at Birchwood, Ft Rich, Ft Greeley with the Alaska Rifle Club. Hunt all over, but Kodiak is my annual "mental health" trip.

Oh, by the way, the factory lever on the Guide Gun is crap and will tear up your hand with HOT loads! If you load heavy, get a loop lever from Wild West Guns in Anchorage (Cabelas carries them too). Wild West is obnoxious and too expensive, but Jim's lever is the only way to go for the Guide Gun.

ccrn, did you get your questions answered, or has this thread been hopelessly hijacked?

Check out DRC armamemt. Dave Clay makes a damn good product, and he isn't an asshole like West. You can get his loops and some other stuff from Brownells. He also does a damn nice marlin takedown conversion if you can justify the price and are patient enough to wait.

Good times,
Blake

82ndTrooper "Actually I waiting to hear some end user reports on the 6.8mm SPC. Any QP's wanna pipe in ??"

I have built a few AR15s and an AR10 from scratch. I looked at doing an AR15 in 6.8 spc but the cost to make it and mags and ammo are close to what an AR10 costs. Also if you do a CQB class with a 6.8 spc the cost of ammo would probably run around $800+ and I load my own. So I went with the AR10. A lot of parts are interchangible with an AR15 so I still have a problem with what they charge for the AR10 parts but I wanted one so I built it.

With the 6.8 spc I decided to have a barrel for a Thompson Contender made. 15" Shilen made by JD at SSK Industries. I shoot 135 Sierra GK with Benchmark and Fed primers and I get about a 2.5" group at 200 yds. It's a great PA deer hunting gun and the round appears to be well suited for white tail. As far as a combat round in an AR I couldn't say. Maybe Gene or Longrange have had more experience with it in an AR15 or mini 14.

rgr.

I think the general consensus from those in the know is a new upper.

Im already on it.

The question remains then what about my existing lower, willit be worth while to simply change the buttstock to use with a new M4 upper?

The mani goal over all was to save money which is in short supply right now having been gone!

Thanks to all for the replies-

You can buy a complete RRA M4 buttstock kit for $59, which includes the wrench to install the castle nut, from Eagle Firearms. It's pretty easy to swap the stocks, but you mentioned you have a gunsmith. The only thing with the RRA kit is it uses a commercial extension tube, so if you ever wanted to upgrade to a SOPMOD stock, you would need to get a mil-spec tube, which is a different diameter. It is available from DSA for about $20, or you could spend about $40-45 for a VLTOR, CMT or LMT mil-spec tube.

Another option is to get an M4 stock kit with a mil-spec tube, like from CMT/Stag. That kit will run about $69-80 depending on which vendor you choose. Eagle Firearms has it, but they are out of stock. Check out the vendors in the Equipment Exchange on ar15.com.

Colt 6721
 

The tax man has been gracious this year so...

Ive found a guy in my state that has 7 Colt 6721's for around 1200. Im thinking seriously about picking one up especially considering the latest legistlation up for consideration.

Questions are as follows:

Do you guys have an opinion either way about the heavy barrel?

Is this a good carbine to take to class ie CQB at Blackwater etc?

Thanks-

Pat Rogers at EAG does an excellnet carbine course, as well as Larry Vickers and Ken Hackathorn-they are different in approaches, but all excellent. I have also found that Bill Jeans runs a fantastic class as well. I am planning on taking a Paul Howe class in the future as I have heard nothing but positive about his courses in the circles I frequent. For L/E classes, Scott Reitz is my top choice.

A couple options on your build...............what do YOU need the gun to do?

I sent an identical gun to yours to Noveske to have a LaRue rail put on and a precision barrel for urban sniping work.

You can do an LMT MRP upper and convert it from a 10.5 5.56 to a 14.5, to an SPR, to a 6.8 in minutes with only a torque wrench. I use this system extensively and it is expensive initially, but is very versatile.

For a good GP carbine, you could simply send your upper to SAW in Arizona and have a Colt 16" LE M4 contour barrel installed and be done. I like A1 fixed stocks myself. If you are going to put a retractable stock on it, do yourself a favor and use a Mil Spec tube, and preferably Colt.

Good luck

If you are active-duty MIL or LE, LMT will sell you a complete carbine, with one 30rd mag, sling, and manual. There's even a dealer who sells them at a discount. I talked to a cop who bought one last year, and his carbine, with the LMT cut carry handle BUIS, was cheaper than my LMT upper and lower purchased separately (I'm a civilian), with no BUIS. It was considerably less than $1,200, which sounds high for a 6721. Knesek Guns sells the 6721 for $1,115, and the 6920 LE Carbine (1/7 M4 barrel) for $1,175.

The LMT has a 16" government profile 1/7 twist M4 barrel, versus the 16" HBAR 1/9 twist of the Colt 6721.

The 6721 is a good rifle but with the 1/9 twist you may have some accuracy issues if you shoot a heavier bullet.

I personally think the 6920 is a more versatile barrel.

You may want to do what Nyeti said and send it to Specialized Armament Warehouse in Chandler, AZ. Ken does great work.

For obvious reasons Id prefer a 6920 over the 6721 but other than barrels Im not sure theres much of a difference.

The 6721's are in my state NIB and could be had in a dat which is why Im considering it. Im not sure why Colt even made an M4 variant with a heavy barrel truth be told.

Ive heard good things about LMT from members of this board but would still prefer Colt if the pricei s similar.

Thanks for the imput-

For the record, I use my current carbine for basic military shooting skills from closer than 7 meters out to 350 meters based on training Ive already recieved and am recieving. My unit uses M4's. Id like to get a carbine I could take to class ie military CQB though I suppose I could take my 20' Hbar just as well.

Does Colt still use oversized fire control pins, odd-sized takedown pins and install a block in the lower receiver?

Razor:

AFAIK, yes, which combined with their politics, is reason enough not to buy Colt when others make equal or better quality.

Colt lives only as long as the M-4 contracts last.

TR

It depends...

On the semi- only models they use .170 dia. pins and on the MIL/LE (Read: Auto) rifles they use .155 dia pins.