#Colt

After several years of being undercut on the market by cheaper offerings from Smith & Wesson and others, Colt introduced early in 2016 a new addition to their lineup, the “Expanse” carbine, designed to cut the price tag of a Colt carbine by $200-300 versus the standard 6920. The new rifle was met with positive reviews and many felt very good about the opportunity to own a “real” Colt for significantly less than the cost of the 6920. However, is the Expanse really a Colt, or more specifically, how much of the Expanse is really Colt? Christopher Bartocci, former Colt technician, thinks the answer is “not much”. Bartocci explains why in the video embedded below:

Since the beginning of the modern era, the question of how to arm the increasingly large body of non-infantry troops has become both more pressing and more difficult to solve. Initially, these men could be armed with pistols, or perhaps submachine guns firing pistol calibers, but as the Cold War entered its third decade, an additional complication was added to the problem: Body armor. Enemy troops – especially encircling paratroops – equipped with body armor could potentially make already lackluster pistols and submachine guns almost useless in a serious skirmish. Weapons were (and still are) needed that could defeat body armor while providing enough firepower to repel an assault, yet still be small and light enough to be carried by troops whose primary mission did not involve pulling a trigger.

Have you ever seen an M16 like this before? Look closely. Right below the detachable carry handle’s rear knob, there is a piece of metal on the side of the upper receiver. Weird right? Well it is actually an experimental rear folding sight. It folds down flat and the carry handle has a notch to accommodate the stowed rear sight.

This one of a kind 1911 was made by Colt Industries and Swartz. It is claimed to be owned by @class3johnnie and it is transferrable. He claims he acquired it from the Colt Museum. It looks gorgeous.

A lot of firearm companies are jumping into the ammunition arena, and Colt wants in! They are teaming up with Doubletap Ammunition to produce two new lines of ammo. One series is “Colt Defense” that will initially stock 5 different calibers, and the second line will be “Colt National Match” with 5 calibers as well.

Colt’s Manufacturing Company announced its first M4-style rifle with a mid-length gas system. Called the Colt Combat Unit carbine, this new gun features a number of popular features in addition to the mid-length system. The gun’s SKU is LE6960-CCU.

Photos by Alan W. I have not seen this style grenade launcher before. It is the Colt XM148. It was the original 40mm grenade launcher for the Colt XM16. However due to the trigger design and the complexity of small parts, easily lost in the field, the XM148 was only fielded for a year in Vietnam. It was soon replaced with the M203.

I have been fascinated with the idea of a budget Colt rifle since I heard about the Expanse Carbine a while back. After Colt’s recent financial speed bumps I am of the opinion that as long as Colt can get the Expanse into just about every gun shop out there, it may go a long way towards getting Colt out of financial trouble.

Many pistol shooters of my generation grew up in a world with a wide variety of fantastic black plastic handguns that are as durable as a tank, have triggers ranging from “decent” to “awful”, run below six notes in price, and are uniformly ugly as sin. These are very practical weapons for self-defense, but for a lot of people they bring pistol shooting closer to a chore than recreation. For a while now, I’ve been looking for a handgun that could come with me on Pistol Day and add a little more fun to the experience, and maybe a touch of class, too. Unlike Alex C, I’m not made of money, and I couldn’t just go out and buy a Manhurin or a Python and be done with it, so instead I went looking for Smiths. Recently, I found one that I wanted at the right price: A “no dash” Model 686 in .357 Magnum, made in 1983.

Deadpool could easily be referred to as the antithesis of all things superhero, and yet the movie’s namesake did have a bit of hero in him (sort of). The movie was released immediately prior to Valentine’s Day 2016 and grossed $363.1 million here in the United States, pulling in another $419.3 million in foreign countries. Those numbers gave it a financial boost higher than all X-Men movies and although there is more, you’re not here for a movie recap. In the wake of Deadpool’s popularity, gun company Whiskey Tango Foxtrot recently unveiled their ode to the smart-assed vigilante: a Deadpool-themed pistol.

Colt has introduced another rifle in their Expanse budget rifle lineup with a second model more in line with what shooters expect when buying a carbine AR-15. Just before SHOT Show 2016 Colt announced that they would be building a budget rifle that had a planned MSRP of just $699 to directly compete with some of the best selling carbines on the market. We have one of the CE1000 rifles in for review, and at a glance, it is nothing short of impressive. The amount of quality that we were able to purchase for under $600 street price is nothing short of outstanding.

I think that we have all been in the position where we see something at a gun show that stands out as really rare or interesting, but just don’t have enough information to act on it. Even the internet can fall flat sometimes, this was one of those cases. I don’t know if I would come off of $15,000 for a non NFA AR-15 with nothing more than a promised letter from Colt to verify the rifle’s legitimacy. I am sure that the seller is an upstanding guy and I understand that Colt is currently working on those letters, so verification is coming.

For the summer of 2016, Colt’s Manufacturing Company (aka Colt) updated and expanded its Defender series of 1911 style pistols. The original gun has been updated, while the company added new “black and blue models” – one in .45 ACP and a second in 9mm.