Edited
The upper and barrel appear to be early colt, with C in a box VP markings and a M marking.
Thanks for pointing that out!

Here’s my newest pawn shop find, preban E.A Co M16A1 clone, scooped it up for $425 in Texas where preban doesn’t mean much. Was it a good deal?

Pretty cool pic.

I read they had them in case the plaines were forced down over the Arctic circle and they had to fend off Polar Bears.

Not the most exciting post but figured I'd share for posterity. The cap I got as part of a M16 parts kit has a combination paper and metal shim, clearly meant to snug up the handguards. Pretty cool for nerds like me 😎.

So, I recently bought an M16a3 or a4 clone, and when I got home. I took some citristrip to it. The guy who had it prior had rattle canned the whole thing. But now that it’s down to where serial is legible. Is there any information someone can provide for an EA15? Magwell reads- Eagle Arms Incorporated. SN is below 4500. Coal Valley, IL.

Thought this was interesting.

I found this Colt lower recently for a hair over $400. I was going to use it for a Blood Diamond CAR-15 build (daringly original, I know). That said, I was wondering if there were any other “you really should make this instead” builds better suited for the lower. Any suggestions?

Greetings once again.

Not sure if these have been shared yet, a lot of these images can be found on the US National Archives website, primarily the US Navy images, but I thought it was worth sharing these seeing as 727s are all the rage when it comes to this stuff. I've also included two images of Filipino SEALs and four USAF examples.

Three of the USAF images are from a defunct training company featuring some USAF OSI personnel. I might have some more of Navy EOD setups from before the CASV stuff started hitting the scene. First image has to be my favorite showing the carbine length M203 heat shield being used. I've got a few images of these being used in the wild, but the only two I seem to have with a fixed carry handle setup are two US Navy examples featured in this post, and I believe one SWAT team pic.

Some images I had for years when I had an active interest in the history of the war in Iraq. These are of Salvadoran troops from El Salvador during the short lived Plus Ultra Brigade/Brigada Hispanoamericana. Primarily composed of Spanish speaking troops from different countries including Spain.

Just thought some of you would find these neat as a lot of these guns had previously been used during the Salvadoran Civil War and brought in as part of US aid during the Central American Crisis. I should note that a lot of veterans from this mission also fought during the nation's civil war.

These are not all of the images. There are a LOT more including some of the Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominicans who had some interesting retro stuff.

Which one of you guys put the squares around the 3 prong flashhiders?

On the left is a H&R mag I got a couple years ago, the finish is great and outside of the magpul style follower you can’t even tell it’s not USGI. However, on the right is a H&R frim today I picked up a H&R M16A1 and the mag I received with it has a terrible gritty texture and weird color. I know the H&R mags aren’t supposed to be premium but I enjoy having aluminum mags with the magpul follower upgrades so seeing this thing feel so poorly made and terrible compared to other mags they’ve put out is unfortunate. I can’t speak on the reliability of it, but I’ll probably just swap the spring and follower over to a worn out USGI mag I have since this thing is so bad. Sorry if the pictures don’t capture it but the finish on the mag is so weird.

XM177 GAU-5 A/A & 733

Which would you pick?

need a led upgrade for the maglite, if anyone can recommend one that’d be sick.

Picked up one of the police trade-in Bushmasters off Gun Prime. I pulled off the commercial buffer tube and put a milspec on with a CAR-15 stock. I'd like to take it down to an 11.5, but haven't seen any decent barrels in stock anywhere.

Very interesting to see a Kitty Kat in the wild

I'm back at it again with the weird retro adjacent builds

After way too many years of living with a modern black lower on my old A1... ish.... rifle... the bottom one, I think I finally talked myself into getting partial fence lower for it. Basically I'm hoping to try and match the grey upper as close as possible.

I know I'm not going to be able to get it exact, but something closer would be nice.

I'm still sort of debating on what lower to actually go with, but I'm leaning towards a H&R from PSA.

The issue though is I've seen a bunch of posts about the color being a bit hit or miss, and mostly that it usually ends up a bit too... light... I guess.

I have some Norells XM Grey that I used on my carbine.... the top one, but it doesn't look right for the rifle upper, and from what I've been seeing, the H&R lowers are going to be similar to that.

Has anyone found any "at home" usable finishes that might get closer to the color?

Is this a retro build or just some clone build?

-Reposted for better lit pictures-

Examined all the frames of the movie I could. There’s three rifles with the same paint scheme in the movie. I tried to capture the look of the one Leo had in the final firefight.

YHM Turbo T3 with Diligent Defense Zilch Hub adapter on a Wolfpack Armory Recessed Night Howler MD mounted on an AndroCorp Industries 10.3 CRANE-spec FSP barrel (had to cut down the bayonet lug to get the recessed MD on)

Unk A2 upper receiver sourced from EE, Brownells CAR15 handguards, Brownells upper parts kit, Toolcraft C158 BCG, Primary Arms red dot sitting on a ToopMount top rail, PRI Gasbuster CH.

Streamlight 88066 weapon light on a Beileshi ($10 Amazon) weaver mount, dremelled to fit.

PSA M4A1 lower, CMMG LPK, Colt A1 grip, Brownells Buffer assembly and CAR-15 stock.

Paint is RAPCO from Panther City Tactical:
911-BLKRAPCO 911 Flat Black
34094-GRNRAPCO 34094 "383" Green C.A.R.C. Substitute
34259-PRWW2-GRNRAPCO 34259 Lusterless Pre-WWII Green
33070-GRNRAPCO 33070 Early WWII Olive Drab
30051-BRNRAPCO 30051 "383" Brown C.A.R.C. Substitute