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I don't do aftermarket AR's. Haven't since I was a young poor GI. Everything I have is factory Colt (I would consider an FN though} I am building a new SBR and have been running to this company "Colt Competition" is there anyone that can tell me who or what that is? I am suspect of brands that attempt to trade on someone else's good name. The information on the internet is unclear. It might be like my favorite German knife company (Puma) making a line of products in China so they can compete in a lower price point market?
 
It licensed its name from Colt, but Colt has no financial interest in it. It was started by some guy who bought a scope mount manufacturer who decided to have a company build ARs.

Are they good ARs? Eh, idk.
 
It licensed its name from Colt, but Colt has no financial interest in it. It was started by some guy who bought a scope mount manufacturer who decided to have a company build ARs.

Are they good ARs? Eh, idk.
Thankyou......I will avoid them like the rest of the clones.......
 
The Colt Competitions were kick-a$$ awesome. Recently the company which made them under license from Colt, Bold Ideas, unfortunately went out of business. They made rifles optimized for rapid accurate shooting. If you were a 3 gunner, great rifle to have as the kick is minimized via adjustable gas blocks to turn it for your specific ammo (if you wanted to), great triple port muzzle brakes made inhouse, Giselle triggers and other top end components throughout didn't have to be traded out. My 20" has that super adjustable Magpul stock that would cost $169 to put on aftermarket for instance. They didn't ship any out the door that didn't work perfectly and shot less than 1" MOA. Most shot less than 1/2" MOA and the came with the factory 3 shot test target so you could see what it grouped at the factory.

The folks that made them did the Colt name proud IMO, and knew what they were doing. That said, towards the end they came out with an inexpensive rifle to match all the cheap ones being made that I know nothing about. I have the 16" and 20" CRP Pros. I've paid more for an AR, but none as good.

That's my opinion. Sweet sweet shooters. Sorry to see them go.
 
The Colt Competitions were kick-a$$ awesome. Recently the company which made them under license from Colt, Bold Ideas, unfortunately went out of business. They made rifles optimized for rapid accurate shooting. If you were a 3 gunner, great rifle to have as the kick is minimized via adjustable gas blocks to turn it for your specific ammo (if you wanted to), great triple port muzzle brakes made inhouse, Giselle triggers and other top end components throughout didn't have to be traded out. My 20" has that super adjustable Magpul stock that would cost $169 to put on aftermarket for instance. They didn't ship any out the door that didn't work perfectly and shot less than 1" MOA. Most shot less than 1/2" MOA and the came with the factory 3 shot test target so you could see what it grouped at the factory.

The folks that made them did the Colt name proud IMO, and knew what they were doing. That said, towards the end they came out with an inexpensive rifle to match all the cheap ones being made that I know nothing about. I have the 16" and 20" CRP Pros. I've paid more for an AR, but none as good.

That's my opinion. Sweet sweet shooters. Sorry to see them go.[/QUOT.
CDNN has been selling there stuff really cheep the last few months. I will stay with my Factory Colts Unless an FN catches my interest.
 
The Colt Competitions were kick-a$$ awesome. Recently the company which made them under license from Colt, Bold Ideas, unfortunately went out of business. They made rifles optimized for rapid accurate shooting. If you were a 3 gunner, great rifle to have as the kick is minimized via adjustable gas blocks to turn it for your specific ammo (if you wanted to), great triple port muzzle brakes made inhouse, Giselle triggers and other top end components throughout didn't have to be traded out. My 20" has that super adjustable Magpul stock that would cost $169 to put on aftermarket for instance. They didn't ship any out the door that didn't work perfectly and shot less than 1" MOA. Most shot less than 1/2" MOA and the came with the factory 3 shot test target so you could see what it grouped at the factory.

The folks that made them did the Colt name proud IMO, and knew what they were doing. That said, towards the end they came out with an inexpensive rifle to match all the cheap ones being made that I know nothing about. I have the 16" and 20" CRP Pros. I've paid more for an AR, but none as good.

That's my opinion. Sweet sweet shooters. Sorry to see them go.
Bold Ideas is alive and well in Canby. When production moved to Texas, the AR portion broke off into Colt Competition and operated independently. Bold Ideas cease building AR's and continued with their other production work. Colt Competition went out of business.

