This forum has preached buying a Colt 6920 as the “baseline” since long before I joined. I never bought a 6920 because I always wanted a long free floated rail. I wanted a “custom gun”, and because prior to recently, bone stock Colts cost quite a bit more than the equivalent top tier offering. That isn’t the case anymore. Complete Colt 6920s can be had for $875 OTD, and if you want to build your own with upgrades you can buy an OEM1 or OEM2. Add a free floated rail, a stock, and a pistol grip and you’ve got a bee’s knees carbine for around $1,100. Yet I see fewer people than ever buying and shooting Colts.
I don’t want to turn this thread into an argument where we call out other brand’s products and compare pricing, but a baseline Colt OEM2 with a 12" rail and some quality furniture for $1,050 is really hard to beat. And if you’re not dead set on a free floated barrel and a long rail you can have a functioning complete Colt for its $850 pricetag. Who can beat that? Yet, a quick perusing of this forum will show that most people buy BCMs, Noveskes, LMT, KAC, etc. Usually these are no name brand lowers built with DPMS LPKs and complete uppers built from those manufacturers.
Why, despite “Just buy a Colt” being mentioned in nearly every thread, does no one do it? How can one know what you need on a rifle if you’ve never even used one before? With 6920s so cheap, 95% of shooters would be better served buying the Colt and spending the rest on ammo. Colts certainly aren’t known for their unreliability. They cost less. They are simple. They are ubiquitous. And it certainly can’t be due to any brand’s CL barrels being more accurate than Colt’s. Today I spent the morning and did this at 300 yards with a brand new Colt 6920, a TA31 ACOG, and 15 rounds of Hornady SuperPerformance.
My reason for this thread is the epiphany that came with my first Colt. I’ve owned and cycled through so many ARs that I’ve actually sold AR15s I had bought with money that I earned from selling earlier AR15s! And I “knew” what I wanted in an AR when I started buying them because I was mated to one for quite a few years. I can’t imagine how badly it would have gone if I started from scratch. Yet, I know if I bought a Colt for my first one I would still have it. KISS applies to everything, and when your total investment is $895 and you realize it does no worse than your $2,000 suppressed top tier SBRs you get a good reality check.
Colt isn’t the baseline. Colt is the gold standard that everyone else is referenced to. Many aspects of others perform better or worse in ways referenced to the Colt. When a manufacturer makes a change, a smart one refers to how it differs from the Colt, then they must balance the factors to see if it’s an improvement or not overall.
That’s good shooting Euro. I followed the advice of the forum and bought a 6920 as my first AR. I still have and love it. I don’t imagine ever getting rid of it. I learned that no matter what you think you “know” about your wants and needs, it will always change and evolve. I’m just glad that I started with an excellent baseline and allowed my evolution to come to me naturally through hands-on experience.
Thats some good shooting. I carry a 6920 at work and its a great rifle. I recently had my 6920 rebuilt with a BCM ELW and KMR to get a lighter weight rifle. However Im keeping the Colt barrel and building a rifle around it because it shot great.
i like to “build” my guns so i only have to pay for the things i want (furniture type/color, sights, ect) and not get stuck with a bunch of take off to sell on the EE or throw in the trash.
Secondly, because colt dosen’t make a mid-length gas.
“Just buy a Colt 6920” is the response you get on a number of forums. I will preface by saying this, I own two LE6920s. One is a 2008 model with the Law Enforcement/Government" markings and one is a 2013 MAGPUL MOE edition. I also have a LE6920 MOE upper on a PSA MOE lower. Now, that said, many on the various forums are long time Colt fanboys and some recently became Colt fanboys in the past few years. Myself, I prefer the older Colts, but there is nothing wrong with any of them. Now, given today’s AR market as it is, Colt is not the main player anymore. Many of the other manufacturers (like Del-Ton, PSA, and S&W) have stepped up their game. Companies like BCM, DD, LWRC, and a few other are serving up top-notch ARs. Others like Windham Weaponry and CORE-15 are producing some nice ARs as well. Colt’s elite status has been long gone. They have lost a huge market share. Many have said that Colt is the standard to which all other ARs are built. That may be true to an extent, but many ARs are equal to Colt and many better. There will always be ARs that are built for the guy on a small budget, but in today’s market, there is an extreme amount of really good quality ARs. Some that are in the $500-$600 range are every bit as good as the Colt 6920. An AR with a PSA Premium M4 upper and a PSA lower assembly parallels the 6920 in quality at a lesser price tag. There are a few others that are in the same category. The Colt 6920 is not the only answer anymore. It will still have its appeal for those that want the prancing horse on the side. To me, that adds to the price and not the quality. Then there are the guys that want to have their AR a certain way. This seems to be the case more often. An individual can source materials that fit into their budget and needs. Some will go cheap and many others are willing to spend a few dollars more to get better quality. I find myself referring a lot of people to the PSA Premium line of products. They can get very good quality and not break the bank. They have uppers and lowers to suit just about any want or need. So, with all of that said, the Colt 6920 is no longer the Holy Grail of ARs. Colt fanboys will disagree with me on many points and that is expected. There is more to life than a Colt.
