Cousin wants to know value of AR upper
Folks, can all y'all help me with this? I don't have a clue what to tell my Cuz from PA. and I'm sure someone here will have an opinion. Here is what he emailed me:
I'm
a little out of the loop of all things AR15 recently. I anticipate selling one of my AR15 Service
Rifle match uppers. Can you help me figure out if there's any value in
it? It's a solid 100 yard MOA
shooter, but has had a lot of rounds through it and is not much good for
XTC anymore (600 yard MOA shooting). It has about 4000+ rounds through
it. Here's the specs, Colt HBAR 20" standard Service Rifle upper, 1/7
twist, tuned by Derrick Martin at Accuracy Speaks about ten years ago.
Fully free floated barrel with 1/2 minute match sights front and rear. I
can shoot MOA with it at 100 yards with 52gr Sierra MK over 26gr of Win
748 and CCI primer. It opens up to 2 + MOA beyond 300 yards shooting
77 or 75 gr match bullets. This upper took me to High Power Master
classification. You have any idea what I can get for this thing?
Any ball park guesses on worth for the above complete upper? I don't have a clue if he intends to put it on an auction site, sell it outright or somewhere near him on consignment but any assistance here would be greatly appreciated by me. Thanks.
200 to 300. sounds like it needs a barrel
Originally Posted By tbougie1:
200 to 300. sounds like it needs a barrel
+1
sounds like it was expensive/special 10 years ago but... 10 years and 4000+ rounds of use has milked the expense out of it to the point it is just another well used upper.
Originally Posted By tbougie1:
200 to 300. sounds like it needs a barrel
Thats about right, probably the lower end of that range. Figure the complete upper receiver is worth $90 or so, BCG is worth around $110, at least to me. The bolt probably has some life left on it, but if I were to be buying that upper I would replace the barrel and the bolt, tape the old bolt and barrel together and throw them into a closet somewhere for spares.
Originally Posted By colklink:
Originally Posted By tbougie1:
200 to 300. sounds like it needs a barrel
Thats about right, probably the lower end of that range. Figure the complete upper receiver is worth $90 or so, BCG is worth around $110, at least to me. The bolt probably has some life left on it, but if I were to be buying that upper I would replace the barrel and the bolt, tape the old bolt and barrel together and throw them into a closet somewhere for spares.
Being a high power service rifle it will most likely have a free float tube on it for another $100 of original retail value plus the sights will have a little added value to the right person, so I'd put it on the upper end of the range.
I wish to thank all of you for responding, I have forward your collective wisdom to my Cuz.
Your cousin could possibly get 300-350 from someone starting out HP shooting. Less from anyone else. If the barrel is shot out the real value is in the free-float handguards and NM sights.
I'd probably send it back to Derrick and have him recrown the barrel and run a .223 Wylde reamer into the chamber. Probably shoot just fine after that.
Originally Posted By Coop4570:
Originally Posted By tbougie1:
200 to 300. sounds like it needs a barrel
+1
sounds like it was expensive/special 10 years ago but... 10 years and 4000+ rounds of use has milked the expense out of it to the point it is just another well used upper.
Yep and a 20 inch musket barrel at that.
Originally Posted By Green_Canoe:
Originally Posted By colklink:
Originally Posted By tbougie1:
200 to 300. sounds like it needs a barrel
Thats about right, probably the lower end of that range. Figure the complete upper receiver is worth $90 or so, BCG is worth around $110, at least to me. The bolt probably has some life left on it, but if I were to be buying that upper I would replace the barrel and the bolt, tape the old bolt and barrel together and throw them into a closet somewhere for spares.
Being a high power service rifle it will most likely have a free float tube on it for another $100 of original retail value plus the sights will have a little added value to the right person, so I'd put it on the upper end of the range.
Agreed it does say free float barrel in the description, as for sites it may be a standard A2 upper with a smaller rear site? Unless someone was to be into highpower that probably wouldnt be worth a lot, the free float hand guards those guys use are usually only usefull for rifle matches ( not the freefloat rail typle ). The biggest thing is that it sounds as if the barrel is close to being worn out, depending on what you want to do with it. That being the case figure you will need at least $200 or more to fix it up.
Thanks guys again for your collective wisdom. I'm certain he would re-barrel but he lost his job of 24 years due to downsizing and he's trying to determine what he can part with.
