Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Which A-R

I haven't had much experience with ar's, however- I have shot a few bushmasters, rockrivers, and a DPMS.

I am looking for something to have fun with at the range/home defense gun.

Mounting a eotech for sure..and was looking at the Rock River Entry Tactical with quad rail.

Any suggestions on this rig, or comments would be great!!

Thanks,

FMP

Can't go wrong with a Bushy or the RRA. Myself I prefer the RRA and for no real reason.
But then again my favorite is a LMT with the RRA SS upper.

I don't have a complete gun from any one company left anymore. The closest I've got is mostly Colt but there are alot of good parts and companies out there. Pick what you want and shoot the heck out of it.

DPMS AP4 in 308 is what I use.

Best bet is to have a qualified Armorer go through whatever you buy and make it "combat ready."

BMT

I have been very pleased so far with anything from RRA. I built a RRA Predator Pursuit upper on a billet lower for my wife last year and it has been reliable and very accurate. I have been eyeballing the Entry Tactical for myself lately too.

Several months ago I bought a Bushmaster M4A3 ORC, paid $780 plus tax for it.
Mounted a Burris Fullfield II variable on it, and am shooting my .223 40 gr. Ballistic Silvertip handloads thru it, with great accuracy.

So far, no problems- I am happy with it.

Bushmaster , RR or Stag can't go wrong with either. The Smith are getting a good rep, but priced high

If you're gonna look at a complete gun and given you consider home defense, you can do no better than a Colt 6920. They are built to a very high standard geared for reliability. RR ain't bad but not in the same league and not all quad rails are equal. Start with a good gun and add quality accesories as you need them.

I know what I said above but I assemble my own guns with parts I choose. For the price of the RR you're looking at the Colt is a steal.

colt is a deal and well built, but to be honest if you are looking at a really good barrel, the colt ones will be a crap shoot. If you get a good one you have a long lived super good tube... Then there is the issue of the trigger, while solid it'll be horrible, and replacing it they have/had this tail piece in the way at one time, forced me to buy a special trigger adapted for the colt block that was in the way, what a crock.

Now if you just want an AR and 2 moa is fine, and you don't care much about the trigger weight and smoothness, and dont' want to build the Colt can be a hands down winner.

FWIW, Colt chrome lined barrels are not match grade but I have no problems killing coyotes, deer or anything else with them.

As for the trigger, Colt now uses a web built into the lower for a block (RRA and others use a high shelf to acomplish the same thing) so any trigger will work, oh and they now use small pins just like everyone else.

What they do right more than makes up for what they don't offer and at one time they did offer a 24" SS match grade barrel with a pretty good trigger to boot, even free floated the barrel from the factory.

I still prefer to build my own just so I can get what I want.

For HD, reliability would be the top of the requirement list for me. That would put companies like Colt, BCM, DD, LMT, and maybe a couple of others at the top of the list for me for factory built rifles. For me, rails do nothing, except for carrying a sling swivel mount, so that wouldn't be a factor at all on the list. I've got them on a couple of carbines, thinking that's where I would mount a light, but they just didn't work functionally for me. A good reliable trigger like a hardened RRA or Geissele SSA makes life better. A pinned F height FSB for a flat top beats set screw gas blocks durability wise, though you could also get a pinned gas block and BUIS like Troy's etc.

Five DPMS so far (223, 260, 308 & 2 300 SAUMs) all work(ed) perfectly. PACT gold trigger is the best and most simple one out there (not cheap!)All standard factory triggers I have met sucked.
In the new Gun Tests, they rated the Ruger and Stag very well but gave the High Standard a "best buy" rating as it worked fine.

I'm looking hard at the new Benelli MR-1 which is based on the R-1/M-4 ARGO system and is not an AR but takes AR mags. They sure loved it in the new Guns & Ammo and I already have too many R-1s that run like Rolexes.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=151460649

Can't have too many toys!