Colt Sporter/AR-15 vs. the Sporter II??

VonFatman

September 16, 2011 09:02

I have a Sporter II. Here's a pic of the side of the lower:



What is the difference in a Sporter and a Sporter II?

Thanks!

Bob

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  rufe-snow

  September 16, 2011 09:47

  You might take and post a photo of the other side of the AR. When Colt started making changes in the military AR's, a lot of the non selective fire AR's that were sold as sporters were also modified.
  
  1, Forward assist
  
  2, "Fence" around mag release.
  
  3, Flash hider
  
  4, Handguard
  
  5, Over sized pins on lower
  
  6, ETC
  
  Didn't happen all at one time, but they didn't see any sense of making two different versions as long as the sporter they sold was legal and wasn't selective fire.

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  nmyers

  September 16, 2011 12:33

  Another way to look at is that the AR-15 SP1 (Sporter) was the civilian version of the military M16A1. As the military demanded upgrades that became the M16A2 & later improvements, the corresponding civilian models, such as yours, evolved.
  
  Colt just assembles parts. Most parts are common to all AR's in production at any given time, but some are just used for military/LE models, & some are just used for civilian models.
  
  Neal

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  jplookster

  September 16, 2011 19:41

  There are major differences between the Sporter and the Sporter 2 as mentioned above. Barrel twist, sights and barrel weight being most significant IMHO.
  
  The rifle you have in the picture however does not appear to be a complete pure Sporter 2. The upper receiver is much darker than the lower and it has an adapter pin in it that adapts a small pin "M-16" type upper to an original large pin AR-15 lower. More photos would be helpful.
  
  A Sporter 2 as a transition model may have had a forward assist or may not, and the assist if it had one may have been a tear drop style or a round one. The pure Sporter 2 upper will have A1 M16 type rear sights.
  However the Sporter 2 HBAR will have a full heavy barrel and A2 type sights. The Sporter 2 will have a heavy barrel past the front sight and a thinner barrel between the receiver and the front sight as does the Government model, but the Government model will have A2 type sights. I don't think any of the three had the A2 beefed up lower receiver.
  
  Kind of a neat Colt mess back then I guess they did it to use up old parts.
  
  I had an original Sporter 2 with A1 rear sights, teardrop assist and heavy/thin barrel with A1 style lower. I swapped it in on a M1A NM. I wish I not swapped it. But the old M1a NM mostly GI parts is cool too.

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  VonFatman

  September 18, 2011 20:34

  Thanks guys. I will get more info. tomorrow...just got in and it's late. The upper is a Bushmaster Dissipator. I'm a lefty and the dang original upper has no deflector. I only fired one shot through that upper...it left a .223 cal. burn in my forehead! Ouch!! It HURT like heck!!! That was 10 or 15 years ago.
  
  Thanks again. I still have the original Colt upper it the safe...I will take a pic or two tomorrow and post them.
  
  Bob

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