I recently took a gamble on a police trade in Colt 6520. When I bought it, it came out of a large lot of 6520's in various conditions - this one came spray painted green with a thick layer of paint over the entire gun, but I picked it up for cheap online.

I disassembled the entire rifle and spent a few hours scrubbing it with paint thinner and a toothbrush and could not be happier with the results. Here it is:





The rifle seems to have been in excellent condition under the paint and cleaned up phenomenally. The exterior of the paint was pretty dinged up, so I think that it was spray painted when new and the pain layer actually served to protect the original finish underneath.

I called Colt and the serial number dates it to December of 1996. Barrel is dated May 1996, and the bolt is stamped MPLC which dates it to July of 1996. I guess that Colt used up parts made a few months before the "ship date" on their guns which explains why the barrel and bolt are a few months older than the receiver's serial number indicates. The upper receiver is also stamped "C MB" which is nice - the later production 6520's seem to often lack the "C" forge code.

The rifle is a ban-era gun with the "RESTRICTED" markings on the right side of the receiver and the small-diameter, screw-type front pivot pin with no channel drilled for the pin plunger. It also has the classic Colt grey anodizing which is very nice.

The only issue with the rifle is that the front sight post is destroyed from the previous owner trying to adjust it with pliers (I have another thread going on identifying the proper front sight post to replace it with). Other than that, the rifle is a joy to shoot - extremely lightweight and easy to carry, yet pleasant to shoot.

Nice looking pea shooter!

Excellent light little SHTF carbines.

Everything you need, nothing you don't.

Congrats!

Yes they are great rifles.

Awesome rifle. I love the 6520.

If you want a QD light mount that you won't need to modify anything on the Colt to use, get yourself a Kerm-Lock URA and their 1" rings as well as a Surefire G2X  and you'll be set.

Nice, I wouldn't mess with it.

Oof, that Kerm lock is a terrible design. Also, I wouldn’t add accessories to a 6520. Grab a different rifle for that.

It's my favorite rifle that I own

Get some replacement handguards and screw on a GG&G picatinny rail  section and you'll be able to mount a light.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I know there are a lot of ways to mount lights and such, but I’m going to keep this rifle in original stock configuration - I have plenty of modern rifles with lights and optics.

The best part about this gun is the weight - I feel like any kind of light or optic would mess up the balance. The only thing that could make this gun any better (other than a 11.5” barrel) would be for it to have an M16A1 receiver rather than the M16A2 receiver on it.

Nice score OP.

Picked one up a few years ago to replace the 6720 I gave to my son. Great little rifles.

Best truck gun there is.

Very cool gun.

Probably one of the last grey anodized guns Colt made before switching to black.

Good point! Does anyone have any idea when Colt switched to black anodizing? I was under the impression that this happened in the very late 90’s but may be wrong.

My favorite rifle.... I used the GG&G light mount on mine. Works perfectly!

I bought a 6520 upper in around 2007-2008.  It had the C MB marked Colt Gray A2 upper also.  I sold the receiver years ago and cut the barrel to 14.7 to make a 653 with an A1 upper receiver.  I will check the date on my barrel.  The A2 receiver and barrel extension had M4 cuts.
ETA: my upper was supposed to have been a Pacific Gas and Electric security surplus.

Cool!

I have a '97 production 6520 and it's black, so switch from gray to black 96-97ish

I have an Aimpoint M2 and gooseneck mount of a Colt 6550 (AR15A2 gov't rifle) and think its a pretty good way to mount an optic. The only issue is that it really only works well with the M2, M3, and M4 series of optics and nothing else as well.

Decided not to use it or any optic on the 6520 to save on weight though.

Meh, there's optics out there that weigh next to nothing...I mounted 1.5X Trijicon on my 6520 that barely moved the scale.

I forgot about this model of ACOG actually - how do you like it? I’d consider picking one up for the 6520 honestly.

The perfect optic, IMO, for a lightweight carbine...that extra 0.5x really does make a difference in target acquisition.  The TA-26 was discontinued in favor of the TA-44 (?), but by all appearances, they're identical.