I'm trying to find information on a rifle I recently aquired. It's a Colt AR-15 A2 Gov't Carbine. It's marked RESTRICTED, MILITARY / GOVERNMENT,LAW ENFORCEMENT / EXPORT USE ONLY.  On the left side of the receiver it's marked COLT DEFENSE, HARTFORD, CONN., MADE IN CANADA. I've never scene one, nor anyone I've had look at it, marked "MADE IN CANADA". I would apprieciate any info I could get on this rifle. Is it more valuable, less valuable, a collector or a shooter. The rifle is in very good condition, and appears to be unfired. Thank you.

Don't know anything about them, but I saw a brace of them for sale in the EE a few weeks ago. I too am interested to learn something about them.

Highly collectible.  Good job

I just sold mine to a guy on here who was looking for one.  The majority, if not all of them, were brought in to satisfy a contract with the Pennsylvania State Police.  A distributor (Surplus City, IIRC) in PA picked them up in 2009 after PSP moved to new rifles. Most of the guns will have low round counts and some finish wear from rifle racks.  If I had to guess there's probably only a few hundred or less in the country.  To the right person, they're worth far more than they initially sold for, especially right now.







 

Write up on it in this months American Rifleman.. Not much of a difference, just some specs that the canadian govt wanted for their weapons..

Canadian Colt link here

I think there's more than that in country.

I just guessed at the number of trade-ins, could very well be more.  Outside of those, I've not heard of many Colt Canada guns coming in.

 

It'd be interesting to know the numbers, I'd bet easily in the mid thousands.

My memory of 2009 or so was that the Canadian made 6520s were all over the place.  Same rifle, not a C7 or C8 by any stretch.  It's just a standard Colt defense rifle that says made in Canada.

Now that I think about it, they started showing up in December 09 and lasted for a few months, at least.  Given their price then, there had to be quite a few.

 

Affirm.   We ordered 15 rifles and 10 were Canadian.   I think I remember someone saying they pulled Canadian guns to fill the demand in the us at the time.  You can tell all ours from a distance on the range as the upper and lower have slightly different colors.  The lowers have the old colt grey to them.

While on the topic of Canadian made Colts or Colt Canada, were there ever Diemaco lowers brought into the United States?

I've never heard either way.   Someone on here posted some D stamped uppers and BCG's a while back. I personally haven't seen a lower stamped that way.

I have a "D" upper, SOCOM barrel ('04 date). I think Canada forgings were used as needed. The "D" uppers at least are not Canadian military As their rail is a different spec, I believe.

The Colt Canada military rifles use the Canadian Weaver accessory rail uppers, but their LE guns use the standard MIL-STD-1913 rail.  

Even before Colt Defense absorbed Diemaco, they would sometimes use Diemaco components for U.S. rifles, military and commercial, distinguished by the Devtek or "stylized D" marking.  They were just an OEM supplier.  

IIRC, they have also been soaking up excess production of Colt LE rifles - built to the exact same specs as U.S. market rifles, but since they are being shipped to an LE agency, they can be imported "assault weapons" without any of the usual rigamarole.  This allows Colt to sell more U.S. produced weapons on the open market without importation issues, while filling large LEO orders.  That being said, I couldn't say whether only some components are made in Canada and finished in the U.S., or completely finished in Canada, and simply shipped - or if Colt Defense sends them furniture and some small parts...  

Then, if the LE agencies decide to trade their older rifles in for newer models, they can become available to the U.S. market.  I think technically it could be argued that a "made in Canada" could be subject to 922r. once released on to the open market, but then again - how do you prove a set of handguards, an A2 muzzle device, ect. were made in the U.S. or Canada?  

I am not aware of an Diemaco marked lowers in the U.S. though I suppose it's not impossible.  Probably less than a half-dozen on the open market, if any.  I do know that SGMLee of SHOT Show photo fame has or had a Deimaco barrel.  

TacticalConcepts, one of our Canuk brothers is one of the SMEs on the Diemaco/Colt Canada rifles, and KevinB was CANFOR before being "the KAC guy."  

