I have owned it for a few monthes and fired about 200 rounds.
When I bought it, I was immediately frustrated by the lack of information regarding the gun’s specifications. With any model Colt Expanse you have to do some research to know what you have.
Here is what I believe to be correct about mine:
The box indicates that it is an Expanse M4 + Carbine. It has a serial number that starts with LE and has six numbers. IE: LE123456
The Lower has M4 Carbine indicated, all internal parts appear to be mil-spec Colt.
The trigger is horrible when compared to just about anything.
The Barrel is a 16 inch, 1/7 twist “C” proofed, non-chrome lined bore with a chrome lined 5.56 chamber. It has an A2 flash hider and front sight.
The hand guards are the cheaper single heat shield type.
Shooting results:
I have not found a magic recipe for a hand load. Keeping in mind that the hand gaurd is not free floated, accuracy is not bad. With my handloaded Hornady 75 HPBT match bullets and a four power Leupold scope, I get about 2 MOA at 100 yards-not too good, but I do manage to get 2.15 moa all the way out to 600 yards and I think that is pretty good.
With Hornady Black 75grain ammo it easily holds 1 moa at 100yards, but is not as tight out to 600 as my handload. My handload chronoed at 2840fps, the Hornady Black only gave 2650. I have owned two other AR’s with 16 inch barrels. This barrel gives the highest velocity when the same ammo is compared in each gun, yet it has a faster twist rate than the other two barrels.
Back to the Parts:
The upper receiver is a flat top, no rear sight included. The front sight is a standard GI A2 style sight.
The upper’s anodizing seems thin. I noticed it has rubbed off where the charging handle latches.
The bolt carrier group looks nice, appears accurately machined, is chrome lined, but has no indication of MPI.
My entire lower appears to be a standard Colt manufactured, mil-spec Colt LE lower. My upper came from ??? Maybe, “Colt Competition”.
I read somewhere: Some, maybe all, Colt Expanse models were assembled or partially assembled in Texas at a company called “Colt Competition”, and had a mixture of Colt brand and generic parts and some non “LE” lowers. I also read that Colt Competition was an independent company, not owed by Colt, now out of business, who paid Colt for the use of the Colt name, and used Colt as their primary source for most, but not all, parts.
The gun came with one P-Mag, and a free mail in offer for a 2nd mag and a TruGlo red/green dot scope and riser.
My basic conclusion is that the gun is worth what I paid for it in my local gun store, but it is misrepresented as a “true” Colt by some of the stores that sell them. This may or may not be an intentional misrepresentation.
