Older AR-15 upper question

[roysha]

I was going through a drawer of "stuff" looking for a part and ran across an old Colt upper from the very late 70s or very early 80s. It is a NON forward assist and doesn't have the shell deflector. I took it off a Colt AR that I bought new at that time and replaced it with a forward assist upper. As far as I'm concerned the forward assist is about as useful as mammary glands on a boar hog but that is what it is so....

Does this upper have any value or should I just throw it back into the drawer to be discovered again down the line when I'm looking for something else?

[pretzelxx]

Can't say on the value, but I fully agree with the assist comment!

[Baron von Trollwhack]

There is quite a demand for early AR production parts, especially by Colt. It is worth more than the newest, best manufacturer, stripped upper in the market today if in the condition you describe, IMHO.


BvT

[bruce drake]

A1 or A2 upper? I'm thinking A1 due to the age but the others are right that many are being sought for building "Retro ARs"

Bruce

[Larry Gibson]

The A1 & A2 uppers have forward assists.

Larry Gibson

[tomme boy]

No shell deflector is a original design M16 type upper. It has to be a 60's model. They have the original model prototype with a shell deflector that was welded on at the museum near here at the Rock Island Armory.

Does the one you have, have the ridge around the magazine release? That was one of the other things they did when they added the shell deflector. It is probably worth around 200$. A bunch of these type showed up on the market a few years ago.

[GabbyM]

Probably an SP-1 they made up into the 1970's.
Would be a large pin. If you have the rest of the rifle you'll be doing well to restore it. Complete original rifles that aren't beat up are $1,500 and up last I looked. The one I have isn't for sale anywhere near that low price. You can build a similar reproduction for $625. I'm not a collector. Just not wanting to let go of my rifle.

[arjacobson]

check out ar15 dot com. There is a HUGE following building retro ar's

[gew98]

The Only Issue A1's that had the "brunton bump" were those rebuilt using Diemaco Kirchner forged uppers. These were made by them as they were making the canadian version of the A1 with the brunton bump and Colt was no longer tooled up to manufacture A1's. It was an easy decision then as D-K was a subsidary of colt . I hated the A2 when they took away our A1's and made us take the A2. Still hate it...don't get me started on the whole M4 thingy !.