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BBC, Thailand: Brown Receiver; Composite or Trick of Light on M-16?
My nephew, Nick, had a BBC newscast on about human smugglers in Thailand. It appears that the BBC is a bit less shy about showing weapons than many U.S. outlets, but that could simply be perception on this one show. I watch very little TV. From BBC.com:
Manit told us his district had long been used by human traffickers to transfer migrants from boats to trucks. He wanted to stamp it out. But he was getting little help from the central government, or from local law enforcement.
The BBC correspondent was allowed to join a patrol off the coast. In the video we see what appears to be an M-16A2 with a composite receiver. If you look at the closeup of the receiver, it does not appear to be aluminum, but maybe it is just a trick of the lighting.
Could it be that the lower receiver is a very worn lower that was cannibalized from another rifle? The wear on the reinforcing seem typical of a worn receiver, but the color does not look like the color of the upper receiver or magazine, or for that matter, like aluminum with the anodizing worn off.
A retired Marine friend tells me that some of the early M16 receivers turned brown with hard use, because he had one that had done so. That is likely what we are seeing in this picture. A very early, worn receiver that has turned to a brown tint, rather than a stray composite receiver.
I do not know of any military that uses composite receivers for the M16 and its variants, but I would be happy to be educated.
The bright flotation devices indicate that no firefights are anticipated. I suspect that the color is closer to orange than pink, so there may be some color distortion in the screen shots.
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch
Source: http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2015/05/bbc-thailand-brown-receiver-composite.html
