Buying an AR15 but need advice

[MurBob]

Hi folks,

I'm looking to purchase an AR15 style rifle but there are so many manufacturers to choose from.

Can someone provide a list of the junk to avoid and a list of those brands which are considered to be of quality construction?

I see a lot of complaints by folks who say some brands don't seem to shoot straight or have some other flaw.

Would I be safe to say Winchester and Remington, Armalite, Ruger, and the other big well known brands are high quality?


Thanks!

[Kvon2]

I have a stag arms m6 and absolutely love it. Incredibly well made and very accurate.

[MurBob]

Their basic model AR15 looks to be just a bit over $700 which is about right for what I want.

I don't want a $400 piece of junk that isn't accurate but don't need a $1500 one either.. Something in the middle.

[Eazyeach]

Colt 6920 for $899 or SW MP-15 for around $600. Either one is good to go.

[SDF880]

Maybe just take your time and research parts that are considered good or better and just put one together from scratch built to your specs! My last build has 8 different companies parts and it all came together beautifully and fires just fine!

I'm not going to throw company names out there as you'll find some like XYZ and others don't!

I will say there are some very good buys on so called entry level or lower end AR's right now and some of those come with a surprising number of goodies!

[rickyrick]

Can be one of the easier ways to get exactly what you want is to assemble yourself, especially if you specific requirements or use.

If you just want a decent fun gun, any ole 16" carbine might be all you need.

Let us know what you intend to use it for the most, and we can send you in the right direction.

Most common place modern ARs can be quite accurate, more so than many guns of the past

[turtlehead]

It might be easier if you named a few you might be interested in. Also, what is your budget and purpose for the rifle?

[RAfiringline]

A couple years ago I bought a DPMS Oracle, new. It was $500 then, a little cheaper now.

3395 rds., -0- stoppages. Most of those rds. were cheap Tula steel cased.
Early on, I was averaging 1.56 moa 5 shot groups with it, using Geco ammo.

It's a good rifle and I'm glad I bought it.

[Theohazard]

I'm with Turtlehead: What is your purpose for the rifle and what level of durability do you need? You want a good, solid, accurate rifle that won't break the bank? Get something like a Ruger AR-556 or a S&W Sport. You want a higher-end hard-use rifle you can run the heck out of without worrying about it? Get something from Colt, LMT, BCM or Daniel Defense. Most people don't need the extra quality level from those higher-end companies, but they just like knowing their rifles can take more abuse and are built to a higher standard.

[Chainsaw.]

A price range is good to work with, as you've noticed the market for ARs is a vast ocean of choices. Barring the uber cheap options (but even then) its kind of hard to go wrong. Being the market is so healthy people just wont put up with baloney. If a company is puttimg out garbage they usually go out of business asap.

For your price range I would recommend the Aero OEM rifle. It does NOT come with furniture so you xan pick your own right off the bat and not waste money on stuff you are going to replace anyway. Its a solid rifle.

[MurBob]

My purpose is to train my wife to shoot so we can defend ourselves when the zombies come.. (the zombie thing was a joke for those who didn't get it)

Honestly, it is my opinion that we will be subjected to a large EMP in the next decade or two.. if the Sun doesn't send us back to the 1800's, some POS little country with a nuclear weapon and a 2nd hand, half rusted SCUD missile will.

I want to be prepared.. We store food, emergency electronics in a Faraday cage, medicines, and various other things to allow us to weather out a long duration disaster.

Along with some handguns and shotguns, I own an Armalite AR10, I would like to get an AR15 to keep it company.

[rickyrick]

Yeah just get an M4gery from one of the places listed above

[MurBob]

I didn't know Colt was so highly regarded with their AR15's.. A $900 price tag isn't so out of my range.. For an extra $150 I can get something of a higher quality..

Seems reasonable...

[SDF880]

MurBob that is cool you prep! Maybe settle on a good lower end AR-15 and put the difference between that and the Colt toward more preps.

Right now I'm messing with an Anderson AR-15 that have about 500 dollars in
and it is a very nice rifle! I had an Anderson upper and Sportsman guide had a complete Anderson lower with Magpul hardware for a very low price. I threw a cheap reddot and flip up sights and this thing really is a great little shooter! Only other thing I'm doing to it is a nickel boron BCG as I find them easier to clean and maintain.

I agree with you natural or man made EMP is a very real threat!

[MarkCO]

I see a lot of complaints by folks who say some brands don't seem to shoot straight or have some other flaw.

Would I be safe to say Winchester and Remington, Armalite, Ruger, and the other big well known brands are high quality?

All AR-15s actually launch bullets in an (approximate) arc, not straight.

Ruger, Savage, S&W, Del-Ton, PSA and a few others make decent sub-$1K ARs that will fulfill your intended uses and be plenty reliable. Colt does make a decent AR, but they are overpriced and they tend to under-appreciate their customers. If you want to go over the $1K mark, you can look at Daniel Defense, LMT and BCM which are a little better quality. I have seen several sales for $400ish ARs in the last few weeks, and some are decent enough.

OTOH, there is nothing wrong with building a rifle yourself. If you are into prepping, get some quality tools, buy a good kit and carry on. Both of my boys got a box of parts at 12 years old and 3 hours later they had a rifle they built, understood and appreciated. Get a melonited barrel, better BCG and some replacement parts and you can take an AR15 well past 50K rounds.

[MurBob]

Commenting on building my own rifle.. Not sure if I want to go that route.. We are busy, and not the kind of "I'm more elite than you are" type of busy, but the kind of busy where I have pigs to feed, fences to repair, and a four year old who does things that scare the crap out of me.

