A few months ago, I asked a buddy if he had any spare A1 or A2 stocks in his spare parts bin and he said he'd check. Well, he showed up at my place with a complete 20"HBAR upper along with the stock, lol! Said it was taking up space in his safe and he just wanted it out of there, so I obliged.
We couldn't figure out the make, but it was the collective opinion of some guys from ARF that the upper might have been an Olympic Arms HBAR upper. Anyway, I didn't have a dedicated lower ready for it, so I was humming and hawing about getting a US Colt or Colt Canada. My buddy Hermes from Reliable gun got me a stripped Colt Canada lower for pretty cheap. Actually, it was about half the price of my first stripped CC lower when they first came out, so I grabbed it.
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This one was a light gray like my previous ones, but I didn't bother soaking this one in G96/CLP for three weeks to darken it up. This one also didn't have any markings between the maple leaf and the serial number. I had it engraved before I had a chance to take a pic of the virgin receiver though, so you'll have to use your imagination. Also, I had the wrong engraving put in, as this build was supposed to have a fixed carry handle so it should have just been C7 instead of C7A2.
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The engraving wasn't perfect, I think the font is a bit on the small side, but whatever, the lower didn't cost me much so I don't really care.
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The C7A2 Lower, what the markings are supposed to look like.
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Aside from the stripped lower, and the DPMS LPK, I dug a few other Colt Canada parts out of my spare parts box. These items weren't on the earlier C7s, but they were burning a hole in my spare parts box so I figured I'd throw them on there. If I recall correctly, I picked up the the TRIADs from Wanstalls a few years ago but totally forgot about it. The claw is a repro from.....Frontier Firearms I think? I don't remember, but it actually does look slightly different from the real deal. I got a real one from Nordic for my SA20, but it was an OCD thing. If I wasn't inebriated by the clone bug, I don't think I would ever pay $120 for the claw.
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Anyway, I just slapped the thing together. The upper came with a standard USGI M16 sling. I was too lazy to dig out the C7 sling that came with my SA20.
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Total cost, about $300 if not counting parts from my spare parts box (I know, that math is flawed because I paid for those parts at one point in time).
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The upper and lower colors don't match, just like the real deal sometimes, lol!
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Actually, by the time I joined, our rifles were still black with the A2 stock, but they'd already gone to the flat top with the Elcan. No Triad, no claw, no ambi controls. I wans't in when they had the carry handle.
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Anyway, I took it out last night and put a few rounds through it, no kaboom so it seems like a solid upper. Thanks again to my for the upper and stock
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My SA20 is still unfired as I plan to give it to my kid one day when he's old enough, but I'll shoot this one for sure. I'm just not sure if I want to keep the fix carry handle or go with a flat top and build another C7A2 clone with an Elcan and the rest of it. I have the extra Triad, the claw and I may have another Norgon still buried in my spare parts bin somewhere, so I'm thinking I may as well use them?
