S&W M&P 15 Sport 2 or Colt 6720?

[NeveSSL]

Hi all,

 

Would you grab a lightweight Colt over a S&W M&P 15 for $125 difference?  Doesn't seem too bad to me and potentially worth it.

 

The Colt is lighter by almost half a pound, I think (which is good for my wife, too), has a chromed BCG, chamber, barrel, and is magnetic particle tested.  The S&W is cheaper, but still a great gun.  It only has a chromed firing pin.

 

Either would probably serve my purposes well, of which is essentially punching paper and maybe home defense.  $125 for the Colt for the extra features, plus the possibility of a better resale if it comes down to it seems like not a ton of cash.

 

What do you guys think?

Brandon

Edited March 13, 2016 by NeveSSL

[Jct1911]

Colt, if you can swing the cash.

[quietguy]

I would go Colt for the difference, but mainly for the extra chromed components.  Both are good guns.  

[NeveSSL]

Yeah... I feel confident with just $125 difference, I'll regret it if I don't go with the Colt.  

 

It's great, though, that I have two excellent guns to choose from.  I will probably own it for many, many years, anyway.  For some reason, I just don't like to sell guns (or guitars) once I have them.  In fact, I don't think I've ever sold one of either in the 19 years I've been playing guitar and just as many owning guns.  Anyway...

 

Can't wait for Tuesday!  I'm even taking a half-day from work.  Haha!

Brandon

Edited March 14, 2016 by NeveSSL

[et45]

Colt all the way

[NeveSSL]

Thanks.  I hope to have pics tomorrow of my 6720.  It won't be nice and shiny, though... I'll be putting at least 150 rounds through it.  Heading straight to the range after I pick it up!  :D

 

Brandon

[eapking]

Look for bbl chrome & twist. S&W used to put a nice R5 bbl on sport. Not sure anymore.

[NeveSSL]

Bbl?  Barrel?

 

The Colt is 1:7 with chromed barrel and chamber and I believe bolt.  The S&W is not.  They have some type of proprietary lining they're doing now.  They dropped melonite a few years ago and won't say much about what they're using now.

 

Brandon

[JohnC]

Colt.

I've got a LE 6920 and it's been great.

[NeveSSL]

Thanks, John.  I'm really looking forward to putting this thing through it's paces tomorrow.  I even took a half-day off work.  :D

Brandon

[Dolomite_supafly]

Make sure it is a real Colt. There is a company making cheap Colt knockoffs and have licensed the Colt logo and markings. It is some sort of "competition" model of I remember correctly.

As long as it actually has the model number on the lower I would pick the Colt.

[NeveSSL]

Thanks, Dolomite.  This should be a straight-up 6720, but I'll double check before pulling the trigger tomorrow.

 

Brandon

[NeveSSL]

FWIW, the Colt was worth it and it is a legit 6720.   :)

 

 

 

Brandon

Edited March 16, 2016 by NeveSSL

[BillOReitz_II]

There is NO comparison! Colt 6720 if the price difference was $250.

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[BillOReitz_II]

Ooops, ↑a bit late to the party. Glad you got the Colt.

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[Dolomite_supafly]

There is NO comparison! Colt 6720 if the price difference was $250.

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Depends.

 

The first S&W Sports to hit the market were some of the best ARs on the market, at any price. The current ones are not the same as early ones. I would put an earlier 5R Sport above any budget Colt and would pick an early Sport over a Colt 6720 any day of the week.

 

The first Sport models by S&W had 5R barrels with 8 twist that had the melonite treatment which IMHO is a "premium" barrel compared to others, even Colt, on the market both then and now. The upper and lowers are both built to MILSPEC standards so they are functionally identical. Yes I know the Sport did not have a forward assist or dustcover but for the average user they are not required. The bolts and carriers for both are also milspec so those are also functionally identical. Matter of fact the only real difference would be the barrels and the 5R barrel of the early Sport is a better barrel. Chrome lined barrels are inferior to salt bath nitriding, like Melonite, in every aspect. Melonited barrels are going to last longer, provide better corrosion resistance as well as being more accurate than a comparable chrome lined barrel.

 

Never really understood why S&W built a top of the line AR then marketed it as a budget gun but they did.

 

And one more thing about "milspec". Most people consider MILSPEC the best but it is exactly the opposite. It just means it passed and that can mean it barely passed. Also, just because something is not milspec does not mean it is junk. Noveske barrels are some of the best barrels on the market but their molygonal rifling is not milspec. Same thing with monolithic uppers, they are great but not milspec. Blackhole weaponry is another good barrel that is not milspec. Chrome lined barrels are considered milspec but salt bath nitride barrels are magnitudes better than chrome lined even though nitride barrels are not milspec, yet. Plenty of great parts in the industry that are not milspec.

[BillOReitz_II]

All my guns are "defense tools" first. No FA nor dust cover is a DQ for anything but a fun gun. A 6720 is GTG and very, very few could wring superior performance from the 5R bbl. The markedly heavier 5R bbl. The superiority of melonite over chrome is an opinion. S&W ARs are overgassed and bolts are batch tested as opposed to individually HPT/ MI like the Colt. S&W includes a carbine buffer. Colt an H1. For possible serious use, I'm sticking with no comparison.