I have one of their AR's that I won. It is a very nice and very accurate rifle, much nicer then I ever would have bought. Mine is an early version made in Canby, so I topped with Warne rings and a Leupold made Redfield scope and call it my Oregon rifle.
 
Thankyou......I will avoid them like the rest of the clones.......

Clones? I mean the Colt is a clone, the only difference with it is that Colt paid for the rights while everyone else waited till Colts patents expired in 1977.

I understand brand loyalty and sticking with what you like and know, But to imply that Colt is the end all be all when it comes to AR's is simply not reality. There are dozens of AR's manufactured which far surpass the fit, finish, and quality of Colt. I would not go as far as to say the Colt is sub-par as they are a good rifle, but they are not even in the ballpark when it comes to top of the line "clones"

And I am not bashing Colt. I like my Colt AR's, mostly for nostalgia reasons. I own 20 AR's at the moment and although I would not part with my Colts subjectively they are at the bottom end of the quality range of what I have, not the absolute bottom but pretty dang close.

If you just want it to be Colt because you want it to be Colt... Then great, But to think you are getting a superior rifle because it's a Colt just does not reconcile with whats available today in the AR market.

And please don't take this as Colt bashing. Colt is what it is, In 1977-1985, maybe even up to 1995 the Colt was the only "real" rifle to buy and "clones" like the Bushmaster or Olympic were sub-par substitutes. Colt owned the game, period.

The world has changed, and Colt largely when it came to AR's got left behind. In 2017 Colt AR15 rifles are largely irrelevant and not even part of the discussion when it comes to high-end AR rifles.

Again.... If you have brand loyalty to Colt and just want to stick with them then great. You know what you will get.

If what you are after is a quality rifle then you should broaden your search to include some of the "clones"

Just my experience, I have owned well over a hundred AR's over the last 30 years and am a AR armor. I've shot maybe a hundred thousand rounds through the AR platform. You could say I am full of it and don't know what I am talking about....:D

I hope you don't take this wrong, My hope is to maybe get you looking at other options. I think if you check out some rifles by Noveske, LWRC, Daniel Defence, Barrett, H&K, Knights Armament, BCM or a half a dozen others you will see what I am prattling on about.

My current harem

BD650CD2-7DD6-4FBF-B5E2-4B28BCE88498.jpeg
 
That is all eyewash. Fit and finish are irrelevant if the parts are not made of proper alloys and obtain heat treating. Have you ever been to the Colt factory? The attention to detail is superior to anything I have ever seen.....and I have seen a lot. Every 10th part is taken off the assembly line for destructive testing to insure the longevity and quality of the finished weapon. I used to use aftermarket parts in building AR's 35 years ago but when I got my hardness tester I proved the inferior quality of aftermarket products. Some parts need to be softer than others to be the most effective. The aftermarket manufacturers could care less. They are in busisness to make a profit not to supply arms to war fighters. Few of there products are ever used or tested like real military arms so there is less importance placed on things that really matter in the long run. You sound like some silly young girl that likes shinny things....a red glass stone is the same as a ruby.....(right?)
 
That is all eyewash. Fit and finish are irrelevant if the parts are not made of proper alloys and obtain heat treating. Have you ever been to the Colt factory? The attention to detail is superior to anything I have ever seen.....and I have seen a lot. Every 10th part is taken off the assembly line for destructive testing to insure the longevity and quality of the finished weapon. I used to use aftermarket parts in building AR's 35 years ago but when I got my hardness tester I proved the inferior quality of aftermarket products. Some parts need to be softer than others to be the most effective. The aftermarket manufacturers could care less. They are in busisness to make a profit not to supply arms to war fighters. Few of there products are ever used or tested like real military arms so there is less importance placed on things that really matter in the long run. You sound like some silly young girl that likes shinny things....a red glass stone is the same as a ruby.....(right?)

I was afraid of that.... I am just trying to help and its clear you have no interest in what I have to say so I'll leave it be.
 
I don't know.

