AR-15 BS Thread

I have a Sig 516 and love it. I did have to send it back to Sig for them to re-cut and throat the chamber and polish the feed ramp as it was shaving tiny pieces of brass off the case.

 

No experience with the Sig, but DD makes fantaic rifles. I have a Mk18 from them that is very accurate out to 500 easily.

 

I'd go BCM all day in that price range... Hell you can even get an American Defense Manufacturing UIC-15 for less than $2k, that's a pretty top tier rifle. You can get a lot of AR for less than $2k. Rebel Arms Mod 3 is another good one.

 

I've heard tons of good things about DD which is starting to make me lean towards them more and more...

I've also heard alot of good things about BCM. Haven't heard about the other two but I will definitely look into them!

Are there any specific features that I should look for? I've already decided that a free float barrel is a must, but other things like gas systems are unfamiliar to me

 

BCM is the gold standard these days, a true "working mans rifle". No frills, just high quality. BCM holds many military and Leo contracts for very good reason. It should be noted that DD lost many of its contracts for... reasons. I have 3 BCMs in various lengths, fantastic rifles. Usually around $1500.

ADM is another very high end company. Their AR's are fully ambidextrous, including right sided bolt-catch/release and left sided mag release. They sport Criterion barrels and Radian small parts, really excellent rifles. I also have two of these. They cost around $400 more than the BCM, though.

Rebel Arms is more of a "Gucci" rifle, lots of nice machining, lots of popular parts. If you want the "coolest looking" AR, this is the one. Rebel does not make any of their own parts, the rifle is more a branded collaboration of a bunch of high quality parts manufacturers. They are however high quality rifles, they cost around $200 more than the BCM.

You're going to get a free float barrel in basically any AR in the price range you are looking at.
Everything comes down to personal preference. Again, the price range you are in gets you a lot of AR, you can't really go THAT wrong. There are things to look for as far as value goes; ambidextrous controls, quality small parts (safeties, charging handles, etc), quality furniture (Magpul stock, grip, etc). Mid-length gas is the most popular at the moment for 14.5"-16" rifles, it offers a smoother shooting rifle without sacrificing any reliability.

 

Care to elaborate on the reasons DD lost contracts or point me in the direction of some info related to it?

I'm in the same boat as @silverbullet02 and I'm narrowing in on a DDM4 V7. A BCM Recce 16 KMR-A has been a serious contender for my money - really the only other one besides a DD. I was set on it at one point but I've backed off it in favor of the DDM4 V7. Reasons being mostly 2nd cool. MLOK, furniture, CHF, all in house parts, etc.

 

I do not know why, sorry if it seemed like I was implying that I did
I don't even know to what extent they lost their contracts, there's grumblings that DD has been on a downhill slope on build quality, whether or not that's true is debatable. I'm sure that's been said about just about every rifle maker at one point or another. In reality, it probably came down to cost more than anything, much like everything else the government does.

I definitely don't have anything against Daniel Defense as a whole, but I would surely take a BCM instead at nearly the identical price point.
Also, the BCM's are now offered in M-Lok, with CHF barrels, and in mine and most others opinion have superior furniture as well

I have had some pretty crappy experience's with DD small parts, though. DD gas blocks not fitting on their own barrels, rails not clearing milspec receivers, etc.

 

I had heard about some of the "reasons" relating to DD which is why I was shying away from them... I don't care much for "coolest looking," so I think in my mind its between Sig and BCM in my mind now. I did see the torture test on the Sig 516 and was very impressed, although I have feeling most quality ARs would be able to handle the same thing. I've heard a lot of debate between Direct Impingement Gas system and Gas Piston systems, is there really a big difference short of sending thousands of rounds without cleaning?

Interesting... did Sig charge anything for this outside of shipping charges?

 

Hm interesting. I appreciate the insight. Will have to look into the BCM's again. I'm the weird one when it comes to DD furniture. No doubt most people don't like it but I do for whatever reason.

 

I have a couple of BCM rifles all of them solid. My DD rifle is a bit more accurate and the fitment of upper and lower is much tighter then BCM. My DD is a few years old so I don't know if they have had any issues lately, but I have always used there lower part kits in my builds.You really can't go wrong with either. I personally stay away from piston ARs as I want interchangeability with any AR in my safe. Most if not all piston systems are propriety. And you can definitely put 1,000 or more rounds in a direct impingement without cleaning as long as you lube the bolt and carrier.

 

I'm really surprised nobody has spoken up about LMT AR15's You guys are missing out on a really assume Super high quality AR. And don't get me wrong DD does make very good rifle, no doubt about it! but dollars for dollars, Id take a look at the LMT lineup. I did, saved a little bit of money, and I ended up with them instead of DD

 

If you are going to spend $1,500 to $2,000 on an AR I would recommend just building your own. You will end up with higher quality parts for the same price. It is literally as easy as building something with legos and doesnt require too many specialty tools.

 

Quite nice. I admit I hadn't seen these before. Appreciate the heads up. Wish they had weights listed on their website though.

 

There's so many quality AR manufacturers out there these days it impossible to list them all... LMT is another big one.

I don't necessarily agree with that... Buying a complete factory rifle you are much more likely to get a rock solid platform that you could depend on with your life. Most people don't have the knowledge, tools or ability to properly assemble an AR.
Can you stake a castle nut? Pin a gas block? Do you have an inch pound and foot pound torque wrench to torque everything to spec? Castle nut wrench? How many front takedown pin springs/detents will you lose before getting the pin in place? Not saying you can't go that route... I assemble AR's on a weekly basis. Just saying, most people aren't in the position to do it PROPERLY themselves.
There's also something to be said about an AR built from all the same manufactures parts... sometimes different makers parts just don't work well together.
In the end, there's not really much money to be saved either... if you're piecing one together so that you can go cheaper on certain parts like the LPK, Buffer kit, etc, then you're not really getting a $1500+ quality AR then are you?

 

I told you they had some sweet shit! LOL

 

you’ve have seen mine on here, it’s the one with the camouflage but stock that Hickok 45 signed

 

When a person buys one of them, a full size torque wrench actually comes with it to lock down the barrel/free floating handguard

 

That must be now that it comes with the case, when I got mine, it didn’t.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said here, but I still contend that many people do have the knowledge, tools, and ability to properly assemble an AR or can learn/buy what they need fairly easily. Also I dont think you have to cheap out on certain parts when assembling your own rifle to keep in that same price range while using high end components elsewhere in the build. Whenever you buy an assembled rifle from the manufacturer a large part of your cash is going to pay for the labor it took for it to be assembled, capital costs for the armorer's tools, overhead costs such as rent on their office/warehouse space, etc. as well as profit to keep that company in business. When you assemble your own AR you dont have to pay for all of that. You can spend that money on your own tools and quality parts for the entire build.

 

All those costs are also incurred on every single individual part you would buy individually. Where the added cost comes from on a complete rifle, is the 15% tax paid to the government for each individual complete rifle sold. There is no such taxes on individual parts or even lowers, just on complete firearms.
I've built somewhere between 15 and 20 AR's in the last year. I'm speaking from experience that in general although you can build an AR as cheap/expensive as you want, if your intent is to build a rifle to the exact quality of an available factory rifle that it is unlikely that you will save much money.

This is a rifle project I just finished up for Primary Arms. The build list hit $3600 without the optic... I'd take a factory built high end rifle like the Radian Mod 1, ADM UIC-15 Mod 2, etc, any day if I had the choice.