  The Colt Defense booth at SHOT Show 2013 celebrated 50 years of the M-16. Colt was the original licensee on the Stoner patent from Armalite, who developed the “AR” platform itself. They were the first real makers of the M-16 rifle, and through a lot of ups and downs the rifle has endured as the finest battle rifle every created. This year is an unprecedented attack on civilian ownership of these guns, and we are hoping that America, and Colt, makes it through.
 Most of the 2013 products from Colt are the same rifle models with new finishes.
 Many of the guns are available through specific distributors only, like this Muddy Girl camo, you can only get from Talo distributors.
 These models are also from specific distributors, listed on the photo. If this craziness goes away, let your local dealer know which gun you want and which distributor they come from. The Colt 2013 catalog has them all listed.
 The 2013 prices are similar to the 2012 prices, and note that it is not Colt that is gouging prices out there. It is purely retailers and parasites who have grabbed up the guns. Colt actually lowered their wholesale prices right before Sandy Hook and has not raised them.
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Colt’s Manufacturing Co.
https://www.coltsmfg.com/
Download the Colt 2013 Catalog Here
Last year we saw Colt regain its status as the king of the AR-15/M-16 type rifle. Our Colt articles on both the 6920/6940 Patrol rifles, and the .308/7.62 Colt 901-16S were among 2012’s most popular here at GunsAmerica Magazine & Blog. The nice thing was that you could actually get the guns, and tens of thousands of you did. We have some good news for the 901 purchasers out there. According to “inside information” at the Colt Defense booth at SHOT Show, those proprietary swapper parts should be out this year, and they will finally come with the gun. Everyone who already has a 901 will be able to get them either free or cheap directly from Colt, hopefully by March is what we were told. If you have not yet read the 901 article and watched the video, it is a really cool gun that could transform your perspective of the AR-15 platform.
So what’s new for Colt this year? Mostly they are coming out with a bunch of specialized configurations and colors in the same rock solid 6920/6940 guns, and some of them are going to be only available from specific Colt distributors. From a gun nerd or Colt collector perspective, this news is like an off season Christmas present. Remember that every gun that leaves the Colt factory is documented for the historical department, with the specific configuration, colors, hardware, etc. And while the hardware itself is not serialized, the serial number of the gun will be forever tied to its configuration and hardware selection. This gives you every reason to convince your Significant Other that you need one of these and one of these and one of these and one of these and… you get the picture. All of the different configurations you see here will instantly become collectable, and they should increase in value like most Colts have done over the generations.
This might seem like a marketing ploy from Colt, but only the uninitiated would really look at it like that. You have to give the people what they want, and a lot of us want MORE COLTS. These colors and configurations are genuinely collectible, and if you are just looking for an extremely high quality AR from a trusted name, you now have some interesting and creative finish options from Colt, the company that has manufactured the M-16/AR-15 since its introduction. There is also some real substance to the 2013 Colt catalog. Besides the Colt Competition guns that we already covered on media day, Colt is making a good deal of factory accurized “Match” grade guns that are specifically marked as Match. Nothing is done halfway and the guns aren’t franken-15s. Most of the parts on the guns are actual Colt, and the few third party additions are from fellow military contractors like Magpul.
This is the 50th anniversary of the M-16, which was first licensed by Colt from Armalite’s Eugene Stoner. The rifle has had its ups and downs, as had Colt over the years, but now Colt is facing an unprecedented attack on the future of their business. The same goes for every AR manufacturer in the US, and it is a fight that we should all be helping them fight, and win. Please contact your legislators if you have not already, and tell them that America doesn’t need to lose any more jobs to ridiculous political paybacks, and that is all this mess is comprised of, political paybacks. The Colt factory will be shuttered if Feinstein’s ban passes, and all the people who have been working to make us these cool guns will be unemployed.
All we can do is hope that we’ll be able to get these cool new Colts in 2013. Right now you can’t get a Colt for less than twice the catalog price, but this has nothing to do with Colt. According to our friends in the marketing department at Colt, they actually lowered their wholesale prices right before Sandy Hook, which happened not far from their factory in West Hartford. After this crazy boom for ARs, they didn’t then raise them back up. Colt hasn’t made an extra penny on this crisis, because they already weren’t able to keep up with the demand for Colt ARs without any crisis required. Supply and demand are pillars of American capitalism, but we can tell that you if you are upset about having to pay too much for a Colt, it has nothing to do with the company itself. Hopefully this crisis will pass without us losing our guns and prices and availability will go back to normal levels. If we make it through, it will be a great year for Colt fans.
Colt 2013 Picture Gallery – Rifles
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