Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Different tier ARs

I've seen several threads on here of people rating ARs. A lot of the threads I wonder if the people have ever even seen the ARs they are ranking At the same time several manufacturers sell different tiers of ARs. Like S&W, Ruger, and even DPMS use to.
I'm wondering how everybody else ranks them. I know DPMS use to sell the Oracle and Sportacle. They were very low tier basic ARs. But they also sold mid tier stuff like the Prairie Panther and the GII in AR10.

S&W sell the very basics M&P sport 2 but also have mid tier rifles with mid tier furniture and all that.

Are you basing your opinion because they sell basic ARs?

What makes DD a mid-top tier rifle?
Or BCM. They don't have any MIL contracts. I really don't see it. Is it because they fix any problems their ARs have? So do most other companies. Mostly what I see is they push swag really well to a certain crowd.

How is Colt any different? Most of what they sell is basic.

Springfield makes a great AR that has a bunch of upgrades on them but somehow people say they are low tier. To me they are lower mid tier.

I understand some places push junk but most of the rifles above aren't bad. Some are beginner rifles and some aren't.

I do consider PSA, Anderson, Radical and a couple others really low tier. But even they will fix any problems they have.
It seems to me somebody could start an AR business and charge a little more money and all of a sudden they are mid tier. I think that's what they are being judged by.

Id like to hear others opinions and why.
What makes a low, mid or top tier AR to you?

Would like to hear why PSA is "low tier?"

I'll rephrase that a little bit. PSA put out really low tier offerings. Here lately they have had a lot of blem product sales. That automatically is lower tier to me. iMO Purposely putting out a lower quality product qualifies as lower tier.
I know not everything they put out is low tier but it seems more of their offerings fall in to that catagory.

Just because somebody is cheaper in price doesn't automatically make it low tier. Walmart started out because Sam Walton thought he could sell things at a lower price (profit margin) and make more because more people would shop his stores and buy his products. You see what that became. I know it's crap now but it wasnt like that under him.

No opinion on any of the brands, as all of mine are home built. But I have some Aero and Stag blem components where the only imperfection is cosmetic (usually a scratch). Some blem components, I can't even find what the issue was.

I don't know what kind of blems PSA sells, but I have no problem buying Aero or Stag blems.

I think it (tier ranking) is a leftover from back when you had Colt producing mil spec guns and a few companies like BM, Oly, dpms and a couple others producing similar guns with lots of shortcuts. Weaker commercial buffer tubes, 4140 barrel steel, no staked castle nuts and gas keys. Then even the furniture was cheap, single heat shields and weaker plastic stocks and grips. Not to mention guns that were over gassed because they thought all we shot was weak commercial 223 ammo.

Then rails happened and more importantly, salesmanship through the internet. The 6720 or 6920 was now the basic start of a good gun that would work but then it got blurry and people lied about their products. Everyone wanted a rail and all the doo-hickey’s they could put on a gun and if a company offered a head start on this, they became top tier in a lot of peoples minds. Then they got away from a solid base.

For me, I use good parts and build my own for the most part. Picking good parts and putting them together the right way gets me where I want to be. Start with the barrel and build from there, picking what you need, not what’s on sale or what everyone is claiming to be the best, will get you a better gun in the end.

I think that there are a lot of ways to look at it with no universal definitions but this is how I think of tiers.

Bottom tier being less than Mil Spec

Mid tier is Mil Spec

And top tier being rifles with exceptional fit and finish or built over and above Mil Spec

Obviously within the above categories some manufacturers will have better or worse reputations than others within the same tier.

I think "low tier" is still pretty dang good in the grand scheme of things. The basic design of the AR is sound, first and foremost. And components that you get from most reputable manufacturers should be good. Combine decent parts with a solid modular design, and I think you have a decent rifle for the vast majority of buyers.

If you really "need" more than that, then there are a lot of options. But even if you buy a "top tier" rifle, you still need spare parts. So it's not like you buy once and you're good for life, unless the rifle barely gets used.

Not too difficult for anyone with any common sense to sort the wheat from the chaff.

So....common sense tells me if their heat treat is ok and what barrel steel they used...?

I have what many consider a low tier Diamondback in 300 Blackout that I took in trade for a revolver. The prior owner won it in a raffle, and it was brand new. It's original street price was around $650.

I changed the mil-spec trigger for a Rise Armament LE145 single stage.