I think the answer to your question is that many of the people that ask ‘which AR should I buy?’ really want (deep down in the cockles of their heart) to buy something that they think looks cooler than a standard colt carbine.
edit: but some of them actually DO buy the colt and then immediately ask which ‘upgrades’ they should get first.
I’ve thought a bit about this and wonder if it’s because it seems like mid length gas systems seem to be the way to go nowadays if you’re looking at a 16" AR. If Colt came out with a mid length 6920, I think they would do quite well.
I think the mid length vs carbine thing gets blown way out of proportion. I have both and I do like a middy, but I’ve never had an issue with a carbine.
I’ll agree with the carbine length gas system as a reason why they don’t seem to be more common.
Most want a midlength 16" barrel and the Colt 6920 just doesn’t fit the bill.
A 6920 wasn’t and isn’t intended to be the best of everything on the market for all, it could be called a standard. Due to the NFA, the more appropriate 6921 is the real standard for comparison, but the 6920 comes very close. There is more than getting a horse logo over unknown components then what most realize.
My largest complaint against Colt in their carbines is that they have used the current conventional carbine action, with them knowing that the more rifle like parts run so much better. That was old news way past 25 years ago. They knew of alternatives that could work better, but decided not to do so, as adding to the OAL of the rifle was a sales mess that they should have fixed, but decided not so.
I was really encouraged that Vltor marketed the A5 system, It solves or reduces many of the issues. Marketing about the internal spring made the sales pitch to produce it. Really, the action system functioned not much different to similar without the internal spring that has been around for some time. If that is what it took to put a rifle like action system into a carbine, so be it, and I appreciate everyone involved in Vltor to make it into a production reality, nobody else was able to make happen, including me, but I’m small beans in the scheme and out of that now.
I think that a new shooter, when oriented to the platform and given a small dose of knowledge, says, “Well I’m not going NFA, so 16” is what I want… a carbine length gas system would be sub optimal, so… BCM Middy."
It’s true that it’s a bit overblown, but that is the thought process above.
Colt has hurt themselves by not offering a mid length gas system… and at a time when they added other models which were not desired and started a junk line with Anderson.
One of my three AR’s is a LE6920MP-B and it is a very fine rifle. People should also look at the AR6720 if a lighter rifle is needed or wanted, great Colt quality in a lightweight package.
I have both mid length and carbine gas systems. I remember reading a few years ago, about breakage rate of bolts is higher in a carbine gas system over a mid or rifle gas system. I think the reason colt stayed with a carbine system when they developed the m4 was so they could sell more repair parts to uncle sugar. But that is just my opinion.
My first personal AR was a Bushmaster simply because it was really all I could get. At that time there weren’t many options beyond ABCD (Armalite, Bushmaster, Colt, DPMS). Armalite was never in stock. DPMS looked junky even to a neophyte. The gun vendor I shopped at during that time simply refused to stock Colt and outright lied about how Colt didn’t make ARs anymore at that time. It was during the height of the AWB where a Pre Ban Sporter AR15A2 would literally cost 4 grand. In 90s money. Bone stock, double screw pivot pin, fixed carry handle. 4 grand.
So a 600ish Bushmaster seemed reasonable despite being neutered.
Eventually, we were able to get personal 6920s on letterhead and I got one. Great price for what it was and had to find another FFL to transfer because dude refused to do it because he 'couldn’t sell it normally why should I do it for you?"
Still have it. Won’t part with it. Long sold Bushmaster.
I decided then that if I have to save to get decent stuff that I will. I know so many guys who shoot less than I do complaining about their ARs breaking and so on. They are almost all using subgrade brands. And gun store guys are STILL jiving out the outright lie that all the ARs are made the same place with different names on them.
No.
I honestly think most casual shooters are turned off of Colt because they are relying on the fat gun store guy with the attitude trying to sell off all the Spikes and DPMS he can without even making the effort to become a Colt dealer and bring up LMT anything and you get a bizarre look.
I bought my first AR this year. Not knowing a lot about them I settled on a Colt 6720 and I really like it. I knew I could spend more and maybe get more but realized I wouldn’t go wrong with a Colt. The only thing I can really criticize is the trigger. Man, that is one long creepy trigger when target shooting other times I barely notice it. But I know it’s bad when buds tell me it’s bad even for a GI trigger. Getting ready to order a Geissele SSA and that should complete it, already have some nice optics for it.
