No deals found for this data entry. Try other filters.
Colt Commando (LE 6933) - The Best Retro Upper?
Updated
20 months ago
Good morning, everyone, this is John with gun.deals, and today we’re gonna be taking a look at the Colt Commando or the LE 6933.
Full disclosure on the Colt LE 6933 is that we have absolutely no relationship with Colt for this review, we picked this up for a full price, which was about 400 bucks from, I believe we got it from Brownells, but we have no relationship with Brownells or Colt for this review, so just know that going forward.
This is an 11.5” 5.56 chrome-lined barrel and a stripped upper receiver. You can get the 6933 in several different varieties, you can get it, just the stripper upper, as we did, for around 400 to 500 bucks, depending on where you picked it up. You can get the complete upper receiver with bolt-carrier group, charging handle and rear sight for 800 bucks, so quite a step up in price for not that much extra or you can get the full SBR for around 1200 to 1500 dollars, if you want the complete Colt package.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
Powered by Wikiarms.com
I’m not really gonna get into Colts nowadays all that much, there have been some other channels that have gone deep into who’s actually making all the Colt components, some of the stuff is no longer made in the house, a lot of the stuff is outsourced, so in some ways this is a "Colt" upper receiver but also a bit of a mystery meat upper as well.
However, we’re getting into the quality and there is certainly a level of quality for the money because they’re not charging all that much money if you get the stripped upper. So, for around 400/450 bucks for just the strip 11.5” 5.56 upper receiver, throw in your own BCG and charging handle, just mil-spec simple stuff for about 100 bucks and now you have a complete upper receiver from a very highly regarded name for around 550 bucks, which is not too bad.
The most important component on the upper receiver is going to be the barrel, this is 11.5” 5.56 1:7 right hand twist, this is a button-rifled barrel, I believe it is 4150 chrome-moly-vanadium steel and it is chrome-lined. These replacement barrels with the front sight block and a barrel nut assembly, by themselves, are around 400 dollars or 350/400 dollars, so when you buy the stripped upper you’re basically getting the upper receiver and the assembly for free, which is quite nice.
This barrel, in this 11.5” configuration, with the pinned front sight block is what most people are going to be buying it for. Fortunately, it is a very high quality barrel as we’ll get into accuracy later on, it is a little bit over-gassed, but it gives it that classic, retro, commando look that a lot of people are looking for, and the barrel is, even if it’s not necessarily made by Colt at this point, I can only theorize who is actually making the barrel, but the barrel is a very high quality barrel. On the front sight block we have our bayonet lug, our swing swivel, adjustable front sight post and an A2 flash hider to finish it off with the plastic fantastic classic handguard.
Moving back to the upper receiver on the build, this is a Colt M4 marked up upper receiver, which is something that some people are very particular on their upper receivers, does it have the real M4 logo on it, that sort of thing. If you’re a builder or a cloner of some sort or collector of that sort of thing, it will be important to you, but for most people it’s something that you won’t really ever notice. It is T-marked on top, if you care about such things, other than that it is a standard 7075 T6 aluminum mil-spec upper receiver, standard fort assist, standard dust cover, nothing really special there.
The gas system on this barrel is a carbine length gas system, which is perfectly appropriate for an 11.5” barrel. The gas port, unfortunately, is a little bit over-sized. With full power ammunition like M193, hot M193, carbine buffers, carbine strings, I was getting ejection of around 1 o’clock, 1:30, so it is certainly punchy, certainly over-gassed, not the most pleasant, most soft shooting upper receiver on the market. When I was running it most of the time it was with an H3 buffer, which would slow down that ejection pattern a little bit, somewhere around the 2 o’clock range, so still not great but definitely better than with just carbine buffers and springs.
With the upper receiver being a little bit on the gassy side, even with heavy buffers and springs, the only issue that I had with it is the same issue that I’ve had with basically every upper that I’ve been testing lately, is with this crappy bunch of steel case ammunition that I got in, I’ve been getting stuck cases in the chamber and it’s happened, and basically every upper that I’ve tested with that ammunition because that ammunition is just garbage.
So, other than that garbage lot of steel-case ammunition that I got in, everything else that I put through it, even of just medium quality, has performed flawlessly, it’s just a little bit more punchy than other upper receivers will be.
The barrel is certainly over-gassed, definitely on the gassy side, so as a director I dedicated suppressor host, probably not the best upper receiver for that sort of thing, but the second side of that is is the upper receiver is at least accurate with that very high quality barrel.
As you guys can see, over a wide variety of loads and grain weights, it was basically keeping everything under 2 MOA, which we’re talking about 11.5” 5.56 that is not free-floated. I would say that is very, very acceptable accuracy, if you wanted to take this out to four or 500 yards you’re probably not going to have that big of an issue with that very acceptable level of accuracy.
For the accuracy-testing we’re using this new Primary Arms SLX, this is their new 1-10 model, which is a very decent scope, we’ll review this at some point in the future, I am sure, probably a little overkill for 11.5” 5.56, but it worked really well for what we were doing on the day.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Primary Arms SLX on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
What you’re getting when you get this upper receiver is a very good starting point. The main downside is going to be that that barrel is over-gassed, the other side of that is that it is a very accurate barrel, a very high quality barrel with chrome lining, so it is going to give you an extended service life and it’s not too terribly expensive, coming in around 400/450 dollar mark, especially if you find a good deal on it or you get it on sale.
So, at the end of the day I would certainly say that the asking price for this upper receiver, it does have a comparable level of value and certainly a good starting point, swap out the handguard, throw in a light optic, BSG, charging handle, for about probably 800 bucks you have a very capable setup that’s going to be accurate and reliable as long as you’re feeding it, at least mediocre ammunition. It’s gonna be a little over-gassed, a little punchy, but you are getting a very high quality barrel that is going to last you a very long time and without breaking the bank.
You can certainly do things cheaper with other upper receivers on the market, but that doesn’t mean that this is a bad option, it is kind of in that mid-range, mid-tier in terms of quality and cost and it does at least provide a good level of value for what they’re charging for.
Is this the best starter upper receiver on the market?
Probably not!
Is it a very good option if you’re in that price range and you want to kind of throw together your own setup a little bit?
I would say, absolutely! Especially if you like that classic commando-esque look.
