We are almost half-way through December of 2022. This year has been an odd one for me with a lot of changes in my professional life which has made time hard to come by. This has impacted my goals for this website significantly. I will discuss this some more after the new year kicks in.

One thing that I am happy to see this year is that some of the nonsense market prices are starting to come back down. Prices for some of the older Colt rifles and carbines, especially green label, were astronomically artificially inflated by a combination of Covid panic, the increase in domestic violence by protesting groups and political instability. Since jumping into this hobby seriously, the hyperinflated prices of older Colt AR’s has prohibited me from getting any. I’m hoping 2023 will continue to show a drop in values but the recent Democrat push for gun bans may cause prices to increase again.

In the last few months, we have seen the release of the long-anticipated Colt M5 carbine with 16″ barrel. Unfortunately, this still isn’t showing up on Colt’s website in their retail products section. The image below is from their international product area.

Performance of the M5 on the market has been very slow. I have been watching inventory levels of some retail websites. Some locations have literally had a halt in sales resulting from underwhelming market interest due to the high beginning MSRP which was $1995.00 (or around there). However, I think the gradually worsening state of the U.S. economy and the approaching holiday season when discretionary income is low is having an impact as well. Many retail sellers of the Colt M5 have been lowering their prices in an attempt to increase sales and move inventory with the price leader being Arms Unlimited at $1695.00

Looking at historical sales data of the Colt M5 on Gun Broker, the sales have been exceptionally low there as well. Some sellers are even including five Colt branded 30-round magazines with the Colt M5 to stimulate sales with no luck. There have been many closed auctions with starting prices as low as $1700 with no takers.

If you wonder why you haven’t seen any Colt M5 content from me, it is simply because I haven’t had the money to buy one since its release. Changing job situations, a 17 year-old daughter who dances competitively and some other ‘life’ things has soaked up the extra money that I have had. I believe that I will be in a position to buy one toward the end of January or February. I’m anxious to take a deep dive into it.

Watching market reaction to the announcement of the Colt CR6762 7.62x39mm carbine has been a bit interesting. Overall, the reaction has been pretty balanced. Of course, you have the haters who don’t like it, don’t want it, think it is stupid, etc we will see it sell initially I think. There have been some random market releases over the years of carbines in 7.62x39mm but it seems they don’t stick around long and prices are usually a bit higher.

The weak point with Colt’s legacy 7.62x39mm carbines/rifles were the magazines that Colt provided. Those magazines were just relabeled 5.56mm magazines which would cause jams due to their inability to facilitate the different internal geometry required by the 7.62x39mm cartridge. The release image above shows an aftermarket magazine and I believe that Colt is going to probably provide a C-Products Defense or D&H manufactured magazine. Those magazines have demonstrated reliability which will make the CR6762 a more attractive option for customers.

Details that we don’t know currently is what the barrel profile will be, what exactly the receiver markings will be other than the standard ‘Carbine’ marking of the CR series, and what magazine will come with it. The MSRP on the CR6762 is $1199.00 which I think is a fair price. Colt had a ‘media week’ at Gunsite this past week so I am hoping that we see more details released soon.

Well, if you have read this far, thanks for hanging in there. I plan to type something like this at least once a week…maybe as many as three times a week depending on market/hobby activity. Feel free to jump into the discussion by leaving a comment. Hope you have had a good weekend. Talk to you again soon.