For the last 4-5 years I’ve been putting together my Blood Diamond build. It started as a close enough clone, but I wanted to make it as close to the prop gun as I could. There’s still a few things that I need to do, but I wanted to do a quick write up incase anyone has interest in doing one also. Ignore the drywall patch sheet, it was the closest thing I had available to set it on.







Parts used
-Colt A2 upper, the pictured upper was replaced
-Brownells retro 12.7 barrel cut to 10.3” with non F FSB with bayonet lug (.625 gas journal), sling swivel removed and triangular handguard retainer installed
-Retro Rifles long version of a 607 moderator, needed tooling marks sanded down
-Surefire 660, M14 mount filed/sanded down to fit perfectly inside FSB
-A2 fiberglass rifle handguards cut and JB welded to carbine length, easier than it sounds.
-Aimpoint Comp M with correct Trijicon TX14 ring (from Tripower)
-late 90s/early 2000s US Tactical System carry handle weaver mount, will replace with B Square
-Bushmaster aluminum CAR stock with proprietary size receiver extension
-(Not pictured) replica OD Nylon M16 web sling configured into a shoulder loop, attached to the stock only

I still need to SBR a A1 lower, I have a pistol lower that I can try it out on until then. I’m holding off on painting it until it’s 100% completed. I spent way too much time studying this rifle and way too much money on the parts necessary. With H&R offering their TIA upper I’m not sure I’d want to do this build again, it was as frustrating as it was fun. Hope this helps anyone wanting to take on this project, feel free to pm me if you need any help.

I'll be in my bunk.

Very nice!

Improper rear sight drum detent. So it’s a pretty close clone

I love clone builds. Very nice OP.

Hahaha. I don’t need any more help, I think I leveled up enough on the spectrum already. It is really buggy me already that it’s not a Colt upper, I’ve even though about cutting down a 20” A2 barrel as that’s what was used.

Cool!  Looks good.  Is the B Square mount known to be the correct one?  Or might they have used the Aimpoint version?

@Keekleberrys

Magic

From what I’ve been able to find online the B Square is the correct mount. I’ve not had any luck finding one either. The mount I have seems like its a close copy of the ARMS #2 mount, I have the picatinny version.

You still gotta paint it.

TIA, mate.

Ya ya. I’m waiting for the lower before I paint it. I’m having a 80% A1 lower custom engraved with the correct M16A2 roll marks. I’m playing it safe and having replica also engraved on top of the lower similar to the Troy XM177. I’ll have the sbr engraving either inside the mag well or trigger housing.

Here’s one of the Guatemalan M16A2 used in Black Hawk Down and later Blood Diamond.

It’s a B square.  The BD gun is the same prop as the Gordon rifle, with different muzzle device, paint and light.



B square compared to ARMS mount:

Thanks for the comparison pictures. I’ve been tempted several times to switch it over to a Gordon build, but decided I want to do a historically accurate clone of one someday instead.

Which A2 upper are you using?  I've got a grey colt A2 upper thats sitting in a drawer because I don't have any grey lowers and the contrast drives me nuts.

I’m honestly not sure who made my upper. It came off of a pawnshop 20” Hbar A2. The lower was bushmaster, but there’s no marks on either the upper or barrel besides 5.56. Even the rear sight drum isn’t marked 8/3.

Pm if you don't want to clog up your post, but is it A2 feed ramps or m4?

Mugabe was a economic genius, he turned every citizen of Zimbabwe into a trillionaire overnight.

Pm sent

Replied, let me know if you didn't get it.  Still figuring it out.

Got your pm and replied.

Looks good to me… funny thing is… I just bought this movie tonight because I couldn’t find it streaming for free anywhere.

Kinda weird seeing this pop up.

Nice work. I've been assembling parts for my own build for about 3 years. Been having a tough time finding a 30mm Aimpoint vertical split ring mount. That's the last piece I need, minus a more accurate lower.

10.5" for the barrel is probably too long. In the movie screencaps, it looks like the muzzle device is closer to the FSB, so 10.3" might be more accurate.

There's also a difference of opinion between 0.625" and 0.75" journals, since it looks fatter past the FSB, but the movie gun was able to clamp the light mount more than possible on a 0.75" journal. One theory I have is that they used a 0.75" journaled barrel, which makes sense for an export M16A2, and they turned down the spot between the legs of the FSB to be able to fit the clamping mount.

I could be wrong, but I've read the stock was a commercial polymer unit from Bushmaster, but I can't find the source material. Do you know for certain it was aluminum? In the Reload article, the hero rifle stock does have mold marks like a polymer stock, but it could have been swapped out.

I wish someone made a muzzle device without wrench flats like in the movie

Thank you. I’ve seen pictures of your build and it is an amazing piece of work. I bought my ring from a member here awhile ago and it was probably the easiest to find part at the time. I had my barrel to be cut at 10 3/8”, I guess I fat fingered the 5 lol. I originally tried a .75” barrel and what lead me to use the .625” was the Surefire M14 clamp wouldn’t fit under the gas tube on the .75”, a cheap thin Amazon clamp would however . That and it didn’t look right next to the muzzle device wrench flats. I don’t have access to an A2 barrel to measure the diameter where it would have been cut. I also read about bushmaster stocks being used, but I don’t remember it saying polymer, that’s interesting. I went with aluminum based off of the stock profile, but I also have a 90s polymer CAR stock that I believe was molded from an aluminum stock. The movie gun could very well have used polymer, I’m going to have to look more into this. The muzzle device used has been driving me nuts trying to identify. I’m thinking it might have been a modified slip over type with the grenade ring and flash ports cut off, but I have no way to be sure.

I wonder what is the backstory on how and why that barrel and handguard came to be. If it was originally an A2 rifle barrel it would essentially be like an Israeli Menusar barrel, just cut down to a shorter length.

It doesn’t make sense to me either how it would be cheaper or easier to go through all the extra work to make carbines rather than swapping barrels and handguards. Maybe they charged by the hour lol.