Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best AR 15 Brand to Purchase

Not sure about your purchase motivations so am reading between lines.

Suggest sticking with 5.56 for first purchase. Sadly, not everything new works reliably, and/or with all available ammo. IMO, it ought to do both.

Get a chrome-lined or nitrocarburized (melonite) barrel. One of my chromed Colt 11.5" barrels has over 18k rounds on it, near all full auto, and was always run near melt the handguards hard. It will still put 5 M855 rounds inside 4-5" at 100 yds using irons. My borescope reveals ugliness, but it still works perfectly.

1:7 to 1:9 will work with most stuff. 1:7 is nice if you want to use M856.

All my stuff is Colt, but am long in tooth. A 6920, recently become unobtainium, works with about anything. Today, looking for new + available in 5.56 for reasonable would get a S&W M&P2. Some of those mentioned are fine. At the low end of the price range the Palmetto State guns are usually good.

Other end of price range would get a Daniel Defense, LMT, and that FN. Some others.

For magazines stick with USGI. Okay industries makes Colt's mags. They are a notch better than the D&H mags, which have been a notch better than C products. As for the plastics, unless dropping from airplanes or running over with tanks you can keep them.

Get some spare parts. Hammer spring, extractor for sure. Maybe a spare complete bolt (minus carrier).

Colt. The original manufacturer. And Colts always hold their value.

Best is subjective, there are several of equal quality. That said, if I were buying now and wanted a good gun for a good price it would be a BCM.

Go Wilson Combat or go home

I own a handful of ARs and my AR snob friend tells me the only one that is ok is the old Colt.

He likes Daniel Defense.

Colt, BCM, Daniel Defence, FN, LMT. If they are too rich for you, S&W, Springfield Saint, SIG and a few others. Everyone has their own preferences. If you think you're going to like it, don't buy "entry level". You'll end up spending way more to upgrade it than if you had just bought the better gun in the first place.

Lots to choose from. I have had a 16" LaRue Tactical PredatAR for several years, it shoots great and is reliable. I also have a 16' Diamond Back I changed a bit and it sees truck duty more then the LaRue. The LaRue out shoots it, but for civilian defense use the Diamond Back would suffice. Just depends on what one expects from their AR. I expect good combat accuracy and the weapon must go bang every time I press the trigger, just has to. I also expect it to fire 500 hundred rounds with out cleaning and still be reliable.

Get on You Tube and see what Benghazi warrior, Kris "Tanto" Paronto has to say in the video about his "Frankenstein AR", I think it is a older Bushmaster. He speaks from experience and years of use.

Which ever one you get feed it good ammo fro reliable magazines. You can't have to many good 30 round magazines. Get a 30 pack from Brownell's, at least one 30 pack......

We just bought a couple of Sig model400 treads - Wifey opted for the
pistol (11") barrel - I got the rifle (16") . We have red dot sights on order.
5.56/223 - Have a lot of brass, once fired in my mod 700 varmint, and
1000 more on backorder at Starline.

Nice thing is you can upgrade anything but a poorly made lower.
If you are competent with tools you could buy an 80-90%lower and then pick your components starting with a good trigger group.

I am far from an AR expert but here goes: I had a Colt M-16 bolt carrier shatter and render my rifle useless in RVN. Ran 2 GM Hydromatic Division M-16s after that with ne’er a stoppage. I currently have a Bushmaster Dissipator heavy barrel, DPMS Panther, and a Palmetto State Armory lower with a Bushmaster shortie upper. Never had a malfunction with any. I have an eclectic mix of mags from 5 to 40. Colt 20’s are my favorite. I wouldn’t mind getting my skinners on an old Powerglide just because. Happy Trails

RRA-they are not cobbled together using after market parts.

I have 2 Rock River's with SS barrels and couldn't be happier. With the right factory ammo in each, they shoot 1/2 MOA all day long.

Colt. Had several I've owned, and several more issued, including a couple in combat. Never a problem.
Bob

I have had a grand total of two AR’s . Both were set up for shooting prairie dogs. The first had a military chamber the second straight 223. The one I have now is DPMS. After market triggers are a must, IMHO.
I have had no issues or problems other than when I built the first one from parts and had no instructions or diagrams.
I find that a very useful attachment is a brass catcher. Without that I would not own an AR or at least shoot an AR very much because I hate chasing brass.
Putting a low trigger pull trigger and a heavy match barrel makes an AR a quite accurate rifle.

There are a lot of good AR's out there. I've had good luck with Colt, BCM, Rock River and Daniel Defense. Some people think all mil spec parts are important, and if you plan to use the rifle hard that might be true. For most usage it's probably not critical. I'd say it's important is to think about how you plan to use the rifle before you purchase one. That way you'll get something configured appropriately for your use.

I recently purchased a Del Ton Echo 316M and am very impressed by it. Quality parts and ifle.

LaRue Tactical, Daniel Defense, first two choices for me. Not far behind is Noveske & BCM.

Assuming this is the op’s first AR, which is good, American, all that.

Suggest (availability may well be the challenge) a psa on the less expensive end, or a FN or Colt on the more expensive end. Variant nuanced by “purpose”, but as a starting point, don’t think it matters much.

Then, after some time/use, having collected your list of “wishes”, might look at the jp’s, bcm, noveske, etc, etc, “bests.” And only then. Because they’re most all excellent outside one’s brand loyalty or experience at that point, if top dollar, and to grt value for that dollar you have to know what nuances you want personally, there being no “best” in that regard.

I would make sure to get (a) a free floating front handguard, so a tight sling position does not affect POI, and (b) a fairly tight twist, 1:7 or 1:7.7. That way you can shoot 77 grain bullets accurately and it won't compromise accuracy with 55 grain bullets.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the scale, I bought an PSA AR15 pistol with a red dot sight at the St. George gun show a year ago for $450. Put around a 1000 rounds through it, mostly young men in the family burning up 30 round mags. Have yet to clean it (my bad). Marine son said to keep it wet.