New Colt AR15-A4 Poor Build Qaulity or Normal and safe to shoot?

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I don't think it's just the one thing... it's the sum of all the little things. I wouldn't like your rifle, either, if that's what I opened the box too. It almost looks like they are assembling it with mix-n-match parts from returns or something.

I bought a new Colt H-bar in the early '90's, it has the absolute worst trigger in the safe, period... and that on a 'target' rifle. I swallowed that because the rest of the rifle was perfect. Back then, there weren't as many options if you wanted an AR... Colt was probably the best thing going, but not these days. OP, you did what I would have done... I'd be looking elsewhere...

That's exactly how I'm feeling. It's the sum of all the issues that is really irritating me (keeping it PG). It's like they are assembling it with all of the military reject parts and selling it to civilians. Good news or bad depending how you look at it the trigger hasn't gotten any better lol. I will admit its how I remember my service rifle being though. It made getting really good at the dime drill that much more essential. I do feel like the quality of Colt is not the same as yesteryear's and I have been doing research into what else is out there. It kinda sucks because I will admit that I have a sentimental attachment to the Colt brand, and they are letting me down.
 
People fail to realize that Colt has two separate rifles, their military and chimerical rifles. The M16s they build for the military are different form the AR 15s they build. Colt makes just about all the parts for the M16s, but not for their AR15s.
Colt does make the upper and lowers in house for the AR15s but buys most of the other parts from other companies. They buy barrels from four or more manufactures. Rosco Manufacturing is one of the barrel companies they buy from. The Owner of Rosco Manufacturing is a former employee of Colt.
https://www.roscomanufacturing.com/
It also depends on when a rifle is built at Colt. Colt has been bought and sold several times over the years and have filed bankruptcy a few times also. There are times they have cut corners during tough times, and if I remember right, it was not long ago that they were having some trouble.
Colt has not introduced anything new to the market, that has been successful in almost 50 years. If it were not for the Colt name and people willing to pay to ride the pony, they would just be another gun company that would have faded away.
Maybe one day someone will buy Colt and start building new guns and not just remake something from their pass.
 
Maybe that's what "mil-spec" means...;)
Take a good look at Colts ARs if they are mil-spec , that has only come about in the last few years.
Colt did many things to their ARs so that mil-spec uppers would not fit their lowers.
Their BCGs have been chopped up and not mil-pec.
They don’t make the lower parts and springs that they use to build their ARs.
There are far better builders of ARs out there then Colt.
 
That's exactly how I'm feeling. It's the sum of all the issues that is really irritating me (keeping it PG). It's like they are assembling it with all of the military reject parts and selling it to civilians. Good news or bad depending how you look at it the trigger hasn't gotten any better lol. I will admit its how I remember my service rifle being though. It made getting really good at the dime drill that much more essential. I do feel like the quality of Colt is not the same as yesteryear's and I have been doing research into what else is out there. It kinda sucks because I will admit that I have a sentimental attachment to the Colt brand, and they are letting me down.

Haa haa!!! I bought my H-bar because it was as close to the -A1's I carried in the Army... but, oddly enough, I only had HydroMatics and a single H&R issued, never a Colt.

I don't know about what Gunny says regarding Colt's recent quality... I really haven't looked at one. Colt has had some rough times, and you know the Bean Counters are always sniffing around, too. I would follow the '3 strikes, you're out' rule... Colt had their chance. If I was looking at a built AR today, it would be RRA (which I have one of, it's excellent,) Daniel Defense (which I have heard good things of, and the ones I've looked at seem to be well built,) and Wyndham (which a friend of mine bought a box stock M4 verison of, and has been excellent.)
 
What do mean by flashing?

When grinding something quickly, it's the rolled hot edge of the metal on the adjacent face. Or the plastic left in the seam of two mould faces. Obviously your barrel extension isn't plastic but that's what it reminded me of.
Then when I looked at it again I realized the bolt is in there. I wondered why you didn't say anything about the weird chamber.
Sometime my brain has a hard time conceptualizing what it's seeing...:confused: I'd prolly be a better trap shooter if it could...:D

In your opinion could those feed ramps be fixed by a competent gunsmith or are they a failure waiting to happen?

It looks to me like they have already been "fixed". ;)
Not necessarily poorly, perhaps hastily. The filings would have been worn out with a few rounds. It looks like an added angle ground in, that upon retrospect, I do not really disagree with. Save for the execution.

It kinda sucks because I will admit that I have a sentimental attachment to the Colt brand, and they are letting me down.

I can understand. But based upon the customer service alone (and price!) I would be forced to take the refund.
Maybe look around for an older Colt to put some nostalgic pride into? After getting two new ARs as replacement.
 
I’ve looked at the pictures of the feed ramps 10 times and I still can’t figure out what is supposed to be wrong with it or what somebody is supposed to fix. As for the other cosmetic stuff, I bet it looks a lot better with the handguards on ;)

I guess what I’m trying to say is next time go shoot it before you decide it’s broken.
 
If you want pretty buy a RR or BCM. If you want something that has a history of being dependable go with Colt. Colt has never been known for being pretty. That's just the way it is.

kwg
 
Haa haa!!! I bought my H-bar because it was as close to the -A1's I carried in the Army... but, oddly enough, I only had HydroMatics and a single H&R issued, never a Colt.

