For a while during the 90s, Colt  and Cmore sights worked together to bring to market optics for Colt rifles and pistols as well as some competition parts for M1911s.

The first year these optics were introduced was 1997. This is the same year the Colt Accurized Rifle  CAR-A3 HBAR Elite was introduced ( CR6724).   The CARA3 as you can see above, was pictured with a tactical 10x optics with Mildot and target turrets.  By all accounts it was a very nice optic. Though now the idea of a fixed 10X optic  wouldn’t find much favor with discerning shooters.  The rings and mounts available for most users of the  flat top AR15s of the of the day left much to be desired.  At this point in time, few civilian shooters did not have many options available to them.

The 10x was an optic I hunted for years to acquire and have still not found one.   You can see blow its features.  An adutable objective lens, tactical/target turrets and plenty of internal adjustment for longer range shots.  In the inserts can be seen a spotting scope and three smaller optics  more suited for hunting.  I have never had my hands on any of these.

Being Cmore was the maker of the optics it is no surprise that they also offered their most well known AR15 optical sight with the colt name.  Pictured below is the the red dot/A2 rear sight combo.  If you want more details about this sight Howard has already written about his earlier this year. While not the Colt branded one it is more or less identical.  While I have seen the Cmore sight before, I have never seen the colt marked units.

You can see the cantilevered version below.  Also are two other smaller optics. One a carry handle mounting optic that brings back memories of the original 3x and 4x Colt scopes and a 1x-5x variable power illuminated reticle  scope. The “ring and dot” is very likely to be similar to the system used on the leupold  MK AR 1x-4x optics.  The 1x-5x  seems a little ahead of its time  since now a days a variable power optic in low magnification with  a dot has become the current hot choice for carbine optics.   I would love to find one of those.

You might be asking right now”did these ever hit the market or were they just advertised vaporware”?      Good question and It would be reasonable to think they never sold.  They did though.  I have  seen at least 3 pictures in the last 10 years of shooters  who posted them online who have the 10X  optic  and a couple others.    Here is an image  I saved years ago of one of the 10x optics up for sell.   Too late for me to buy it of course.   Sad panda.       It seems there was either a change to the 10x optics at some point before it was discontinued or there was more than one version of it.  As you can see below this one is slightly different and doe not have an AO.

Sorry to say I don’t have much more info on this stuff for you.   I wish I did.    I will update if I turn up more.