Anyone here into firearms?

MacCool

S&W Sporter is about as far down the quality scale as I'd go on an AR15. Below that you have the Bushmasters, RRAs, etc.

You can get a Colt 6920 for about $950. I'd go that route for my first rifle. Learn to shoot it, maintain it, what works for your purposes.

xdeslitx

so bushmasters isn't good? my uncle seems to like bushmasters and dpms lol but he's more into the big bore stuff so i'm not sure if he's a good source for a 223

i'll look into the colt thanks

BlackZeda

Bushmaster quality is excellent as I have had serveral over the years and never had any issues unlike other manufacturers. Back in the day there were only two choices; Colt and Bushmaster. You will find that in the AR niche there are extreme fanboys of one make or the other. Since all these other johnny-come-lately ARs have been introduced the sellers and buyers have felt compelled to rag on Bushmaster in order to get their part of the market since Colt has such a good reputation backed up by the fact that they supply the military. Bushmaster had at one time an issue with improperly staked BCGs, but I have never seen one. IMO you are paying $200 for the name stamped on the side if you go for Colt (oh, and they are more "milspec"...I can get a can of tomatoes that are "milspec", it doesn't mean they are better).

Bushmaster is a good brand if you are on a budget, but if you want to spend some bucks and get a premium AR look into Noveske, LMT and BCM.

I am sure that someone will disagree with my assessment, but keep in mind that I have actually owned Colts, a Noveske (my current favorite), LMTs and Bushmasters which have all performed very well.

The only AR I would stay away from is Armalite and Olympic as I have owned those and did indeed have issues.

MacCool

Bushmaster, DPMS, CMMG, Olympic Arms....these are all generally considered to be lower tier rifles. This is objectively based on the materials used in their construction, the level of QA, and observation of failure rates in high round-count situations. Subjectively, people who shoot a lot and have experience with these brands wouldn't have one. As a budget range toy, that you can take out, show your buddies your new "Army rifle" shoot a couple of hundred rounds a year then put back in the closet, those lower tier rifles can be perfectly fine. You just wouldn't want to bet your life on one. The difficult part is that in many cases you'll pay as much for a DPMS or Bushmaster as you will for a Colt. For my part, there are several brands that I own or have owned and that I'm a fan of. My suspicion about Bushmaster and its ilk is based on lots of shooting, lots of hanging around guys who shoot, many instructional carbine courses from nationally known instructors. I've heard what they say, and I've seen those rifles break in courses when they're put to the test. There are a lot of DPMS rifles around here (DPMS HQ is about 60 miles from here). Like I said...range toy?...have at it. Gonna bet your life on that rifle or take pride in owning demonstrably high-quality firerarms?...get one that's well made and reliable. Me? I'm inclined to buy the best quality I can afford. I buy my tools from Snap-On, not Harbor Freight.

Go over to M4Carbine.net and do a search (use the orange search button in the top header) on Bushmaster, or Rock River Arms, or DPMS.

xdeslitx

@BlackZeda - How many rounds have you put through your Bushmasters since MacCool mentioned reliability issues when used a lot?

BlackZeda

I just sold one of my Bushmasters, but the one I kept was ole' reliable; the one I take camping or when I treat friends that haven't shot an AR to some plinking in the mountains. It has about 3000 rounds of either Federal or Winchester ammo through it over the years.

The Bolt Carrier Group (BCG) was upgraded by one from FailZero, and before that I replaced the bolt itself once because of the carbon build-up. To me I view that as regular maintenance aside from scraping. I have found that lubing it after 200 rounds will keep it running well without any issues. Also after any shooting session I will clean my firearms.

MacCool

I'll put 2000 rounds through any given rifle in one 3-day carbine course, and I usually do two or three of those a year, not including twice a year SO training and qualification. My Noveske Light Recce has about 15,000 rounds through it, everything from PMC Bronze, M855, and boatloads of some kind of Pakistani crap (POF) that the Bomb Squad got for disposal. I've replaced the gas rings and an extractor. Bolt and BCG look like new. During those two or three day courses I don't clean until after the course is done, only lube.