In the end, though - the an LE/AR6520 is still "just" an LE/AR6520, that happens to have been made in Canada.  Functionally and practically, it's no different, however, there are some that would probably place a little bit of extra value in the "Made in Canada" rollmarking.

I think I passed on one in '09 because it was overpriced for a '6520.  Granted, the shop trying to sell it was well known for their atrociously high pricing - but I couldn't see myself paying more than a couple bucks extra for the "cool" marking.  

Then again, MagPul lowers have sold for more than complete OBRs in the past, so there are people that'll do it...

~Augee

I picked up a diemaco upper in 2004.  Basically, the same as a 6920 upper. At the time i just thought it was a regular colt.  Barrel is marked 04, D on the upper receiver.  The color is definitely more of a colt grey.  I was looking at the BGC last night for the first time in a while and noticed that the rear is significantly different than current colt BCG.
How can you tell if the barrel is "diemaco" as opposed to colt?  Specific markings?

tell us what the markings are on the barrel

I am with Augee on this, I doubt there is a Devtec D marked Diemaco lower outside Canada...unless it was done for another government. Usually the markings I have seen for other governments usually have something related to the nation on them.

The newest rifles appear to be moving away from the stylized D and towards a CC meaning Colt Canada. There are still forge markings indicating the stylized D, but I wouldn't be surprised to see those go unfortunately.

ETA, I stand corrected:

http://www.ar15.com/mobile/topic.html?b=3&f=12&t=223495&page=11

a little bit down the page, you will see rifles for the Netherlands and UK have them.

Mark

Jst got off the phone with Colt Canada. They said they would get back with me on my rifle in a few days. They also said that of the known gov't and law enforcement contracts that they filled, only when Colt America was running behind, there should be no more than 1500 rifles in America. They said that number was just an estimate, but a very close estimate. They said the same thing Colt America told me, that Colt wanted as few guns as possible crossing the borders in either direction, and were only sold to L.E. and gov't contractors. Thanks for all the info that everyone provided. Have a good day.

Do you have the contact you spoke too? I would have agreed with that if they were only the 6520's. I saw a M4 Carbine roll marked lower with made in Canada on it which tells me it's more than the 6520 runs that were for PA State Police. You can IM me the contact.

Mark

I picked up one of these from Surplus City in December 2009. They were a great deal at $699 and I remember them still having a few going into late Spring and Early summer of 2010 but they were the ugly ducklings that had more rack and carry wear than anything else.

Decent rifle and the usual Colt quality was there. Only thing I found odd was that the A2 upper had no forging or maker ID marks.

Here is some old pics when I first received it:

great buy there Hoot....that is a 2800.00-3000.00 rifle up here.

Mark

Cdnn investments had these listed in their catalog in 2009-2010 as well.  They were priced about $200 less than their regular new USA 6520's at $899.  Didn't think it made sense to buy one of these fixed carry handle rifles but I did buy one from Surplus City for $699 as well.  I had it listed on gunbroker for $1300 for a month back in Jan/Feb 2013 with no takers.  So I seriously doubt it's worth $2800 or some nonsense.  I estimate its worth $1100-1200 right now.  Next year maybe $1000

TacticalConcepts is talking about Canada pricing, not USA pricing.

You are absolutely correct. However, prior to Sandy Hook, it used to burnour asses up here when we would see a LE6920 going 1050.00 at wally world and the same rifle up here was going for 2400.00. I get exports don't come cheap, but there was still very good margins being made.

Hoot was correct about it being Canuck pricing.

Colt Canada's retail price for a nekkid C8 is around 1700.00 to an agency. Way over priced. good product, but over priced.

IMNSHO any LARGE or MILSPEC supplier should not be selling a plan jane M4 styled rifle for more than 1000-1200 bucks - they have their productions usually down pat (pre-sandy hook). It also burns me that CC won't sell to us up here.

Mark

There are Canadian made 6920s as well. I almost bought one, but found a great deal on a preban that I wouldn't need to have neutered. The rifle was like $950 or $1000, or so and was a trade in from a police dept. local to the shop that was selling it in OK.