AR Recommendations

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n0el

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I’m new to the long gun world. I've been a handgun fan for a bit, but am now interested in purchasing my first AR. I am open to buying separate lower/upper parts or buying assembled, but I have no idea where to start in terms of manufacturers. I seem to see that who is frowned upon in handguns can be the opposite with rifles.

Who would you recommend for an AR?
 
First, decide on what the purpose is. Range gun? Plinking? Home defense? Hunting? Competition?

Once you have your needs, then decide on what manufacturer.

If you are talking about a general purpose, all use 16 inch AR, Colt, BCM, LMT, Noveske, Daniel Defense, are generally considered the "better" brands.

Of course there is also Smith & Wesson, Spike's, PSA, and nothing wrong with any of them oh, really.

For hunting and long range shooting you can buy barrels specifically for that purpose by White Oak Armory, Shilen, Douglas, Criteria, a handful of others, and have uppers built for that specification.
 
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We’d need to know, your budget and what you want to do with it to really be able to answer this question.
 
You can build one right now for ~$300 from PSA. That would be a complete upper and then a lower build kit. Find somebody local to help you assemble it (if you’re near Charlotte, I’d be glad to help). That would accomplish two things:

1. You’d have a decent grasp of how most of it functions
2. You’d have a working AR you could try stuff out on and if you wanted to buy a nicer one later on, you’d have a second/beater/truck rifle still around
 
$4-700 palmetto state, sw mp sport, aero precision

$8-1200 colt 6920, bcm midlegnth, sons of liberty gun works

$1300+ doesn’t do much more than the ones above unless you want a niche gun , reproduction or clone in my opinion.


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Derek8404 said:
We’d need to know, your budget and what you want to do with it to really be able to answer this question.
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Looking for something a little more multipurpose. Something I can use for defense, varmint control, and target shooting for fun. Leaning more towards .223/5.56 for this.

Price range is not really an issue.
 
n0el said:
Looking for something a little more multipurpose. Something I can use for defense, varmint control, and target shooting for fun. Leaning more towards .223/5.56 for this.

Price range is not really an issue.
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14.4"/16" will nicely cover all of your needs.

While @BigWaylon has a good point regarding building and learning how it all works, I tried to build one once, only once. I've got crappy hand eye coordination for tiny parts. I never looked back and I'm not disappointed and I know how they work just fine.

If price is not an issue, the sky is your limit. Colt 6920 is pretty much the foundation of all functional ARs. But if it was me and price was not an issue I would get the Colt and several thousand rounds and a good optic and some mags and some training.

Or bump up a couple hundred bucks and get a BCM, or Daniels Defense.

Or if you really want to be in the big leagues, go up a couple hundred more dollars and get a Knight's Armament.

All of them run exactly the same way, what you get and that higher tier and with the better brands is better QA/QI, better fit, and better customer service.
 
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n0el said:
Looking for something a little more multipurpose. Something I can use for defense, varmint control, and target shooting for fun. Leaning more towards .223/5.56 for this.

Price range is not really an issue.
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If cost isn’t a concern then I would buy a nice, solid rifle to learn the platform on. Then, if you decide to get into ARs more, you can always start buying parts to build and tinker with.

I’d personally recommend either a Daniel defense or BCM.
 
Zbizzle911 said:
$4-700 palmetto state, sw mp sport, aero precision

$8-1100 colt 6920, bcm midlegnth, sons of liberty gun works

$1200+ doesn’t do much more than the ones above unless you want a niche gun , reproduction or clone in my opinion.


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Click to expand...

As others have said, it depends on budget, but this is a great start on where you should look.

Building ARs is a lot of fun, but amazingly addictive. So...know they multiply...


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Personally,
I recommend Patriot Ordnance Factory (POF,) or LWRC.
They are both on the more expensive side.
However, they do manufacture top notch equipment that is rugged, ambidextrous, and piston/NiB so it doesn’t get hot or dirty, which is especially important for running massive amounts of rounds without cleaning and also helps running suppressed.
 
If money is no object I’d buy a JP.
If money was a concern I’d probably do the Barnes.

I wouldn’t buy any factory forged AR that cost more than 7-800$.
 
If I was in the market for a new rifle I would look hard at this carbine from Bison Armory. It isn't cheap but Bison makes great stuff and has wonderful service. I have two of their uppers and couldn't be happier.
http://bisonarmory.com/bison-armory-16-223-spr-carbine/

Check with Recoil Gunworks. They are currently out of stock but they usually have LEO trade in LMT Defenders for $650ish.
 
Zbizzle911 said:
$4-700 palmetto state, sw mp sport, aero precision

$8-1200 colt 6920, bcm midlength, sons of liberty gun works
Click to expand...

This.
I'd figure in a couple hundred to put a better trigger in it, though it may not take the full amount.
And get a 16" without a fixed front sight so you can play with muzzle devices and handguards on your own when the mood strikes.
I've "built" all mine, first was just pinning upper and lower to each other.
 
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yeah I would pin 2 halves together and get a decent sight and trigger. Pretty hard to get a POS nowadays, and it's a buyers market.
 
I think there’s a new LE6920 Colt on here for $800. Might could haggle it some
 
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