I find it interesting now that the A2 and A4 are now thought of as retro by the zoomers
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A2 is kind of the forgotten rifle for sure
There's a lot of nuance here. If you just like the retro look and you're not trying to clone or make something collectible then I guess that kind of simplifies things.
I think the easy button here is to just buy an old Colt carry handle AR like the Colt Sporter, and then you can outfit it however you like. An M68 red dot is pretty retro, and they pretty much stack up against any modern optic in just about every category. It's still pretty easy to find the old M68s with the cantilever for the carry handle.
The light would be a problem. Retro would be Surefire Millennium, which is like 100 lumens vs modern LED lights that are 1k plus. About the best you could do is a Surefire Millennium with a Malkoff LED conversion. It would look retro on the outside but have a modern LED lamp inside. Still super big and heavy compared to modern lights though, and uses a different mounting pattern than the current scout, and it's getting hard to find aftermarket mounts in that old pattern.
I think the easy button here is to just buy an old Colt carry handle AR like the Colt Sporter, and then you can outfit it however you like. An M68 red dot is pretty retro, and they pretty much stack up against any modern optic in just about every category. It's still pretty easy to find the old M68s with the cantilever for the carry handle.
The light would be a problem. Retro would be Surefire Millennium, which is like 100 lumens vs modern LED lights that are 1k plus. About the best you could do is a Surefire Millennium with a Malkoff LED conversion. It would look retro on the outside but have a modern LED lamp inside. Still super big and heavy compared to modern lights though, and uses a different mounting pattern than the current scout, and it's getting hard to find aftermarket mounts in that old pattern.
The M68 is still in service. My stepson's M4 has one on it, as does the others in his national guard unit. He's a 13F so he doesn't get an ACOG.
I havent heard of anybody ordering anything from them in a while - are they still up and running? The website appearance looks like it hasnt had much updating since 1999
-- my first AR was built from a Model 1 kit in 1997. Looks like the prices are about the same now as they were then. My "Commando" homage cost about $650 complete as i recall when assembled on an Olympic lower
wished i had kept it together but i got the tinkering bug years ago --- however the Olympic lower provides a home for the 604 upper i posted a pic of in this thread
Found a reddit list of sites to shop on.
Yea I would imagine there are still a bunch running around. The M68 is currently the comp m4, but note that the retro one is the comp m2. You can tell them apart by the battery and the comp m4 has better glass, and an integral mount instead of the scope ring.
I believe they're still in business.
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