There were a lot of problems induced by rate of fire in M4/M4A1 stuff I dealt with, that’ll likely never be a factor for semi-only rigs. There are also so many options in barrel/bolt construction, that longevity varies wildly. Regardless, the point of this and the comments about ammo/volume are spot on: 95% of AR owners have never and will never, own enough ammo to shoot anything out…..much less actually do the shooting it takes. Spare uppers/barrels/bolts are so easy to keep on hand that it doesn’t matter if you do shoot super high volume. Lowers can last forever. The whole ‘gun LEGO’ design is what makes an AR hard to compete with for almost any other choice for the same uses.
I wonder tho - 5k rounds is about 2200 bucks in ammo if you're getting PPU 55gr FMJ. Cheap stuff. Would it be hard to spend 2200 over 6 months to squirrel away 5k rounds of 556 for most here? Not talking specifically about the video or the 5% left over.
Add another 900 for 5k rounds of 9mm ball - and you're on 10k rounds of the 2 most common SHTF cartridges for defense of home and hearth.
Glock or M&P for little money, AR for little money - no reason why you can't be the biggest warlord on your block when it goes bad for 5-6k.
