Hello to all.

I have just literally left the Brownell’s showroom/retail store/warehouse. Anyway, they had 26 of their Retro XM16 series rifles in the racks marked “blemished” I picked up two or three of them and did not notice anything glaring. They are marked $999. These usually go for $1299. I know these are not “exact” repro rifles but, Brownell’s does a pretty good job.

Nine of them had the A1 flash hiders. The rest were 3-prong flash hiders.

Just a heads up for those that are interested.

Any chance for a pic?

No. Sorry I didn’t take any pics. Just picked up a random couple and just looked over quick while my order was being filled.

Seems to me that they're still about $300-400 over what the market will bear, given the current AR glut. It's not like they're collectible Colts.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Seems to me that they're still about $300-400 over what the market will bear, given the current AR glut. It's not like they're collectible Colts.

But 'retro' stuff is getting hard to find.

Handguards and stocks are creeping up in price. A1 upper receivers are hard to find. NoDak lowers have a pretty significant wait time.


Pencil barrels are a little more common, but they come and go as far as availability.


I built my A1 on a Colt parts kit when they were still available and it was close to $750 when it was all said and done.


So while the Brownell's rifles aren't Colts, if you want an A1 clone it is going to cost significantly more if you are going to try to piece together a Colt. The parts kit that I used have been sold out for more than a year now. They all got snapped up until another SE Asian country demils some more old rifles.

Original Colt barrels with the FSB are going for more than $350 if I recall correctly. (The barrels are in short supply because they were destroyed or separated from the parts kits that were brought in.)


A1 receivers are bringing ~$165 or so when you can find stripped flat top receivers for $45 if you shop around.

An SP1 would be a better choice for retro.

Oh yeah. These aren’t real but, if a guy doesn’t want to shop around wheeling and dealing on parts these are an easy way to go.

It's getting very expensive to build retro clones using original parts. If you are just looking for the simplicity of an A1 type upper with field sights, a pencil barrel and A1 type furniture, the Brownell's rifles are a pretty good deal @ $1000. I built my clone for a bit less, using a Brownell's barrel and A1 lower and some original parts, but it look a lot of hunting online and at gun shows and I still have at least $700 into it.

I've had a few SP1's and while they have a cool factor, I'd rather have one built with current technology ... Maybe it's just because I've BTDT, however I was interested in one of their 308 brown with the early design charge handle inside the carry handle (I don't remember their designation). Then started hearing things like loose fitting handguards and decided to wait ... And ultimately decided I didn't want a 308 AR with a 7 pound trigger, just to be cool besides, due to health reasons I wouldn't be able to shoot it unless I suppressed to reduce the recoil, that kinda defeats the reason for getting it.