Diemaco/Colt Canada C7 - The Canadian Connection, Eh! Part 1

There is little known in the United States about the black rifles of the great white north. That is primarily due to the importation restrictions set forth by President Bush in the early 1990’s. He banned the importation on “war products” from overseas, which is where 922r comes from. As a lifelong AR15 aficionado, my interest is in everything AR15 related. I had first read about Diemaco in Blake Stevens and Ed Ezell's book, titled Black Rifle. That ended in 1985, which was just at the conclusion of the Canadian SARP (Small Arms Replacement Program) where the Canadian Forces were looking to replace their C1 family of weapons (FAL) with a new modern assault rifle.

At the conclusion of the SARP program, the Canadian Forces liked the American M16A2, but they were a lot smarter, in my opinion, on their final design than the US military was. They looked at the M16A2 and Canadianized it. First, they got rid of the ludicrous burst mechanism and went back to fully automatic. Next, they realized that the fully adjustable sight was a complete waste of money because it was impractical to the average soldier. Because (s)he would not be engaging targets beyond 300 meters, they opted to stay with the A1-style field sights. Hence the C7 was born.

The end result of the C7 was an up-to-date and practical battle rifle. And another very interesting departure from the American design was the use of a cold hammer forged barrel as opposed to the mil-spec button cut barrel; both were chrome plated. The Canadians believed the cold hammer forged barrel was more durable, which I tend to agree. They went with the A2-profile and a 1/7 in twist to shoot their NATO spec C77 ball ammunition. They also made a modification to the front sight post. Rather than adopt the square front sight post they went to a round tapered one which was more precise than the US one. They continued with the Colt matte grey receiver colors. The bolt and bolt carrier were produced from stronger materials. The upper receiver did have the ejection port cover, fired cartridge case deflector and forward assist. All components would be manufactured in Canada. The license from Colt to produce the rifle was given to the Canadian government. Diemaco of Kitchener, Ontario had been established as Canada’s Center for Excellence in small arms. They overhauled, built, rebuilt and updated the entire fleet of weapons for the Canadian Forces. It was owned by the Canadian Aerospace company Heroux Devtec. The stylized "D" is the symbol of the Aerospace company.

Another interesting aspect of Canadian development was the development of the magazine. The Canadian Forces initially looked at a polymer magazine. This was perhaps one of the first polymer magazines at the introduction of the C7 rifle.  However, the first production magazine did not pass the military trials, so the rifle was adopted with the aluminum magazines. And very soon after, the magazine was tested and Diemaco would sell them to international customers.

Diemaco was only permitted by Colt to sell to certain parts of the world (mostly Scandinavia). The C7 was an incredible success with the Canadian Army. The Canadian Army is much more progressive than the US Army. If Diemaco was to come up with an improvement, it was fairly easy to get it implemented and get it in production. It is basically an act of congress to change a part with the US military due to them not wanting to add parts to the inventory regardless if it improves the weapon system.

Another version of the rifle created was the C11 training rifle. This could be used where rifle ranges were not available that could accommodate the 5.56mm round. The C11 is chambered in .22 Long Rifle caliber and utilizes a polymer 1-piece lower receiver.

The C11 did just as it was intended with indoor qualifications and ranges that could not accomodate 5.56mm high power ammunition for soldiers and national guard. I remember when I first saw the rifle while visiting Diemaco, I thought this would be a great commercial rifle. If you look at most of the .22LR rifles based on this platform this is probably one of the coolest, but for several reasons it was never made available for commercial sales.

The First C7 Upgrade, the C7A1

The first upgrade to the C7 rifle was revolutionary. Many do not know how significant this upgrade was. Even more, they do not realize Diemaco was ahead of the game, ahead of the US and the world.  Throughout the world, optics were used only by snipers and sometimes special operation forces. The standard infantry rifle was still equipped with iron sights. The Canadian Army decided that they wanted to have every soldier equipped with an optic. This would increase the accuracy on the squad and platoon levels dramatically. It also would take advantage of the inherit accuracy in the rifle design. The decision to want an optic was easy, the hard part was how would it be mounted? Mounting optics on top of the carrying handle is really a poor option. Your head sits too uncomfortably high. Also, making more of the shooters head exposed.

