Colt HBAR build

[peternov01]

I got a question for all the ar experts, 15 years ago I got a colt hbar lower and have a hbar barrel, it is the kind with the front sight on it with a sling swivel and bayonet lug and tri side stop thing for the old style forgrips. What I'm curious about is am I ruining the barrel by taking the front sight off, and using a low profile gas block to mount a freefloat rail? Or should I just build this to oem/gi standards? I don't want to ruin something cool because I'm a noob and just getting into ar's now.
Thanks in advance for any advice you all have to give.

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[DirectDrive]

Hard to tell what you have.
Maybe parts for an HBAR Sporter ?
If they are genuine Colt parts, I'd keep them intact and build what it was meant to be.

Good AR parts are cheap right now.
Buy some Aero Precision receivers and build what you want.
Curt's in Milwaukie can help you with assembly if you don't want to fully tool up.

 

[titsonritz]

Why not just shave the sight off and use it as a gas block, that is what I would do with a pinned FSB.

 

[eldbillbo]

IF it's a Colt Hbar 1/7 twist (or even the 1/9). You don't have a rare or collectible barrel or model of rifle for that matter. But you do have something cool you have something that truly appears to be an AR15 rifle made by the only company to commercially manufacture true "AR-15" rifles. The rifle and the barrel has a better saleability now before you do a hack job on it. In other words, right now you barrel is worth about $175 - $250 if you remove the FSB and put a low profile block on it, your barrel will be worth about $100-125.

A lot of companies can put out cheap barrels because they are stripped. The labor and parts cost money you are stripping it down to a barrel that is worth less and very common to the current market of cheap barrels.

By removing the front sight base you are removing the labor and parts produced by colt. and putting your name on it.


Now with that being said it's your rifle. If you are going to be happier with it modified and you are not concerned with resale value then you should do what you want to do with it.

If you should decide to do the hack job you might consider just having the FSB made into a low profile block so it is pinned by factory taper pins vs using set screws. This will ensure you have correct gas port alignment and unlike the set screw or even the clamp gas blocks you will not experience gas failure should the block get bumped or loosen up. All of my primary ar15 style rifles have taper pin set gas blocks.

Too many guys post in the troubleshooting sections of gun pages with short stroke problems only to find out their aftermarket gas blocks shifted.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I got a question for all the ar experts, 15 years ago I got a colt hbar lower and have a hbar barrel, it is the kind with the front sight on it with a sling swivel and bayonet lug and tri side stop thing for the old style forgrips. What I'm curious about is am I ruining the barrel by taking the front sight off, and using a low profile gas block to mount a freefloat rail? Or should I just build this to oem/gi standards? I don't want to ruin something cool because I'm a noob and just getting into ar's now.
Thanks in advance for any advice you all have to give.

yes good talk

 

[Quartermaster]

OEM! OEM! OEM!


Well, mostly OEM.

 

[HB of CJ]

Keeper or trader? In my humble feeble learned, (what?) opinion the OEM taper pin steel front site base/assemble/block is very much superior to the clamp on or pinch bolt on type of cheapo front gas blocks we are seeing today. My opinion only.

Sosss .... why doesn't everybody still use the taper pin type front site assembly? Also as a gas block only with no sites? Time and money. The pesky dumb but strong OEM taper pin slots milled into the barrel bottom MUST be extremely exact. Very exact.

The gigs and gages are expensive. Time consuming. It must be within .001 of an inch. Takes time and money to do, so most barrel makers do not. Keep what you have and don't mess with it? Dunno. Might make good trading material for something you want.

Again, respectfully. No real dog here. Hundreds of AR15 builds.

 

[Garg]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't remove the front site, and if in the future you wanted to put it back on, you could, or am I missing something?
Unless you shave it down, you would not be breaking it by taking it off. Shaving it down would be breaking it IMO.

 

[DirectDrive]

How 'bout a pic of the receiver ?
And a pic of the barrel ?

With roll marks, barrel marks visible.

 

[Mygrainman]

Keep it OG... There are enough frankenstein AR builds out there. These frankenstein builds are the modern equivalent to the "sporterising" that defiled so many of the earlier milsurp rifles. The less that stay original, the better the collector value of those that do. It's only going to get harder to find period correct parts. You can get a decent new barrel for less than $100 if you want to build a "modern" upper. I'm a huge fan of the Delta HBar. (Top in pic.) If I had your parts that's what I'd go for.

 

[HB of CJ]

Just me and very old school, (dinosaur?) but I like the A2 Heavy Barrel Rifle with the Rifle butt stock. A detachable top would be a plus.

