AR 15

[hutchman]

And I thought that I was the last person to get an AR....I had put it off for years because A. - They didn't really appeal to me (and I hadn't shot one) and B.) Everybody else had one, and I didn't want to be a conformist.

However, a local sporting goods store had their grand opening last fall and had a sale, and ended up (with the urging of my son) picking up a Del-Ton for about $500. I was fully prepared to dislike it and regret my purchase.

I was wrong.

I really do enjoy shooting it, and we have changed the stock, handguard, grip, added a couple of different sights, gotten more magazines, etc. It is my son's favorite rifle that we have (he claims it is going with him when he moves out - but that is still many, many years away).

From what I have read, Del-Ton is a low end manufacturer, but it seems fine for my purposes. I'm probably going to get another AR at some point, and I've thought about going the "build" route, just so that I can get the gun set up how I like it without having to discard pieces I don't like.

I don't think I've run into anybody that regretted getting an AR, but I'm sure there may be some out there.

Good luck and take care.

Go for it! There really isn't any gunsmithing skills required to put an AR together. It's not like you have to headspace anything etc., you're basically picking the parts you want and just putting it together. Heck, I even had kids doing it for something fun to do (training up the next generation )

Lots of good videos and build threads/sites out there so if you are interested in it, I highly recommend it.

 

[gsganzer]

I have a Rock River Predator Pursuit in .223 that's pretty nice (I joke that it's my wife's gun, that she doesn't know she owns). It has a 20" medium contour stainless barrel and is a dream to shoot with incredible accuracy.

I also have an Armalite AR10 in .308 It has a 20" free floated barrel. I've handled/shot the Armalite AR10 in .308, Rock River Arms LAR-8 in .308 and a DPMS LR-.308

It was like goldilocks and the three bears. The RRA felt like quality but was significantly heavier. Factory trigger was decent, but it did (and continues the owner says) to experience jamming issues that RRA has been unable to resolve. The DPMS was the lightest, felt somewhat cheap and had a real crappy factory trigger. The Armalite was just right. It was noticeably good quality, the factory trigger was decent and over all weight was between the other two. All three were pretty accurate.

I keep toying with the idea of having a .243 upper made for my Armalite. It would be just the ticket for hunting hogs with a well constructed bullet and low recoil so you could get multiple shots on hogs.

 

[k0ua]

I have a Rock River Predator Pursuit in .223 that's pretty nice (I joke that it's my wife's gun, that she doesn't know she owns). It has a 20" medium contour stainless barrel and is a dream to shoot with incredible accuracy.

I also have an Armalite AR10 in .308 It has a 20" free floated barrel. I've handled/shot the Armalite AR10 in .308, Rock River Arms LAR-8 in .308 and a DPMS LR-.308

It was like goldilocks and the three bears. The RRA felt like quality but was significantly heavier. Factory trigger was decent, but it did (and continues the owner says) to experience jamming issues that RRA has been unable to resolve. The DPMS was the lightest, felt somewhat cheap and had a real crappy factory trigger. The Armalite was just right. It was noticeably good quality, the factory trigger was decent and over all weight was between the other two. All three were pretty accurate.

I keep toying with the idea of having a .243 upper made for my Armalite. It would be just the ticket for hunting hogs with a well constructed bullet and low recoil so you could get multiple shots on hogs.

That is the thing about AR's they are so versatile. Just mix and match until you get what you want.

 

[CurlyDave]

Eddie & All:

I have shot a few ARs, and there are still some available that have the worst triggers i have ever tried. Others are pretty good. Price of the rifle doesn't seem to matter on that. A friend paid $1200 for an AR with a horrible trigger. Essentially, for what I think you want this one for, I wouldn't get too worried about what brand. They are all "good enough" for plinking and home defense. Just be sure to dry fire the one you get before you buy it, so you know you like the trigger. And dry firing it a few times will not hurt it. If the sales clerk tells you otherwise, go somewhere else.

Sights are a different matter. I have an EO Tech sight on mine, which cost almost as much as the gun. Best hunting/plinking sight I have ever used. Much better than the price point red dot sights you will find bundled with some rifles.

One thing to realize is that with most ARs, the sights are much further above the bore than a typical scoped hunting rifle. Even iron sights on an AR are ~2.5" above the bore. This means you need to sight it in for a different point of aim than you would for your other rifles, which are usually 1.5" above the bore for scopes, and 1/2" to 3/4" for iron sights.

I use this web sight http://gundata.org/ballistic-calculator/ to calculate drop tables to sight in all my rifles. Click on the "Advanced options..." link and you can specify a bunch of stuff, including sight height over bore.

Buy lots of ammo you will like it ...

 

[hutchman]

Get a CMP M1... That's a rifle, wood stock and all.

I went to Anniston and got a HRA M1 that was brand new, never issued, made in 1954. CMP opened a crate and found them .... problem is they were missing their original stocks! So they couldn't sell them as Collector Grade. They put one of their CMP stocks on it (Boyds) and sold it as one of their Specials $950. My only regret is I didn't buy up more than I did! I finished the stock myself and it is now one of my favorites. I put an adjustable gas plug on it and it shoots sweet!

 

[downsizingnow48]

I'm with Kenneth in Texas prefer AK for sights and trigger.

 

[hutchman]

Wow, sounds like everyone is unhappy with stock triggers. Google '15 Minute trigger job' and check it out. Here's a link but you can find more people talking about it and videos etc. if you google it:
15 Minute Practical Trigger Job for the AR-15

You don't even need to cut the spring ... you can get a big improvement just by doing all the other steps which soothes and mates the sear surfaces.

Want more? There is another cheap and relatively easy mod (a small step up in difficulty) to take up the pre travel of the stock trigger (combined with the above will give you a one stage trigger that breaks like glass which everyone wants for some reason ). If you combine these two things you can have a very nice trigger with the stock setup for next to no money. This procedure has warning because if you don't understand what is going on and go too crazy with it you can make the trigger unsafe. But if you are competent and pay attention to what you are doing it is totally fine and greatly improves the stock GI trigger experience.
Junk Yard Genius.com AR-15/M-16 Pages, page 1.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I'm a geezer Vietnam vet. But my thinking is even older than my years - therefore to me, man, those things are ugly. I'm so old school, a gun just ain't a gun without some wood on it. I know, I know, the new (new to me. Anything newer than about 35 years is new to me.) plastic stocks are supposed to be more accurate and all, but if I do get one, I'll have to kind of hold my nose while buying it

I'm the same. I have a large collection and it's the only plastic gun I have. If God had wanted us to have plastic guns, he would have made plastic trees.

I only have one AR for 2 reasons:

1) I've been collecting the major guns used in all the wars from the Civil War up and the M16 is certainly a major gun....I still have a few to go.

2) It was my war.

I built my AR15 up from as many milsurp parts as I could and except for the semi auto receiver, it's as close to an original late 1960's M16a1's as I could get.I don't really like shooting it much.

I much prefer the M14. The M1A that I have is an exact duplicate of the semi auto M14 that I carried in the Army. I never saw a full auto M14 in the 4 years I was in. I really like shooting it.

I've posted pics of both in previous posts earlier in this thread.

If it was close quarters combat, I was taught to bash people in the head with the M14. That would stop most people. The plastic M16, not so much.

If it's wood, it's good.

 

[hutchman]

If it's wood, it's good.

I like it :thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

If it's wood, it's good.

well i like m1A's too. I have room in my heart for wood and plastic I think they all have their place.