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[BillOReitz_II]

Oh, and it's unlikely the OP was looking at one of the rare first Sports. I searched for over a year before finding a deal on one that had not been rebarrelled.

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[NeveSSL]

I understand the first M&Ps had great barrels, but that is no longer the case, unfortunately.  When you compare the two as they are currently produced, I still think the Colt wins easily, especially for the price difference of $125 in this case.

 

Having said that, I still may pickup an M&P Sport 2 at some point just for the fun of it.  They're still great guns and do not seem to have any known consistent issues.  :)

Brandon

[Dolomite_supafly]

H1 buffers are nothing more than the manufacturers attempting to mitigate the effects of an over gassed gun. Colts are just as over gassed as most other ARs on the market. Any gun that cycles Wolf or Tula will be an over gassed gun with quality, US made ammunition such as M855 or commercial loadings. They are over gassed because no manufacturer wants their gun to come back for warranty issues because it will not cycle weak foreign ammunition. So they drill the gas port a little larger so it will cycle weak ammunition and then install the H1 buffer to mitigate the fact they drilled the port larger. And most ports are well beyond what is needed for most foreign ammunition. Then some say their 16" barrels are "milspec" but the problem is they drill their 16" barrel with the same port size as what is used on a 14.5" barrel. That 1.5" of barrel do make a difference in the dwell time as well as pressures at the port.

 

An adjustable gas block is a much better option than a H1 buffer to resolve issues related to over gassed guns.

 

People say that a heavy buffer helps fight through crud but that is not the case. When the H1 is opening it is the gas pressure that is pushing it back. Once it bottoms out it relies on spring pressure to move it back forward and the heavier H1 will return to battery slower than a lighter, carbine, buffer. And because the carbine buffer is moving faster than the H1 it carries more energy to plow through crud than the H1. If you double the weight of something the energy doubles but if you double the speed the energy goes up by a factor of four. So speed is better than weight. And the recoil spring will be exerting the same amount of pressure regardless of the buffer weight but a lighter weight buffer will have a higher speed than a heavy buffer and that higher speed results is more energy than you would see with a heavy, slow buffer.

 

An adjustable gas block does a lot of things an H1 buffer just will not. It reduces the amount of pressure in the barrel at the time the bolt unlocks. This reduces the amount of crud left in the receiver, which helps the gun run cleaner. It also reduces the amount of blowback being thrown into the shooter's face when shooting with a silencer. It reduces wear and tear but the biggest advantage to an adjustable gas block is it reduces felt recoil. I have an honest 5 pound AR and it has less felt recoil than a typical 7 or 8 pound AR because the 5 pound gun is gassed perfectly. Plenty of people here have shot that gun and all were amazed at the reduced recoil. I even had a few suggest they were shooting reduced power loads but they were not.

 

I, as well as a BUNCH of people I have built them for, run very lightweight buffers. I have custom made them for quite a few people, including those who shoot competitively, and they all report a more reliable gun that recoils less and reduces their times. And by lightweight I mean less than 1.5 ounces of sprung weight. They are filled with a certain type of powder, not tungsten or any others you might see, which act as a dead blow hammer to prevent bolt bounce. But it also keeps the weight of the buffer down. I also have a few other tricks I throw in to reduce the felt recoil.

 

Chrome lining is not as good as salt bath nitriding, that is fact. There is a reason why every major gun manufacturer is going to salt bath nitriding and it has nothing to do with opinion. It has everything to do with performance. Chrome lining

 

Name a single time in your life that a dustcover would have made the difference between a gun operating and not operating. I have carried an AR for work for over 20 years and I cannot think of a single time that a dust cover would have made a real difference.

 

The forward assist is nice but the ONLY time I have ever used one is when I am doing a chamber check. Now I just make sure every gun is loaded so there is no confusion. If your gun is requiring the use of a FA to go bang then you either haven't been doing proper maintenance, the ammunition is out of spec or the gun has broken. I have personally shot over 3K rounds over the course of several months without cleaning and never needed the FA to continue shooting.

[NeveSSL]

This is great information for me on possible upgrades for my rifle or maybe even building my next rifle, Dolomite.  Thanks for sharing.

 

Brandon

[R1100R]

This is great information for me on possible upgrades for my rifle or maybe even building my next rifle, Dolomite. Thanks for sharing.

Brandon

I think I saw your rifle at the Gallatin Gun Club yesterday. It was a nice Colt. I really like the barrel profile.

If that was you getting instruction from DMARK. LOL Edited March 16, 2016 by R1100R

[NeveSSL]

Lol... Yep, that was me! This is the lightweight variation, thus the smaller barrel. Which person were you? :)

Brandon

[R1100R]

Lol... Yep, that was me! This is the lightweight variation, thus the smaller barrel. Which person were you? :)

Brandon

The guy shooting the suppressed rifle. I talked with DMARK and you when you first got there. :) Edited March 17, 2016 by R1100R

[NeveSSL]

Ok, gotcha.  Wayne, right?

Brandon