Honestly, the H&R is likely the better way to go. There's a handful of places milking the retro market for stupid prices. PSA offers a good alternative.

I ran this past a friend who does a lot of retro stuff and independently, he recommended H&R/PSA and sending it to John Thomas for a moderator. Says he feels you'd get a higher quality barrel that way. PSA has done a lot of work with FN over the years, and whether they implicitly state it or not, their barrels are generally made by FN. FN makes excellent barrels.

Thanks all.


I am going to have my class 2 friend look and help me know the answers to some of your good questions and when I know more will post.

quote:

Originally posted by tschiemer:
Thanks all.


I am going to have my class 2 friend look and help me know the answers to some of your good questions and when I know more will post.

You’re overthinking this. It is rather straightforward and you’ve gotten a lot of good advice already. At present the best off the shelf retro products are from H&R/PSA. As has been mentioned, John Thomas at Retro Arms Works is the go-to for making an off the shelf item into an XM177, etc. John can also convert a milspec upper to use the larger Colt front pin so you can ditch the adapter.

I suggest that you hunt for a Colt SP1 upper, nice early furniture, and restore that SP1 to its correct configuration. This will take time, but it will be worth it.

Sounds good thank you!