I’m not an ‘AR guy’. The only AR that really impressed me was my ex-Chief’s old ArmaLite M15 HBAR. The A2 stock, rifle length hand guards and 20” heavy barrel made it steady in unsupported shooting and rock solid from field positions or a rest. His had OD furniture, a bolt on carry handle with A2 sights and a nice two-stage trigger he swore came on the gun. I shot it on steel enough to know it would overlap bullet splashes at 100-200 yards.
I walked into a local shop the other day and there sat one in the rack, same basic configuration with no sights. It was near new with no finish wear on the bolt carrier group or its corresponding race in the receiver. This one had a two stage trigger with 3 pounds of take up, a creep-free 3 ¼ pound second stage and no perceptible over travel. This rifle had everything, except irons, that I would add if building an AR from scratch. Needless to say I left with it. I grabbed the highest set of rings in the toolbox and bolted the beater 4X Banner on it, just to see if it was accurate enough to warrant sights or better glass. If not, I was in cheap enough to reclaim my investment.
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I bore sighted it and had a 50 yard zero off the bat. At 200 yards, Winchester 55 grain FMJ was making 3-4 shot clusters like this between adjustments, despite having to contort my neck and mash my face into the stock using the improv scope setup.
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The rifle runs fine. I found a used Nikon M223 riser mount for 35 bucks and will probably hang a 2x7 Vortex on it. It’s also getting a set of Daniel Defense Fixed Lightweight sights. Other than that, a few 20 round mags and ammo are about it. I'll admit an initial urge to order a dot-sighted carbine length upper in 5.56, a 450 Bushmaster upper with another set of sights, etc. The HBAR's trigger is good enough to justify using it as a host for the thumper, in particular. But first things first. Irons, load selection and zero. It's primarily going to be my George Jetson coyote gun.
