The buttstock is now 5/8 of an inch longer, and still has the trapdoor.īecause the Marine Corps have such a strong emphasis on marksmanship, the M16A2 was reasonable as a target shooting rifle in its own right, and Colt’s enhanced this further on the civilian model by putting a heavy barrel on it. Note the lack of slots in the base of the flash hider, so that it acts as a compensator.
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The A2 also includes various other new features, such as a round forward assistĪnd case deflector (useful for left-handed shooters) and a compensator. Unfortunately this ruins the trigger pull, but of course it is not a feature of the semi-automatic only AR-15A2 intended for civilian target shooters.
![colt ar 15 a2 for sale colt ar 15 a2 for sale](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QLIAYFNx4t4/maxresdefault.jpg)
Another feature of the M16A2 is a burst-fire device, that replaces the fully-automatic capability of the M16A1. The Army hadn’t adopted it at the time as it would have meant a new handguard cap would have to have been fitted, but Colt’s redesigned the handguards so the original triangular cap could be used. The design of the new handguard was taken from a mid-1960s design. The new rifle also had new furniture made from more advanced plastics. Colt’s also came up with a new set of apertures, a smaller one for long range shooting and a flip up large aperture for close range. This sight allowed for elevation adjustments up to 800 yards, a USMC requirement. The enhanced rear sight had been developed during trials for a Squad Automatic Weapon for example. Another argument the USMC had was that NATO had recently standardised on a new 5.56mm round that the M16A1 could not use due to its slow rifling twist.Ĭolt’s responded to the USMC request in record time, due to the fact that they already had developed most of the things the USMC wanted during various development programmes during the 1960s, and it was not that difficult to dust them off and put them together. This is a somewhat suspect statement as the Army had huge numbers of the rifle in reserve that the USMC could have had.Īnyway, the USMC put forward a proposal for an improved M16 that of course included features that the USMC wanted. By 1980, the USMC was able to use the reason that “declining inventories” of M16A1s meant they needed a new rifle. Although the M16A1 had been adopted in 1967, the USMC had never been happy with it because their marksmanship training included shooting out to 600 yards, and the M16A1 was woefully inadequate for that. To understand all this, you have to understand the USMC first. The USMC had decided that the M16A2 would replace the M14 as the rifle used in competitions. With the introduction of the M16A2 into Marine Corps service in 1984, things began to change as the USMC searched for ways to make these rifles competitive. Attempts to make the AR-15 into a serious target shooting rifle had largely failed, although this was mainly because of the lack of ammunition that would enable the AR-15 to compete at longer ranges successfully. The original Colt AR-15 Sporter had been on the market since 1963, but interest in it was mainly confined to military gun buffs and military veterans. The AR-15A2 HBAR (which stands for Heavy Barrel Automatic Rifle) was the first serious attempt at making the AR-15 into a target shooting rifle that could really compete. The AR-15A2 was introduced in 1986 when Colt’s started making significant numbers of M16A2s for the US military.
Colt ar 15 a2 for sale series#
This is another in our series on the AR-15 rifle.