What is $400.00 dollars cheaper about a Smith vs the Colt?

Lets start with the Smith barrel. My guess is Smith has less than $20 dollars manufacturing cost in the barrel. It comes with a 1/9 twist which is only really optimized for 55 grain bullets. NO chrome lining. NO government profile. Why does the lack of the government profile even matter, just cosmetics? If a Carbine doesn’t have the Government profile it doesn’t really look like a true carbine in my opinion. I have to wonder though how much $$$ Smith saves when machining a million barrels over 10 years and not having to do the extra machine work on that many barrels, and, it does add to the overall weight. Speaking of weight, that OR Optic Ready gas block is HEAVY, then add that to the non-government profile barrel and the thrill of your cheap quality AR can sub for a barbell lol. And every Smith I removed the barrel nut from was not really tight at all lol.

On ever Smith I have owned the A2 FSB was canted a few degrees from the factory, some more so than others. But most people will never notice. They are first time owners, not precision shooters, and most just throw a red dot on and never notice it. I had one example so canted a drop in piston kit would not even line up enough to function.

For the extra $400 dollars with Colt you get the lighter more aesthetically pleasing government profile barrel, chrome lined, 1/7 twist with A2 front sight blocks properly timed. And the barrel nut properly torqued.

OK take a look at your castle nut staking. WOW, what a joke, every Smith I have seen has the poorest excuse of castle nut staking possible, a joke. Looks like someone took a rusty old flat blade screwdriver they found on the side of the road and made a scratch on the castle nut. Go look at yours and see if any displaced metal exists and if it does is it even on the correct side of the notch? I pointed this out to a salesman the other day at a dealership and he lol when he saw it.

For the extra $400.00 with Colt you get a properly staked castle nut done by a machine that looks perfect.

Now go look at your buffer. See around the outer edge all chewed up from the buffer slamming into the buffer retainer? Some worse than others. I had 2 that were so bad, basically cosmetic yes, so after replacing the buffers I removed the buffer retainer all together and don’t even use it. I had one almost break from being bent. Took the opportunity to fix the ****** castle nut staking at the same time I removed the buffer retainers.

For the extra $400.00 with Colt you don’t have this problem as Colts are built to true military design specifications and the buffer doesn’t impact the buffer retainer when the gun is cycling. AND with Colt you get an H buffer, not a Carbine buffer like Smith provides.

Now, look at your bolt, does it say MP on it? What does that mean? Does it means your Smith bolt has been Magnetic Particle tested? Probably not, Smith does batch testing where they test only a few examples out of every hundred or so that comes off the assembly line.

For the extra $400.00 with Colt you get a MP tested bolt as Colt tests every single one.

Look at the ****** Parkerizing on the Smith BCG and ****** staking on the carrier key.

For the extra $400.00 with Colt you get a true mill spec parkerized BCG and properly staked Gas key.

I could go on and on about gas tube dimension specs, pin and trigger holes, flash hiders not properly torqued ect, ect.
Now you wonder if a Smith gives you the thrill of a cheap quality AR, its the Colt that gives you thrill of a Quality AR at a bargain price.

There are actually some things about the Smiths I like. The machining of the mag wells are perfect. Every magazine I use snap in and drop put perfectly. The mill spec triggers work great for what they are. I even buy Smith AR lower parts kits for other guns I assemble because they are great quality for the price.
And everything on these Smiths I mentioned above are mostly fixable.

But these Smiths are indeed cheap, and in the long run, it’s a bargain to pay the extra $400.00 for the Colt, or unfortunately it once was when Colts were still available.

I currently own as of writing this 7 Smiths, 2 with Osprey Piston Kits, I enjoy them all.

But yes, Smiths are what they are , pretty much cheap. But I still love mine.


https://i.imgur.com/lxCguoD.jpg