The General AR Discussion Thread

Originally Posted by Adam@Euro-Spec

The bolded statements don't make sense.. You don't want cheaply made but your looking at del-ton. S&W is 10000x better then del-ton or dpms or olympic IMO. If you want a reasonably priced good ar15 check out the S&W M&P line. They will probably be your best bang for the buck in the 700-900 range. A little more money and you can get a nice colt for around $1100.
Troy has an ar15 for around $750 but I don't know much about it, maybe somebody else can chime in on it...im hoping they didn't slap their name on complete junk. If it's like other troy products it should be a decent rifle. You can probably build a gun with a BCM upper for around 1000-1200 too which would be good.
I have found building a gun ends up costing a lot more, well in my experience at least.

the troy rifles i've seen are just del-ton rifles with troy accessories.

i agree with building rifles being more expensive. i started throwing together a "budget" rifle with a target of under $1000....but i cant keep myself away from noveske and bcm's websites so now my upper alone is on its way over 1k.

If you buy a pre-built upper and pre-built lower, it's sort of defeats the purpose unless you are buying a specific upper for a specific purpose. I.E. you want a precision rifle so you buy an upper with a heavy stainless barrel and free float barrel, and you just need a lower to slap it onto.

Building a stripped lower is pretty simple, and there's not a whole lot to screw up. The one issue is that people don't stake the castle nut on carbines, and I've seen this turn out badly. Building an upper gets a lot more tricky depending on what you decide to put on the rifle. I would be more apt to recommend building a stripped lower and then buying a built upper.

If you wanted to stick with a built lower and built upper, you might as well just get a full rifle. The advantage of a full rifle is that everything on the rifle is test-fitted and designed to interact with everything else on the rifle.

Whatever you decide, understand that there are drastic quality differences across the board, and what you pay can be directly related to what you will get for quality. I could piece together a reliable AR for $800, but it's going to be VERY basic. The problem that you have right now is that the post-election hoard-a-thon has basically made all stock disappear. It's a craps shoot trying to find quality components.
Companies like Del-Ton and Palmetto State Armory use lower grade components, as do DPMS, Bushmaster, CMMG and a slough of others. There are ways to buy budget setups and still get quality components.

Originally Posted by Adam@Euro-Spec

The bolded statements don't make sense.. You don't want cheaply made but your looking at del-ton. S&W is 10000x better then del-ton or dpms or olympic IMO. If you want a reasonably priced good ar15 check out the S&W M&P line. They will probably be your best bang for the buck in the 700-900 range. A little more money and you can get a nice colt for around $1100.
Troy has an ar15 for around $750 but I don't know much about it, maybe somebody else can chime in on it...im hoping they didn't slap their name on complete junk. If it's like other troy products it should be a decent rifle. You can probably build a gun with a BCM upper for around 1000-1200 too which would be good.
I have found building a gun ends up costing a lot more, well in my experience at least.

A S&W M&P15 is a far better investment than a Del-Ton.

I would be hesitant to consider the Troy setup. I also don't know a lot about it, but Troy is a good company and the other guns they've previously marketed in-house have been pretty good quality. The issue is that they've authorized Del-Ton and a couple other companies to sell Troy-equipped rifles as a collaborative effort, and I don't hold Del-Ton in high regard. If the in-house proprietary Troy rifle is a wholly different manufacturer or component than with the Del-Ton, it could possibly be a good purchase. I am just very wary of a $750 rifle with that many optional components. It's definitely not going to be a Grade 1 or Grade 2 rifle.

There are ways to buy budget setups and still get quality components.

So how would I go about doing that? If it's basic that's fine, I'll add the rest as I go. I just want a quality shell that I can add to.

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

So how would I go about doing that? If it's basic that's fine, I'll add the rest as I go. I just want a quality shell that I can add to.

Go to Walmart and buy a Colt 6920.

Originally Posted by Serbonze

Go to Walmart and buy a Colt 6920.

+1000

It's worth the extra $

So I guess what I'm looking for isn't attainable.