I'm installing an 8000 watt solar system to power the entire house.. I'm an engineer so I'm doing it all myself.. Gotta pull permits, lay out the system design, then install everything.. its a lot of freaking work...

Along with that, one of those "once in a decade" opportunities came along and because I just happen to have some resources and in the right place at the right time, I'm able to make an extra $2k a week for the next couple of months for doing just three hours of work every day.. (it was a stoke of luck)..

So, combine all that stuff above and the fact that we're pressure canning about 30 jars of meat-based soups every week and processing pork, there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to learn to build a rifle.

I've budgeted $1200 for an AR15, some extra mags, and some kind of scope sights that will let her reliably hit a coffee can at 100 yards.

When I get the rifle, I'll be back to pester you folks about what scope I should put on it and we can go through this routine again..

By the way, I like Ruger a lot.. Even own Ruger stock and I have one of their 10/22 rifles that I use almost daily to shoot rabbits in the head at 100 to 150 yards. It's probably one of the most impressive weapons I've ever owned.. for a total cost of around $250..

[SDF880]

That Ruger SR556 is a very nice rifle you might check out their newer offering the AR556.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdSz_UQLmlg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSXmf5bNLcc

[marine6680]

There are a couple ways to go about it... Go cheap but decent, or go higher end hard use... You can also split the difference.

Some Feel getting a couple cheaper rifles is better than one higher end rifle.

If this is a serious prepper purchase... I think you need to at least get proper steel in the barrel, melonite treated or chrome lined barrel, and a HP/MP tested bolt. Proper 7075 alloy buffer tubes are a good thing to look for too. While some rifles may be fine for range toys, that does not make them good for emergency use, potential bad times...


As I see it, the best lower cost rifles out right now, are an Aero Precision midlength, or a PSA Freedom line midlength... Both with the melonite barrels. Well made and likely to hold up very well to some hard use. Last I looked, Brownells had the Aero for $575... Its really hard to beat the value these two bring. The Aero has the edge due to the fact they use Ballistic Advantage barrels, which are very well made.

As far as mid range I like the PSA Premium line, midlength, for around $750... very well made with quality barrels. The premium line will hold up just as well as Colt and other respected brands... Colt is also in this price range, but I do not like carbine length gas systems.

Higher end stuff like BCM and DD are tough and made to last... But cost $1500 give or take...

You can buy a BCM upper alone and through it on a different brand lower, or buy their lower and uppers separately... Go that route, and stick to their basic set up, and the cost is around $1100... Just getting an upper and putting it on a lower from PSA or Aero can get the cost to around $850-900

[CDR_Glock]

These days, a lot of makers are excellent. I had a build with internals from PSA, an Anderson lower and PSA upper. No issues. It was a $500 deal. For me, it works as intended.

Now if you're going for competition, then a higher quality barrel from Noveske, Christensen, Wilson, Les Baer, or JP are the way to go.

I have a Noveske and a Rock River, too. No issues. I added Elftmann Triggers in them. It makes them a lot more awesome.

It isn't hard to assemble your own. I acquired a set of Punches, Vise, Vise Block, gas block alignment tool, and some other simple tools. It doesn't take long to put one together. Particularly with a nice drop in custom trigger. You can watch a YouTube video. I've watched my friends do it. It's not rocket science.


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[Targa]

If I had it to do again I would have saved about $300 and gone with this http://www.brownells.com/firearms/ri...prod82606.aspx

[SDF880]

+1 Aero Precision

[MurBob]

So I've been reading other forums that pop up in google when I search for "[Enter brand name here] Opinions" It seems that a lot of you folks who have a lot more experience than I, are not happy that most of these brand name AR's seem to always be missing something.. unless of course you pay $1400..

One brand has a great receiver but low quality barrel or some other brand has a good barrel but lacks some other quality component..

So I'm reluctantly starting to lean in the direction of a more customized purchase.. though I'm still not really enthusiastic about building one from scratch...

You guys seem to like that Aero Precision brand? A bare bones frame I have to purchase clips and sights? What else?

[rickyrick]

Nothing wrong with AeroPrecision either, I've got lots of their parts

[SDF880]

That should be it! I'd buy a few 20, some 30, and some 40 round mags, I like PMAGS but some other good ones out there! The Aero Precision comes with a brass deflector, forward assist ( I'd never use) and I need to look close to see if it has a bayonet lug and if not you can add one if you want! Standard birdcage flash hider I have replaced some of mine with a shark muzzle device! I like those devices as if you jam or run out of ammo in a pickle you still have a weapon in your hand and it is a breecher device as well and can bust thru glass or a door with some effort!

I have purchased quite a few Aero Precision products and they are always top notch!

[MurBob]

Well then it looks like I'm going with Aero then..

Sure wish they offered a complete rifle with a stainless barrel.. My Ruger 10/22 has a stainless barrel and the thing is dead nuts accurate with every brand of ammo I run through it. And it won't rust!

ya.. you guys are probably laughing at me.. "Idiot doesn't know jack squat about what he's talking about".. you'd mostly be right.. my only saving characteristic is that I can shoot.. really good. Perfect 400/400 in the Air Force rifle range..

So after a little reading, I was surprised to discover that stainless barrels are actually better... but has nothing to do with rust!. They are apparently more accurate?

So what would you guys recommend? I was reading articles about Aero for the last couple hours.. learn a good deal about the company. Still don't know jack squat about guns though.. had to google most of their abbreviations.. CMV... for crying out loud.. just spell it out!! LOL