Colt CRP-18 Competition Rifle
Lewis Creek Shooting School 11.01.13
I sometimes suspect readers might think my reviews tend to exaggerate just how good some of the products are because I rarely test a product that gets really bad reviews. The reason for this is that I simply don’t bother to test products I don’t think are high-quality. I’ve done this long enough to generally tell whether something will perform before I actually do the test. Having made this disclaimer, I’ll begin this review by saying the Colt CRP-18 is simply the best AR-15 rifle I have ever fired, and I’ve fired some really nice ARs including competition 3-gun rifles used by shooters with recognizable names.
Colt is probably the most iconic of the myriad of makers of AR-15 rifles. When I was offered a Colt for an extended test in 2012 for a series of different events, I suspected the CRP-18 would be very good. Having said that, I’ve been disappointed by a lot of guns that were “semi-customs” designed for competition. It amazes me that guns that cost two or three times the base-rifle price and purport themselves to be competition-ready sometimes have issues that need to be corrected as soon as they’re out of the box. Some guns simply stand out as almost-perfect as delivered, and the CRP-18 comes as close to that as any gun I’ve ever fired, and I’ve spent a lot of time with it.
My first competition with it was a trial by fire. My competition background is mostly in conventional High Power and I decided to use the CRP-18 in the National High Power Rifle Championship in the Any Sight/Tactical class. The rifles I was shooting against were purpose-built for High Power and featured 24-inch or 26-inch heavy barrels and weighted adjustable target stocks. They typically weigh about 14 pounds before an optic is added, as weight is an asset in standing and long-range shooting. Normal match rifles are tuned for accuracy and designed to shoot the 240-shot NRA National Match course that includes standing slow-fire and sitting rapid-fire at 200 yards, rapid-fire prone at 300 yards, and prone slow-fire at 600 yards. This is a severe test of accuracy and reliability. The CRP is a lightweight, seven-pound rifle, designed for 3-gun competition where speed is more important than accuracy.
I didn’t win with the Colt, but I did manage to finish fifth, and in doing so, I put several serious rifles in the hands of dedicated shooters beneath my name in the results bulletin. On one 600-yard stage, the CRP produced a 195-7x score, very respectable for a seven-pound rifle designed for much shorter ranges. During the matches, and all other shooting for that matter, there was not a single malfunction. I also won a local-club High Power match with it, shooting a 478-11x.
While I’m not a 3-gun shooter, I did use the rifle in several competitions. This included a local match where I finished in the top third on my first attempt at 3-gun. It’s capable of 10-shot one-MOA groups, it’s close to totally neutral in the recoil department, and it’s 100 percent reliable.
Bold Ideas builds the CRP-18, beginning with a Colt upper and lower receiver and using the best components to produce a flawless rifle. They use a six-position Magpul CTR stock, a Geissele match-grade two-stage trigger, a Surefire compensator, and an externally-adjustable gas block. The barrel is a six-groove, button-rifled, 1:8-inch right-handed twist. These components, combined with quality assembly and tuning, create a rifle that has no muzzle movement when shooting fast stages. Double-taps result in two holes within an inch of each other at 50 yards. It feels like you’re shooting a .22 rimfire AR. Colt Competition Rifles guarantees one-MOA groups, and the CRP-18 produces it with quality ammunition in several bullet weights.
Dick Jones is an award winning outdoor writer and a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Board of Directors. He writes for four North Carolina Newspapers as well as regional and national magazines. He’s hunted and fished most of his life but shooting has been his passion. He’s a former High Master, Distinguished Rifleman, and AAA class pistol shooter. He holds four Dogs of War Medals for Team Marksmanship as shooter, captain and coach. He ran the North Carolina High Power Rifle Team for six years and the junior team two years after that. Within the last year, he’s competed in shotgun, rifle and pistol events including the National Defense Match and the Bianchi Cup. He’ll be shooting the Bianchi, the NDM, the National High Power Rifle Championship, The Rock Castle AR15.com Three Gun Championship and an undetermined sniper match this shooting season.
He lives in High Point, North Carolina with his wife Cherie who’s also an outdoor writer and the 2006 and 2011 Northeast Side by Side Women’s Shotgun Champion. Both Dick and Cherie are NRA pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructors and own Lewis Creek Shooting School.
