In the 2006 movie Blood Diamond, the character Danny Archer uses a unique carbine in the climax of the film to hold off advancing enemy soldiers.
Danny tactically acquired the CAR-15 with a carefully practiced quickdraw of his H&K USPc.
“Sometimes I wonder, will God ever forgive us for what we’ve done to each other? Then I look around and I realize… God left this place a long time ago.”
Many movie armorers would have used a stock AK47 or similar rifle, something predictable but boring, or something anachronistic like a Mk18 . But fortunately, Colonel Coatzee’s men are armed with interesting and unusual carbines while still being period accurate. The one Danny uses is typical of Coatzee’s squad, a short A2 style carbine with a 10” barrel, Aimpoint sight, Surefire flashlight, and camo paint.
I first build my clone in 2020 and slowly fine-tuned it over the past six years. The upper receiver is a regular A2 that I ordered from JSE Surplus, and the lower is a SBR Lone Star Armory that I machined. I made the barrel from a stainless X-Cal 1/7 blank, cutting it at 12.5” with a .625 FSB and making my own slipover 177-style moderator from aluminum bar stock.
The movie armorer used cut-down A2 rifle handguards and a triangle end cap, but I used regular CAR handguards. The SureFire 660 clone flashlight is mounted with a Weaver ring on a copy of the old Surefire barrel clamp. I used the correct Aimpoint Comp M2 optic, but the Smith Enterprise rail is an upgrade over the movie’s. I applied several different camos over the years to get it as close to screen accurate as I could.
The Blood Diamond CAR-15 is a little old-fashioned now (2006 was twenty years ago, but the film is set in the mid-90s), but the BD carbine is still a very capable setup.
