Back in April, as I was casually checking the main local website for gun sales, I saw an add for a Colt Commando. I immediately wrote to the seller, he called me and by luck was passing close to my house on his way to the mountain for the Easter weekend. He agreed to take the rifle along and stop by to show it to me.
He said the barrel was replaced as the original was shot. The bolt was also replaced. Rifle is fully functional. Lots of external wear as can be expected with an old warhorse. Otherwise I really don’t know that much about this rifle.
Wikipedia : In April 1967, the Army purchased 510 Colt 629 Commandos for use by troops assigned to the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), and designated them XM177E2. Delivery was completed by the end of September 1967. The Air Force adopted a similar model without the forward assist feature as the GAU-5A/A.
Does that mean there were only 510 built in total and it dates the rifle between April and September of 1967. Or were more built later, after the initial order?
The asking price was $ 3000, we agreed on $ 2700. For info I live in Switzerland. So the wait for the special license begins, should be 2-3 weeks.
Within two weeks only I received the license and picked up the gun and the original barrel with the front sight. No markings at all. The barrel was pretty corroded inside and pitted with weak grooves. I started cleaning it, hoping it would improve, but it just made the pitting shinier and more obvious.
I still intended to install it in order to bring the gun back to its original condition. In any case it’s not meant as a precision rifle, and I will fire it very occasionally in full auto mode at short to medium distances.
Seems to be a 10 inch barrel, not 11.5
With the flat ring instead of the Delta / tapered ring.
So I came to the conclusion that it is an XM 177 E2 lower with an XM 177 E1 upper. If these thing could talk.
Some details :
The large aperture sight seems to have been ground off, maybe for a faster target acquisition at short range.
As a consequence, the small aperture sight falls backwards
And the front sight was bottomed out in order to compensate
So my gunsmith installed the original barrel (well the barrel that came with the gun).
He also test fired the gun, and the bad news is that the barrel is so shot, that the bullets keyhole even at 10 meters.
On the other hand the full auto ran great with no hiccups.
The other bad news is that the FSB on the replacement barrel was butchered in with 5 screws, two of them being totally seized. The smith did not want to drill the screws and risk damage something (I took care of that later) so he could not remove the old original flat ring
Anyway here’s the rifle in it’s somewhat more original configuration
“Does that mean there were only 510 built in total and it dates the rifle between April and September of 1967. Or were more built later, after the initial order?”
That was the initial order, many more were acquired later when they gave them out to helicopter pilots and of course staff officier’s had to have them.
I was wondering, with the brownells 11.5" barrel and the moderator. What is your overall barrel length? I want to make a similar project but also want to make sure I can make a 16" overall barrel length with moderator.
You should have purchased an original Colt barrel, but most likely would have a 1/7 twist, unless you could source a vintage barrel at 1/12. Many vintage parts are available or repros are available. Also, you need the grenade launcher ring and an original moderator. I can’t tell for certain but something looks off on that moderator. I would imagine it would be extremely difficult to get a moderator in Switzerland. Total Silence Inc. in Washington used to make great stuff, stuff you could use to bring that rifle closer to original. Don’t know if Tom is still in business.
Well I wanted to keep the 1/12 twist so finding an original Colt barrel in 11.5’ is going to be difficult here in Switzerland.
A previous owner put a CMMG barrel with the wrong twist, length and profile, so the Brownells is an improvement, and I still have the original 10’ barrel (unusable though).
Here are some pictures of the moderator for your consideration. It’s quite heavy and has the chambers inside, unlike a reproduction for cosmetic purposes. I think it may have been repainted, but I suspect the whole rifle might have been repainted also.
