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Posted: 11/12/2004 10:31:49 PM EDT
| Bought a new bolt advertised as Colt. It's marked MPF, with the "F" underlined. I'm thinking this might be FN. Not terribly concerned if it is FN and not Colt, but just curious. Anyone know? |
And every bit as good as Colt  Don't know for sure, but have seen at least one note that Colt has, in fact, used some FN bolts in their recent production. Kind of reminds me of WW2, when M1 Carbines were all built w/parts from different builders 
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Little off topic, but does it make my Bushmaster bolt any better if I´m able to get MP test to it? Friend of mine is in inspector in oil refinery business and he has equipment to do magnetic particle testing. How about barrels? Is it worth hassle to take them off and inspect them too? At least these would be first MP tested BM parts in Finland.. MN |
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Thanks for the replies guys. I figured it was FN but thought I might ask the experts. Like I said, it was advertised as a Colt bolt, but I'm happy with FN, too. I just want mil-spec and both fit the bill. I have another bolt that came w/ an M16 carrier, take outs from a Border Patrol rifle. Carrier is unmarked and bolt is only marked MP. Also sold as a Colt, but who knows? Guess if I really want parts that are definitely Colt, I need to order them new from SAW. |
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I acquired the same MPF marked bolt in a trade and was also told it was an original Colt bolt! The Black Rifle II book says the MPF marked bolts are FN manufacture and the MPF bolts with either a line under the M or the F are FN subcontracted bolts. At first I was pissed as I was told the bolt would be Colt but on examination this subcontracted FN bolt displays superior finish quality and better overall dimensional consistency then any of my current Colt bolts! I'm using it on my next build. |
What you almost certainly got was a Colt bolt/carrier assy from a very early production rifle. Colt didn't begin putting the "C" on the bolts and carriers (and other parts) until after H&R and GM were given M16A1 contracts during the Viet Nam War. That way, if there was a parts failure, they could tell who made the piece. Frankly, given the extreme toughness of those GI surp parts, I see little or no reason to spend the money on new Colt pieces. As I have posted before, I picked up 5 GI surp, Viet Nam era, bolt aaays a few years back, and checked each of them in each of my 4 ARs, All but one wouldn't close on a max heasspace guage, and the one that did close wouldn't close on a field guage. Put Wolff HD extractor springs in 'em, and have happily been using them ever since.
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Thanks for the info shamayim. Kinda cool to have a little piece of history. Both the bolt and the carrier are in great shape. I'm using the new FN bolt in my M4gery and keeping the old Colt bolt as a spare. Haven't gotten around to checking the headspace w/ the old bolt, but it's probably fine. I have plenty of M14 parts that were made in the 1960s (older than me) and they work great, better than the current production parts. |
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