Asked Wifey what she wanted for her birthday, to my surprise she said “I’ve been thinking about an A/R”!
Okay, I know from talking to other gun nuts and LGS owners that stuff like this is at a premium right now. Ammo for .223/5.56 is damn hard to find, and rifles are even worse.
I stopped in at one of my favorites, and they had an Anderson Manufacturing, A/M-15 on display. I’d heard of them, but never shot one. Anyway, he said they had 5 in stock, no idea when more might come, I dropped a down payment so’s they’d hold it for me.
Next evening we went to get it, and they were out of everything except mine!
Pennsylvania allows long gun transfers as gifts, but Wifey wanted to do the paperwork in her name. I wrote out the check for the rifle, 2 extra magazines, a red dot optic, and 100 rounds of 5.56 55 grain ammo. All told it was over 1/3 more $ than the same amount of stuff (minus the optic) cost when I got my Ruger A/R-5.56 4 years ago. I was still happy to get it!
I shot it in for her, but ain’t really had time to ring it out. So far, I think it’s a shooter, but a 1MOA red dot isn’t the best sight for shooting tiny groups!
She’s more concerned about minute of groundhog, or if necessary, minute of bad guy.
Anderson Manufacturing
I’ve been feeding mine store bought ammo, but with availability as it is in this current political climate, I’m thinking pretty hard about a set of dies. Any suggestions or thoughts?
7mm

Make sure it’s put together correctly.

Any dies will do. I use Lee and RCBS for .223.

I bought two Anderson lowers when the LGS had them on a deal 2 or 3 years ago. Replaced the triggers with Timney's, just because. Have used three different uppers on the two lowers. Zero issues with the Anderson lowers.

Get small base sizing die
I use RCBS

Congrats to the Wifey I hope she enjoys it immensely.

I'd quit thinking about dies and go get them now, availability is low as are components. I would also go back and get some more of that .223 ammo if you can because it's worth it's weight in gold right now.

Hornady dies. The have an elliptical expander and it doesn't stretch the case necks as bad when back them off the sizing die. Get a case trimmer too. ARs stretch the cases a bit and it's important not to let them get much over spec length.

I’d suggest first buying primers. If you can’t find them, the dues won’t do you any good. Component are getting scarce!

I think the trigger makes or breaks the shooting experience. I think a quality trigger is a great bang for the buck.

Did it come with a sticker for the back window of the F-150?

Yee haw

As long as it goes bang reliably.
It's GTG for gakking a mook.

AKA Poverty Pony to AR snobs but they seem to be a very reliable gun. Loading for them is easy. They will eat most any powder but metering the ball type or SC powder is a little easier for that small case. Don't be surprised but most load data is a compressed load with a 55gr. bullet.