I don't know about what Gunny says regarding Colt's recent quality... I really haven't looked at one. Colt has had some rough times, and you know the Bean Counters are always sniffing around, too. I would follow the '3 strikes, you're out' rule... Colt had their chance. If I was looking at a built AR today, it would be RRA (which I have one of, it's excellent,) Daniel Defense (which I have heard good things of, and the ones I've looked at seem to be well built,) and Wyndham (which a friend of mine bought a box stock M4 verison of, and has been excellent.)

They got us good on sentimental piece lol.

Thank you for the info on where to look going forward. They still haven't replied with an RMA yet.
 
I would get my money back and go elsewhere. Who cares if it says “Colt” on it. It’s still poorly assembled and poor workmanship. Period.
 
I would get my money back and go elsewhere. Who cares if it says “Colt” on it. It’s still poorly assembled and poor workmanship. Period.

sentimentality vs being built correctly. I have been leaning more your way. Still waiting on the RMA from Colt...
 
Thank you everyone for the replies. Still no word from Colt on the RMA so I may end of keeping it if I can't get them to stay true to their word. I talked to a couple of gunsmiths and they looked at it and said even though the feed ramps are not pretty that it shouldn't effect the operation short or long term. Pretty much what you guys said. Thanks for all the replies.

One thing they brought to my attention was the BCG does not look parkerized. They showed me other BCG's those were darker. Being that they were gunsmiths and not knowledgeable about Colt finishes I thought I'd ask you guys what you thought.
 
One thing they brought to my attention was the BCG does not look parkerized. They showed me other BCG's those were darker. Being that they were gunsmiths and not knowledgeable about Colt finishes I thought I'd ask you guys what you thought.

That's a perfectly normal looking auto BCG. You are way over-thinking this thing. Like many coatings/surface treatments, you can expect some variation in manganese phosphate coating (Parkerizing) color.
 
The deference between Colt and other AR manufactures is that Colt will sell Blem guns at there full price and others will mark then down. This goes for low end and high end Manufactures.
That dent in the gas tube is sad. It will not effect the function of the rifle , but even PSA would not sell a upper with a ding on the gas tube unless it was marked as a Blem.
 
When grinding something quickly, it's the rolled hot edge of the metal on the adjacent face. Or the plastic left in the seam of two mould faces. Obviously your barrel extension isn't plastic but that's what it reminded me of.
Then when I looked at it again I realized the bolt is in there. I wondered why you didn't say anything about the weird chamber.
Sometime my brain has a hard time conceptualizing what it's seeing...:confused: I'd prolly be a better trap shooter if it could...:D



It looks to me like they have already been "fixed". ;)
Not necessarily poorly, perhaps hastily. The filings would have been worn out with a few rounds. It looks like an added angle ground in, that upon retrospect, I do not really disagree with. Save for the execution.



I can understand. But based upon the customer service alone (and price!) I would be forced to take the refund.
Maybe look around for an older Colt to put some nostalgic pride into? After getting two new ARs as replacement.
When grinding something quickly, it's the rolled hot edge of the metal on the adjacent face. Or the plastic left in the seam of two mould faces. Obviously your barrel extension isn't plastic but that's what it reminded me of.
Then when I looked at it again I realized the bolt is in there. I wondered why you didn't say anything about the weird chamber.
Sometime my brain has a hard time conceptualizing what it's seeing...:confused: I'd prolly be a better trap shooter if it could...:D



It looks to me like they have already been "fixed". ;)
Not necessarily poorly, perhaps hastily. The filings would have been worn out with a few rounds. It looks like an added angle ground in, that upon retrospect, I do not really disagree with. Save for the execution.



I can understand. But based upon the customer service alone (and price!) I would be forced to take the refund.
Maybe look around for an older Colt to put some nostalgic pride into? After getting two new ARs as replacement.

Well I learned something new today!

As for trap shooting I just got into that full force this year. Definitely a fun time!

Thanks for taking such a close look at it and breaking things down.
 
Alright everyone. I know this thread is old but I did promise an update once everything got finished up, so here is that update. Colt after some discussion did offer to buy back the rifle. They were even prompt sending out a check, which I got before I could get home to ship the rifle. In the meantime the girlfriend made some good points which persuaded me to keep the rifle. I emailed Colt and they stated they would cancel the return.

Thank you to everyone that commented, looked at inventories, and shared their general knowledge about Colt firearms and firearms in general.
 
Those feed ramps don't look right to me either, but I'm not there to personally inspect.
 
Not an expert, but I would probably have some thoughts of my own about the rough machining and dings in the gas tube if I spent $1100 on a rifle. My PSA uppers look better than that but if they didnt, and they had these issues but functioned fine I would be fine with it and chalk it up to a $250 upper and a lil rough machining....

If you want something that is high quality and extremely good attention to detail in terms of machining, QC, etc... get a BCM. Their uppers run between $500-$1200 and the quality/parts/components are more or less the same across the whole catalog of uppers. Those guys seem to get it. It's why they do so well....

ETA: BCM also offers very thorough info on specs for each part and its certification so you know exactly what you are getting. No vague and breif descriptions. From what I understand they go beyond "mil spec".
 
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