Bought my first AR in 89 or 90. It was a Colt.
I still today always default to Colt.

But a lot may have changed in the AR world in those 20+ years? And It's certain that I have not kept up. Mostly because my gun interest are so broad. And there is a whole world of AR's and parts I have not amerced myself into.

Now if someone like Monster. Who eats,' sleeps, and breaths these guns.
And knows the nature of almost any metal. Because he interacts with it daily. Beating it into something functional.

Tells me there is something better?

The thought ''I could be wrong'' would quickly enter my mind.
And I could abandon what I think. o_O
 
I was afraid of that.... I am just trying to help and its clear you have no interest in what I have to say so I'll leave it be.
Do you know what alloy is optimal for an AR upper or what hardness a sear is best tempered to? Have you ever tested the hardness of a firing pin or bolt? Those are the "little" details that really matter when building a tool your life might rely on.
 
Do you know what alloy is optimal for an AR upper or what hardness a sear is best tempered to? Have you ever tested the hardness of a firing pin or bolt? Those are the "little" details that really matter when building a tool your life might rely on.

I don't own a Colt, but I own several AR's and have built many more. I would trust any one of them with my life as they have all been 100% reliable.

@IronMonster knows what he's talking about and I couldn't agree more. There are MANY quality manufacturers that do AT LEAST what Colt does in their manufacturing process. Colt is not the be-all end-all of the AR world.
 
Do you know what alloy is optimal for an AR upper or what hardness a sear is best tempered to? Have you ever tested the hardness of a firing pin or bolt? Those are the "little" details that really matter when building a tool your life might rely on.


Do you honestly know all the alloys used by all the AR makers?
All the sear/trigger makers and the type of metals they use, along with the correct temper for all the different types of metals used?

The same for makers of firing pins and bolts?

After your comprehensive list of the above. And a head to head comparison to Colt parts.
How can you claim no parts are better made?

Common sense tells you GI spec parts must be of a certain quality. It also tells you that the lowest bidder may be able to do better if cost was no factor? o_O
 
Do you know what alloy is optimal for an AR upper or what hardness a sear is best tempered to? Have you ever tested the hardness of a firing pin or bolt? Those are the "little" details that really matter when building a tool your life might rely on.

Actually yes. I have built many AR components from scratch (turned my own barrels, machined my own receivers). I know, off the top of my head the mil spec alloys for each and every component of an AR. I also own a $2600 digital hardness tester and have heat treated over 50,000 tools with my own two hands. Colt is still using Carpenter 154 for carriers and bolts, which was a good choice 70 years ago when they were designing the prototypes... however we are now in the 21st century and far superior materials like S7 and 9830 are being used by some companies.

I really only have one area of expertise, metal. My family has been in the machine shop and fabrication business since 1936. On top of that I started my own tool manufacturing company where everything is forged and machined from alloy steel. So yes. I know about tolerance, heat treat and fit and finish.

We have actually built a bolt action .50 BMG rifle from scratch. From scratch meaning we started with an unchambered barrel blank and machined and heat treated every single part of the rifle from raw material using zero existing parts.


The simple fact of the matter is everything you stated was true 25 years ago.

If you are not interested in what has happened since that's fine. I learned a long time ago it's pointless to try and teach someone who has no interest in learning
 
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Dropped by the U.S. Military, Colt Goes Bankrupt

I know this article is a couple of years old, and Colt pulled themselves out of a BK by closing their Custom Shop among other cutbacks, but it clearly talks about the M4 failures along with Colt 1911 jamming issues. Colt is not the saviour of the gun world, as some people blindly choose to believe.

Just as @IronMonster said, 25 years ago yes. Today? Nope.
 
such details leave me in a whirl of confusion; first is the continuing question of just WHY long guns are far more interesting to me to read about, than to actually have. My only AR hasn't been shot in maybe 3-4 years.....keep meaning to do so....sometime....

And second the name "Colt Competition" is the name of a current 1911 available in both 45acp and 9mm. I haven't tracked down just ~who~ builds it etc. Nor have I seen one in person. Is it related somehow from the company the ARs above or actual 'Colt factory' product...if there remains a 'Colt factory'.
 

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