The Canadians were the first to develop a production flat top upper receiver. This was before the US would introduce the M4 or M16A4. In fact, it pre-dates the adoption of the Mil-Std-1913 rail. Canada requested assistance from Dick Swan of A.R.M.S. Inc, to assist them with a standard dove tail rail which would be part of their new upper receiver. There were a few iterations, as shown below.

Shown in the pictures above are four prototype upper receivers. The bottom receiver is close to the final. The bottom receiver shows the Swan created “Weaver Rail” that was adopted by the Canadian Army as their standard issue rail which is still being used today. The difference is the slots run the full length of the upper receiver.

Shown above is the C7A1 rifle with the new Canadian flat top upper receiver and newly issued 4x Elcan optic. Notice in front of the optic is a polymer back-up sight. If the optic was to fail, you unscrew the nuts on the optic, remove, and then move the BUIS to the rear. Also, the rifle can be equipped with the first ever production removable carrying handle.

The C7A1 would result in a retrofit program. Existing C7 rifles would have new upper receiver assemblies mounted. However, they could also just replace the upper receiver as well. When Diemaco designed the upper receiver for the C7A1 variant, they used all the existing barrel assembly, handguards, bolt carriers and so forth; unlike the American M16A4 which required its own separate front sight base. Any barrel in the Canadian arsenal could be used. See the picture below where the lower receiver is marked C7. Complete rifles were manufactured that read C7A1.

Although the United States would later adopt the Mil-Std-1913 rail, the Canadians would continue to use their Weaver rail. There really was no need for them to change. They had thousands of optics and other accessories for it. All of their customers including Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands would also use the Canadian Weaver rail. In the later years, upon request, Diemaco/Colt Canada would manufacture Mil-Std-1913 rail upper receivers. During Colt Defense’s peak production of M4’s during the Global War on Terror, Diemaco would be a supplier of stripped upper receivers with Mil-Std-1913 rails and they also would have extended feed ramps in the receiver. Diemaco would never adopt the M4 feed rams due to using the proper buffer, thus making the feed ramps unnecessary.

The C7A2 was created to meet the demands of a more mounted Canadian soldier. This like the C7A1 was done as a retrofit, as well as any new rifles being produced. If you look closely at the left profile of the rifle you can see how the model was altered to say C7A2.
    
The first notable change is the removal of the fixed stock and the replacement with a telescopic stock. There was a special heavy buffer designed so it would work properly with the full-length gas system. On the upper receiver, the standard barrel is used with the addition of the Triad, which clamps to the front sight base to allow accessories to be attached. The furniture (stock, pistol grip and handguards) were changed from black to green. The other major change was the requirement for making the rifle ambidextrous. Diemaco received a license from Norgon to manufacture their ambidextrous magazine release button. This is a drop-in mag catch that requires no modification to the receiver. Additionally, they added an ambidextrous selector lever. The arm on the right side is half the size of the one on the left to not interfere with a right-handed shooters trigger finger. Lastly, there was a new ambidextrous charging handle latch added to the rifle. This is a little on the bulky side, but it serves the purpose well. You will also find a new green Elcan sight. However, you can see many different optics in use.

As of present, the Canadian military are happy with the excellent performance of their C7A2 main infantry rifle. The US military has adopted the Vltor A5 stock to modify M16A4 rifles to have a telescopic stock. The Canadian C7-program has been very successful both in Canada, as well as foreign military sales to Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, to name a few. In part 2 of this series we will look at the history and development of their C8-series of carbines. This is an equally successful program with an incredible and prestigious contract to the British SAS.

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