I changed the BCG for a Wilson Combat I had on hand, keeping the old one as spare.

I changed the wobby stock for a Magpul Moe SL Stock I had on hand.

I changed the Pistol Grip for a Bravo Co. Mod 3 that I had on hand.

I changed the mil-spec safety for a Radian Talon.

I changed the rather large though effective Diamnondback muzzle brake for a smaller VG6 Gamma 300 Blackout one I had from another project.

I've added a Swampfox Arrowhead 1-6x24mm in a bargain SWFA SSALT base.

I added a Streamlight ProTac 2 and placed it in an Haley Strategic Thorntail Keymod light mount.

All the parts I added fit as they should on a "mil-spec" upper and lower.

It goes bang every time I shoot it. I've had zero malfunctions.

With my 110 grain reloads it produces sub 1/2 groups at 50 yds, and reasonable 3" groups or so out as far as 300, which is as far as I've shot it.

If this is "low tier" I can live nicely with it.....

Great point. Also how durable is the finish they use? Attention to detail, parts used, heat treatment, application of finishes, durability of said finishes should be a consideration

It is lower tier but so is a Savage 110 or a Ruger American. I’m not knocking either of those and own a Ruger American that goes bang when I pull the trigger. I like it for what it is, an accurate reliable inexpensive lower tier hunting rifle. That it’s accurate and fires when I pull the trigger does not make it a rifle of build quality, refinement or quality of materials as a Sako or a Cooper.

If it was my only option I’d have no problem trusting my life in a home defense situation to a PSA that I had put together, inspected, and had range time with making sure it ran as it should. Realistically home defense situations are not hard on a rifle. The rifle sits cleaned and stored at room temperature and has to go bang once or maybe a few times tops. Military use on the other hand with 20 year old kids and government property, constant handling in and out of vehicles, hard use on a battlefield, and overseas patrolling deserts under those conditions I’d want a solid mid tier milspec rifle without a doubt. Rather you need a certain quality level for your application doesn’t change the fact that some are built to a higher quality level than others. Some barrel steel, chrome lining or a nitride finish Vs. none, aluminum types, stocks, bolts and bolt steel, bolt steel finish, rails,triggers, ect, ect are objectively better than others even if a particular individual has little need for it for there application.

I must disagree with you, from what I have seen the Springfield "Saint" and it's variants are one of the worst AR's on the market. I would take an Anderson for about half the price and have a better rifle.

As for top tier I could never say anything negative about JPRifles......great stuff !!!!!

All of mine at present are parts guns IMO you can build a mid to upper level AR that is really what you want cheaper than buying one already built that is not exactly what you are looking for

Yup. Just put together a PSA with 18 inch 7 twist stainless wylde upper and fully assembled lower with magpul grip and stock and trigger job for less than 700 bucks.

And guys are still paying 700 for a plain old Anderson. So yes you can do better with parts and no PSA is not junk.

I love the AR platform and have owned/shot/handled a fair amount. Just curious what, in your experience, would separate a lower mid tier gun from a higher low tier gun or a middle mid tier gun and what adds might help boost it to a high mid tier or possibly even a lower high tier option?

I have the same or a similar PSA model set up for casual 3 gun shooting. I’ve been impressed with how well it shoots and really like the recoil impulse of the rifle length gas system.

Good to hear. Hope mine does as well

I start with what materials the parts are made from. If the manufacturer won't tell, or if they just say "mil-spec", they're low-tier. Period.

Then I move on to the QC process the assembler uses to inspect those parts prior to assembly.

Then I want to know what the assembly process consists of. Are all of those parts properly torqued and staked?

And I want to know that for all of the parts.
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Cheap buffer and extractor springs and improperly torqued and unstaked castle nuts are the #1 culprits in malfunctioning ARs. Those are things most people will never consider them when they consider "tiers" of rifles. But the top tier brands pay very close attention to them.

You don't check the genealogy of the people putting the parts together? Location of the iron ore? Blood type of the plant managers? Sheesh. Lol

This right here tells me that you don't know much about a Springfield saint. You just believe everything you read when people bash them.
Tell me what is so bad about them? Is it that they have BCM furniture? Or is it that they offer a mid-length gas system on a 16" barrel? Or that it has a decent polished trigger? Or maybe it's because it has a nice BCG in it? Or is it that you read on arf.com that they were bad? But meh colt....