Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Who makes the worst AR?

When I was enlisted our M16s were either Colt or FN. The consensus seemed like the FN was a better gun. But the issues that came up with any of the guns tended to be from the abuse that comes with extensive dry firing (bad firing pins) and crappy steel magazines (poor feeding). Worn extractors were another common problem.

With all the M16s and ARs that I’ve experienced, I could never tell a difference between the parts or quality. I’ve never fired a high end AR, so I don’t know what I’m missing, but none of my lower and mid grade ARs have given me poor performance.
The 1000 rounds of ammo in a day might be a good torture test, but that’s what it is, a torture test. I’d be curious to know if anyone shoots that much ammo through their AR or M16/M4 in a day in a combat setting. I can’t imagine that shooting 1000 rounds during a day in real combat would be conducive to a long life.
My experience has been that dirt and carbon buildup are the crux of the AR/M16 design. You have to keep them clean. Maybe the more expensive AR handles grit better? I don’t know. I do know that if I fire 500 rounds in quick succession, starting with a clean gun, things have worked out fine. But if I fire 200 and let it sit over night, all bets are off.

Filthy 14 killed a lot of myths...
https://bravocompanyusa.com/content/Filthy%2014%20bravo_swat_10.pdf

"I bought 2 barrels from Midway USA and they are plagued with machine marks in the barrel and in the rifling. They were Midway's barrels. (AR-Stoner) I have spent some time trying to smooth up those 2 barrels."

Yup....Stoner barrels are made by Bear Creek. Nuff said.

"I can only suggest you avoid the cheap barrels that look like a bargain." Concur 100%

Model 1 sales are some of the worst I have had in hand, Bear Creek Arsenal gives them great competition for the bottom

I don't know why guys here just keep doing that schit. Over and over and over. Buying cheapass schit and expecting it to perform and have an acceptable life cycle. Then they come on here and ask how they can "fix" it. It boggles my mind.

Because folks come on here and say my brand X has been 100%, there's no need to spend real money...

They get through a mag or two and it's the best (and only) AR they've ever had.

As far as a stripped lower how is Anderson inferior to another brand? If it's milled properly what's the difference? I can see different fcg making all sorts of difference, but just the lower receiver I'm not sure. Educate me

I shot that gun a few times. Pat busted a lot of myths about the AR. He kept more detailed records about what worked and what didn’t than anyone I know.
The quality of what you buy is directly related to its intended purpose. If a broken part or malfunction doesn’t effect your health. Buy what you want and have fun. Just understand that hi mileage will test quality.

If the manufacturer is using quality CNC machines with sharp tools and closely following the industry standards to every dimension there should be no excuse for bad lowers and uppers. The problem comes from inattentive or lackadaisical operators, dull tools or allowing some dimensions to wander (tolerance stacking) and not catching it before sending the part onto the next step.

I went cheap on a couple of barrels and it come back to bite me in the a$$ with less accuracy than I expected. Go with companies that have a reputation of producing quality products for many years in a row and avoid the hassles. Anderson for the first several years after their introduction had some tolerance problems as I recall. Maybe they have those issues fixed, I don't know. I learned a lesson about going cheap and I have been much more selective about what I buy since. Buy once and cry once.

So; going back to the OP's original question, can I (or anyone) say which AR's are the worst on the market ? No. I can only say to you what is among the best based on reputation and how long the company has been in business. It appears the companies that do not put out a quality product are probably no longer in business and their name has disappeared from the industry or will soon be out of business if their product is crap. And, they will also disappear from the industry. Just my observations.

kwg

Was into MG shoots between '86 and '12. Early on was given advice to buy only Colt stuff (reread the timeline). Indeed, the only problems I had were related to beat up Orlite feed lips. Those without cracked lips ran as good as USGI no-finish remaining alloy mags.

Not one failure gun related. Unless you consider one extractor hook per 10k steel cased excessive (it isn't). Heck, I had more trouble with my Uzis. Learned about M16 lube requirements......pretty much exactly what Rogers said. Keep it wet and it works. We'd run 1k/day for few days - no cleaning. One of my 11.5s now has about 20k on it. Rifling is about gone first 3-4", but it did 4" for 5 at 100 yds this year with my General Dynamics M855.

At shoots hung out with rental guys who had 1-2 orders of magnitude more rounds on their guns. They stuck with Colt. Finally saw an action spring become too weak. It was shortened far below what spec calls for replacement.

This is not a criticism of those who are competent building their own. But far and away the worst guns/uppers were the builds. 90% of "issues" I saw over those years were with builds. BM, M1S, etc were overrepresented vs Colt with problems. But they were alot better than most of the builds. Poorly indexed/torqued barrels with feed ramps not indexed. Undergassed usually. Rarely overgassed with owners having zero clue about dropped extraction fixes.

Moving forward in time - have no experience with Anderson and Bear Creek. The worst ARs I've run across in recent years have been Sigs. Three different guns purchased by three different friends all failed to run even domestic .223 55s. All three called Sig and were told the "needs break-in" canard. Flame away, but I won't own an AR that won't run 100% on steel. None of the Sigs got sorted out to 100% reliable after 500 rds+ of M855-ish stuff. This was about 10-12 years ago, so possibly they've got this fixed.

Will say Smith and DPMS seem to make decent stuff. No experience with the pricey guns like Baer, DD, BCM, LW, etc.

IME the worst ARs are built by people in their garage who say things like "legos for adults" and "they're all made in the same factory anyway".

Home built ARs have a terrible track record, even compared to poorly built factory guns.

LOL…..well, some of us actually have some appropriate schooling and experience with build, repair, and QC….but I do take your point: most don’t know what they don’t know.

I’ve seen seriously crappy firearms from BCA and Anderson, but I’ve seen bad parts from otherwise good mfgs, also. These days, I’m even more suspect of production ARs.

Is a NIB 1st Gen Smith & Wesson M&P15 a better than average AR15? More desirable than the later “Sport” versions?

I've had good luck with the several Anderson lowers I have used for builds.

The two Anderson’s I had were not anodized inside where the bolt catch goes. Maybe it was a fluke, maybe they don’t care. I won’t use another.

I read through this twice, and it never really answered the main question. Everyone was dazzling the others with their builds, and there's no doubt a lot of experience behind the claims.

Given three categories, what are the ones not to buy, the brands? How about the better choices, too?

1. Low cost entry plinkers

2. Medium priced guns with good reliability and accuracy for the weekend warrior

3. The blood-in-the-eye enthusiast's popguns

The answer is: cheap retail ARs MUST have cheap barrels, uppers, lowers, bolts, and other critical parts, to be so cheap. Their assembly/QC costs also have to be low. I don’t think it’s limited to some make, but a category. There’s a difference between value and cheap. Too often folks want to believe that company ‘X’ has ‘figured out a way’ to make a quality AR for far less than company Y…..or that company Y jacks up their prices due to brand recognition. Sometimes, but not nearly as much as most think. Usually, makers cut corners on quality, and quality costs more $.

tag

Del-ton, budget-friendly or junk?