 

[peternov01]

Here are some pics my brother took for me as I'm not home right now. Currently the lower has a bushmaster upper on it I got about 10 years ago in Arkansas. I'm not looking to sell or trade in any way. Just want the best and most solid platform I can make that us all colt.

 

[HB of CJ]

Keeper fur sures. Let us know how it prints, or groups or shoots. Ideally that pesky dinky rear aperture should be dead center with the rifle shooting down the pipe right to left at 300 yards off a good bench. Two, (2) to four, (4) clicks off dead center is still considered excellent and a good reason to keep her.

Corrective action to index the barrel for perfect rear site alignment is doable at the hobby level. Fun, easy but very time consuming. Yikes!

hundreds of builds but who cares

 

[eldbillbo]

I don't think your barrel is a colt. It should be marked in front of the sight base C MP .556 NATO 1/7 (or 1/9) Still a barrel is more valuable with a factory pinned sight base intact. Most companies are putting stripped barrels out so they can list them for less $ as a selling point and lots of guys like to customize them. looking at the marking I am going to guess Olympic arms. Who despite a lot of negative reviews makes a really accurate barrel. The biggest problem and root to most of the grips about Oly is due to that they headspace their bolts to their barrels to get better accuracy rather than going by milspec. thus requiring a mated bolt to the barrel to get reliability.

 

[Garg]

Met a guy recently, who told me he had an Olympic arms M16A1 in the service. Said he loved that gun.

 

[eldbillbo]

My first Ar15 I purchased back in 97-98 during the ban at a Expo show back in the cash and carry days was a Colt Sporter 2 carbine. Someone had swapped the barrel out with a oly. I was too new to ar15s at that time to notice right away but that rifle with open sites was amazingly accurate if I could see It I could hit it with the first shot. I even impressed myself with how good of a shot I was with it. It felt good to shoot it you know that feeling you get when you hit your target over and over. That's when I caught the fever.

 

[titsonritz]

. looking at the marking I am going to guess Olympic arms. Who despite a lot of negative reviews made a really accurate barrel.

From their Facebook page:
------
After more than 40 years of business, it is with great sorrow that we announce that February 28th, 2017 will be the last day of operation for Olympic Arms, Inc.
The Schuetz family would like to express their heartfelt thanks to all their friends, associates, and partners that have been a part of the Olympic Arms experience. Most of all we would like to thank our loyal customers and patrons who have been with us all this time.
In the course of closing, we are announcing the following changes in policy effective immediately:
All sales are final.
No refunds or returns will be accepted after 1-25-2017.
On-line Shopping Cart will be active and effective while supplies last.
All Warranty service ceases 1-25-2017. Warranty work and repairs currently in-house will be serviced and returned.
New orders will only be taken for inventory currently in stock, or that can be built from remaining inventory.
All inventory will be liquidated.
ALL SALES will cease at close of business 28 February, 2017
Thank you for your patronage.

 

[DirectDrive]

Here are some pics my brother took for me as I'm not home right now. Currently the lower has a bushmaster upper on it I got about 10 years ago in Arkansas. I'm not looking to sell or trade in any way. Just want the best and most solid platform I can make that us all colt.
View attachment 364721 View attachment 364722 View attachment 364723 View attachment 364725 View attachment 364724

Agree that the barrel could be anything.
A Bushy upper, oh well.

But that lower is the real McCoy....the receiver anyway.
If I had that lower, I would probably build it into a National Match compliant (20" HBAR) rifle.
These have the outward appearance of a 20" rifle but the handguard is free-floated with a special tube under the handguard.
It might be a little counterfeit if you can't find all Colt parts.

You can get parts for National Match rifles from :

White Oak Armament
Compass Lake Engineering
Rock River Arms
Armalite

 

[peternov01]

I got the lower with all the parts in it and the barrel from a guy that worked at a gun shop that needed to borrow some money, he never paid me back and finally after a year told me it was my wedding gift when I got married. Not a bad deal figuring he only borrowed 200 bucks. Anyway he told me it was all colt hbar. I thought the barrel had that stamped on it but I will look when I get home next week. Thanks for all the input guys. Oh one last thing, as it is now with the upper I got in Arkansas it is really a tack driver and has very little recoil, or I guess feels that way to me.

 

[titsonritz]

I don't think your barrel is a colt. It should be marked in front of the sight base C MP .556 NATO 1/7 (or 1/9)

I agree, that is not a Colt barrel.