Originally Posted by SgtGoldy

my friend if you are ever in the Orange County area let me know. We will get along just fine

Originally Posted by MacCool

Stay away from DPMS, Bushmaster, CMMG, Olympic...too many corners cut and too high a tendency to fail when pushed.

The best brands are Colt, Noveske, LMT, Daniel Defense, Bravo Company, but those will exceed your $1000. As a starting point, the minimum I'd recommend going is a Smith & Wesson M&P carbine. That is a pretty good rifle.

I base that recommendation on 15 years of SWAT training, as well as many, many carbine courses over the years. I see the weapons that fail when they're run hard.