It's no secret I love 16" barrels with flash hiders, the fire ball above is no exageration yet a Vortex flash hider elliminates it.
The noise some claim never bothered me. I do have hearing loss from machinery noise and don't hear high pitched sounds. Yet it's not like a 44 mag pistol or even close to the 308 encore pistol I used to shoot, so take that for what it's worth.
Back during the ban years I tried a Bushmaster mini Y comp and it took 4 rounds to decide I'm selling the gun, quick!
Velocity wise, I chronographed several AR's with 14.5, 16 and 20" barrels with the same lot of XM193 ammo and lost 100 fps from the 20" to the 16". I can live with that. However an 18" will pick up most of that lost from what I hear, the 17" Kreiger I owned did but it was a higher end barrel and was supposed to be all that.
Pointing things out the window, common sense says a 16" AR will come out easier and quicker than a 20" or longer barrel, I mean come on...
While not a true 1 power, I still say the Leupold 1.5-5 is hard to beat as an all around optic. If you gotta have a red dot, go Aimpoint and change the battery once a year or so if your worried about it.
I hated the lack of eye relief on the ACOG I tried. The Elcan had the worst glass I ever saw, did not impress me at all. The 3 Eo-tech's I've had all "bloomed" with my astigmatism too much, Aimpoint not so much. The Trijicon Reflex my buddy had didn't impress me either, dot washed out too easy and is not the best color to pick up quickly. I've ran 2.5-8, 1.75-6, 3.5-10, 4.5-14's and 6.5-20's on different AR's and always reach for the 1.5-5.