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

So I guess what I'm looking for isn't attainable.

Well, let's back up a moment. What's the purpose of this AR?

Originally Posted by Serbonze

Well, let's back up a moment. What's the purpose of this AR?

Occasional range shooting and possibly hunting, but it'd be very rare.

Do you ever feel like you would need to trust your life to it? If you are intent on buying a separate upper and lower with a max budget if $800, and you never need to trust your life to it, this is what I would order when they are back in stock. Order the upper and lower on separate days to avoid the excise tax.

$378 PSA Upper with Charging Handle
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index...ium-upper.html

$239 PSA Complete Lower
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index...c-edition.html

$140 PSA Bolt Carrier Group
http://palmettostatearmory.com/index...ier-group.html

$55 Magpul MBUS
https://www.primaryarms.com/MagPul_M.../mag248blk.htm

Total of $812 without shipping or transfer charges.

I don't think it'll be my only line of defense. I have an XD40 that would be the ideal choice since I live in an apartment.

I can get the S&W M&P15 Sport for $621 shipped on slickguns, but I've been told they don't have the firing assist though. Is it a problem?

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

I can get the S&W M&P15 Sport for $621 shipped on slickguns, but I've been told they don't have the firing assist though. Is it a problem?

Not for your intended use IMO. The sport is a great gun for the money.

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

I can get the S&W M&P15 Sport for $621 shipped on slickguns, but I've been told they don't have the firing assist though. Is it a problem?

Forward assist. No, it's not a problem. It also doesn't have a dust cover, or a chrome lined barrel. Do you need them? Probably not. If you really want to upgrade this, then the chrome lined barrel is nice to have.

I think your question is really "what is the least amount that I can pay for an AR that isn't a piece of ****". You provided a budget of $800, and I think it will be difficult to beat the package that I listed above from PSA. The Sport will be just fine for your stated purposes though.

Is the sport easy to upgrade? If it isn't, it defeats my purpose. I'm trying to find a cheap start that isn't a POS, that can be a project.

I have personal experience with the sport. I loved it when I had it...a great value for money. It never jammed on me and it produced better groups with the 5R barrel than my colt does with the chrome lined one. It was super light-weight and felt quality. I never noticed the absense of the forward assist in practice.

As far as upgradabilty, it's milspec and has a milspec tube, so no issues with milspec stocks. It will accept a rail system and the flash hider isn't pinned and welded, so you can swap it out. It also has a top rail for an optic

I sold it to fund another project and because the girl I bought it for really turned out to kick me in the balls. Bad memories and all...but the gun itself was fantastic

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

Is the sport easy to upgrade? If it isn't, it defeats my purpose. I'm trying to find a cheap start that isn't a POS, that can be a project.

What do you want to upgrade? If its the stock and handguard, sure, like David said they are standard so that's not a problem.

Originally Posted by Serbonze

What do you want to upgrade? If its the stock and handguard, sure, like David said they are standard so that's not a problem.

Nothing much. Maybe a scope and a rail. Highly considering jumping on this deal now. They wanted $899 at my local armory today.

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

Nothing much. Maybe a scope and a rail. Highly considering jumping on this deal now. They wanted $899 at my local armory today.

You can add a scope and rail with no problem. $899 is, to borrow a word that I just learned from Reedo, recockulous.

Ah fvck it, I'll wait until after Christmas and stay updated on slickgun. Saw a PSA expired recently for $699. May land one of those.

http://www.slickguns.com/product/psa...-30-rnds-69999

One question is whether you will trust your life to it. Since you have answered that, the second question is whether one day you will want to start taking any training courses. A basic light training course at your local range is not going to really cause any issues with an "economy" rifle. If you foresee yourself taking more intensive training from a training group like Magpul, Haley Strategic, Larry Vickers, etc, you really do need to look at a higher quality rifle.

If that is not the case, and you are simply looking for just a hobby range plinker, then a PSA setup is likely going to be just fine. I would personally take a S&W M&P15 Sport for that general price range, but you can take whatever option you want.