Colt AR-15 M4 Carbine

More than not, the decision to buy a new gun comes from inside your heart. Even if you need a duty gun, or you have to pick from a list of allowable weapons for a specific job, most of us are going to buy the gun that feels right to us. For several generations of American gun owners, there is no gun that feels better or more right to buy than a Colt. Last weekend I was listening to Gun Talk Radio, and sure enough, a geezer gun nut called in to let Tom Gresham know that he had finally broken down and bought an AR-15. Why? Because he was finally able to buy a Colt.

Yes, the time has finally come when you can actually walk into most gun shops and buy a Colt AR-15 M4 Carbine. The models 6920 and 6940 that you see here were actually introduced back in 2009, and some have trickled into the consumer market for the past three years, but for the most part you didn’t see them. And prior to that, despite the fact that Colt is a major supplier of the M4 carbine to US Military, none of us had seen an AR from Colt since the old Colt Sporter days in the 80s before the ban era. Colt was decimated by lawsuits for many years, and through name and ownership reorganizations, Colt just kind of evaporated from the gun shop shelf consumer gun market. Thankfully, Colt is back, and the guns are absolutely top notch. We were able to shoot and test four of the newest M4 models over thousands of rounds of ammo in the course of three weeks or so with several shooters, and everyone was impressed with the new Colts.

The 6920 is a straight up patrol rifle. In fact the whole line is called the LE line, for Law Enforcement, but since the ban era is over for now, there is no law enforcement only restriction. The 6920 is meant to provide a high quality, one size fits all option for the law enforcement officer who just needs a reliable rifle with just the options that are needed for the task at hand. The 6920 carries a 16″ button rifled, chromed barrel with a six groove 1 in 7 inch twist rate, suitable for all combat 5.56 ammo. The bolt assembly is M16 grade, and both the bolt and barrel are magnetic particle inspected for imperfections. We were able to get both the SOCOM version from Colt, that comes equipped with a Knight’s Armament quad-rail handguard and rail covers, as well as the FDE-TALO version with the beige Magpul MOE handguard, forward grip and pistol grip. They also make the latter in an all black instead of beige.

The SOCOM comes with a MaTech Mil-Spec 200-600 yard rear sight, and the FDE comes with a Magpul rear flip up peep sight to match the other beige hardware. Both guns are drop dead gorgeous out of the box, and both guns I think send a message to the consumer market that these patrol rifles are no afterthought by a military defense contractor. Colt could have just fumbled together any kind of parts they wanted, stamp them with a Colt logo, and the guns would sell for hundreds more than a standard AR-15 M4. The guns are in fact hundreds more than a standard M4, but they come with parts that are themselves top of the line, military contractor provided, battle proven weapon system components that by themselves sell for those extra hundreds of dollars alone. Even the shoulder strap and cleaning kit are Mil-Spec, and serviceable. The Magpul guns come with two P-Mags each, and the SOCOM comes with two standard 30 round steel mags.

Could you trick out these guns to do more than they are out of the box? Of course. They are standard, impingement AR-15 M4s with Mil-Spec parts and standard rails. As you can see from the pictures, we added a rail section to the Magpull handguard for a light and laser combo. The modern AR-15 is made to expand and customize, but out of the box, as a patrol rifle, home defense rifle, even basic hunting rifle, the Colt 6920 will serve you wisely.

The 6940 is a rifle unique to Colt. The lower is the same as all the other guns, as is the barrel, the bolt, and the internals, but the upper itself is what is called “monolithic.” Look at the pictures and you will see the difference between it and the uppers of the 6920, as well as most AR-15 rifles you are probably familiar with. There is no break between the front handguard and the flat top rail. It is all one machined piece. This makes it ideal for high powered optics, and with specialty ammo like the frangibles from DRT (which we are hoping to get our hands on soon), the 6940 is perfect as a police sniper rifle, with the ability to operate in a close quarters firefight as well.

The rear sight on the 6940 is that same MaTech that is on the black 6920, but the front sight on the 6940 is not the standard AR-15 triangle. It still adjusts the same way, but it is a flip down, so you can mount an optic on the gun, but retain the ability to shoot with open sights. That solid monolithic upper is the most stable platform you will find on an AR-15 for long range optics, and the gun is extremely accurate. Even with the gun relatively hot on an oppressively hot south Florida afternoon with the sun in his face, our resident US Army Sniper Ben Becker was able to consistently nail 3 shot groups into about an inch at 100 yards. We are probably going to keep these guns and buy them from Colt, and with better ammo on a cooler day and better conditions, the 6940 will probably shoot 5 rounds at least into comfortably o 1 MOA. This is a pure-play police sniper rifle, and it comes with 2 steel 20 round mags, so you can shoot the gun prone with a bipod as you see in the pictures.

Now that most gun shops, including a lot of the GunsAmerica dealers, have these Colts, the smart gun nuts are pulling the trigger on them, both literally and figuratively, and actually just buying them, needed or not. We could find ourselves back into a new war if the President feels he needs it to get re-elected, and Colt could have to tail off consumer production to meet military contract demands yet again. If you have always dreamed of owning a Colt AR-15, even going back to the Sporter days, now would be the time to grab one. I have spoken to the dealers out there and the market has only been able to bear a very small margin for the dealers on these guns. That means they are a good buy right now, and a good investment for a collectible rifle down the road.

As a side note, no, don’t worry I’m not going to wax about my childhood like I was opening a story in one of the print rags lol, GunsAmerica put its money where its mouth is on this one. If you notice in the pictures, there are two of the beige 6920s. That is because, two weeks before Colt send us any review guns, we saw one of these for sale on GunsAmerica from a local Miami dealer who has sold on GA for years. That day it was ours, not figuring that Colt would get around to sending us review guns anytime soon. Then surprise, surprise, surprise, three guns showed up for us from the PR company for Colt that next week, go figure, so we got to shoot four guns for this article. And if they let us buy them, the other three are most likely staying here too. If you are a gun nut, there is no wrong reason to buy a Colt. You don’t really need a reason at all. It’s a Colt for heaven’s sake.