AR-15 Purchasing Advice Please

[Hip's Ax]

Greetings, I have a friend at work who is very interested in buying a 16" barrel M4 type rifle. He is not a match shooter (the only AR I have is my NM so his request is outside my skill set) and wants it to be 100% American made and he wants it to ingest any cheap ammo he can find. He would also like a quad rail but he would be willing to buy that and add it himself later. He would also like a detachable carry handle with the usual military type iron sight.

What brand and model should I steer him toward? Stag seems to have one but I don't wish to hold him up for weeks while I learn about normal AR's and their respective USA only manufacturers.

Thank You For Your Time.

[Lead Fred]

Olympic Arms, are made right down the road from me.
Get a 20 inch barrel, thats what .223 was designed to shoot, anything less and you will lose distance.
Get the piston model, with free floating hand guards, the cream of the crop

[Aloxite]

Stag is good quality and comes at a good price. I don't think you can go wrong there if they offer a configuration you want. There is a dealer on AR15.com "Legaltransfers" that has good prices on Stag rifles, uppers and Kits.

Nice thing about ARs is that you can buy your lower locally. Then buy whatever upper you want online.

[m.chalmers]

Go here and read around:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/f_3/4_Build_It_Yourself.html

As for Olympic Arms, allot are better and a few are worse.

[zomby woof]

You can build one yourself. You can get a kit from Model1sales. The basic kit is $485 plus you need a stripped lower. This will be an entry level shooter.

[BSkerj]

I have two AR's, both Colts. You can't go wrong with a Colt. I have never been a black gun guy but after purchasing my first Colt, a 6940, I wanted a HBar Colt and ended up with the Elite 6724 in a 24" barrel. I love shooting and reloading for both. Tell your friend to buy soon...it looks as though they are going to be hard to acquire soon at a reasonable price. Rumor has it that a election is coming up !

[tomme boy]

The thing with the steel cheap ammo it sounds like what he wants to shoot is this, Some will shoot it, some will not. You just have to try it in the gun to find out. Normaly they will fire about 20-30 rds before it locks them up. I have seen them lock up on the first shot too. So, let him know this before he even gets one. Rock River is what I normally tell people to buy if they can.

[Moondawg]

I have a Armalite M4 copy. It is American made, digests anything, is carbine/plinking accurate, but not a match rifle. Instead of a GI carry handle signt, it makes more sense to have your optic and BUIS (back up iron sights) mounted together. That way if the optic goes out, all you have to do is flip up the BUIS.

[GabbyM]

My local dealer usually has AR’s of some flavor for less than I can order kit parts.
Couple months ago he had some replica A1 models which were commercially built.
Triangle front end , noodle barrel and all. They felt just like my SP1 except they had the A1 forward assist button. Now for the good part. $625 plus tax out the door.

What I’m getting at is not to jump right into the online game before checking out your local dealer.

As for barrel length. Performance aside the 16 inch barrels have a horrible muzzle blast and are simply unpleasant to shoot. I personally loath the M4. but others like them.

[Hamish]

No complaints, multiple American companies

http://www.jsesurplus.com/

[EDK]

Ar15 forum is pretty decent and good advice. M4carbine forum has a lot of "mall ninjas" who praise one manufacturer; curse the others; AND probably own neither! Patrick Sweeney has 3 AR15 books...good reading, BUT he hasn't found one he didn't like. Hmmmm.

I bought ROCK RIVER LAR15 flat tops for $750 plus tax locally since the first of the year. Put on a $100 BUSHNELL TRS-25 and living happily ever after. 500 plus rounds of reloads and 2 factory cartridges and no problems.

Local Wal-Marts have COLT, SIG-SAUER, and DPMS in stock. Selling .223 ammo in 420 round cans as fast as they get it in. Almost every gun I see for sale has a telescoping-stock and 18 inch barrel. CABELAS has a fair inventory. Whatever you want, don't spend too much time deciding or shopping. ARs are moving out the door almost as fast as four years ago...maybe faster.

I'd pass on the imported steel case ammo. Horror stories abound about it. You can get FEDERAL for $70 for 200 at CABELAS; local gun shop has 500 rounds for $185. Shoot it up; pick up the brass; and start reloading. Buy inexpensive HORNADY FMJ for under $100/K delivered from GRAFS...WC844 from ? and CCI mil spec primers. I cheated and bought 1K commercial brass off gunbroker and don't have to screw with primer pockets etc. LEE case trimmer for my cordless drill and223 dies and conversion kit for my DILLON 550B and get busy.

[L1A1Rocker]

PSA (palmetto state armory) is a company that I've just been introduced to. Very good USA made stuff. Some of the barrels however are actually FN barrels so watch for that. (The FN barrels however, are considered to be superior though).

Also, is your friend set on 556, or would he be interested in the new 300BLK? Think of it as a 30-30 (performance wise) in an AR package.

[runfiverun]

i have the armalite m-15 nm and love it.
better trigger,guaged bbl,and very good sights.
i also have the stag a-2 it has a scope on it right now.
he would need to buy the rails or forearms with them built in.
if he is going to scope it he will want the lower gas block [removeable or folding front sight]
the op rod ones are okay but some of them are open to the world and will not work if filled with sand or whatever.
the stags have a lifetime bbl warranty

[cattleskinner]

I have a Stag model 2 for about two years now with well over a 1500 rounds through it by now I would imagine. It has never once given me a lick of trouble and it has a lifetime warranty. If I had to choose another, I would buy another Stag in a heartbeat(they are reasonably priced too).

[tomme boy]

The FN barrels are still made here.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive got a colt, 2 dpms, a stag, a bushmaster, a smith and wesson and an alexander arms gun. there all good guns but if it were my money id probably go stag for there warantee. they will fix or replace anything on a gun for life even if you buy it used. even if you wear out a barrel. Hard to beat that!

[P.K.]

I'm a little biased for Ruger because it comes with all the bells and whistles. They now offer a "stripped" version of the SR556 w/o the picatinny rails. Comes with 3 P-Mags and a chromed barrel and carrier. I've put close to 2,000 rounds through mine and the carrier is just as clean as when I pulled it from the box. A piston system is the way to go IMO, less mainenance. Many complain about the weigh but it's comperable to most "traditional" rifles.

[Hip's Ax]

Thank You All, I sent the link to this thread to my friend and he says it has been a big help. I think an AR is in his immediate future now.

[garym1a2]

Get a middy or rifle length sites, not as important who makes it as how its configured. A 16 inch with rifle or middy sights is a lot easier to shoot than carbine sights.

[Moonie]

Tell your friend to be careful, these things are fun and addictive, my middle son and I started out building one in 5.56 about a year and a half ago, now we have 2 lowers and 4 uppers between us.