I want an EBR

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I don't know much about ARs and have been looking at a few and the price on some Olympic models caught my eye. Is Olympic a good manuacturer? I noticed they have a lifetime warranty. I'm looking at one with a collapsible stock and 16" chrome/moly lined barrel. Is 16" ok or would longer be better? It said it had an A2 upper, whatever that is and the price was in the low 700s. Please steer me in the right direction with your posts, I don't know didly.:)
 
:confused:

Do you mean "Enhanced Battle Rifle" or the Internetsque "Evil Black Rifle"?

I do not know about Olympics current state of production but if they were like the ones I tried in the early '80s I would avoid them.

Barrel length is a function of what you wish to do with the weapon. What do you wish to do?
 
Forget Olympic. There are better choices. Like RRA and Bushmaster. They cost a little bit more than $700, but it is definitely worth it.

Don't worry about the "lifetime warranty", that is more marketing than anything else. The advantage of a well known brand name is not warranty, but rather resale value.


The typical things that break or go wrong with an AR are far, far cheaper to buy locally and repair/replace yourself than it is to pay for insured UPS shipping + wait time to send it to the manufacturer.


One of the reasons I love the AR, is that with $60 in tools, I can fully gunsmith the entire rifle. Now, for small parts repair or replacement, you don't need all of that. It's one of those guns that doesn't really need to be sent back to the manufacturer unless there is something severely wrong with it, like canted gas block that you cannot fix yourself or something is out of spec, or something is warped/cracked.


What do you mean by shoot accurately? Do you plan on scoping the rifle and shooting from a bench or bipod to get small groups? If so, barrel selection will require attention. If you just mean accurate in general, the AR in any configuration is accurate enough for 300 yards, and I highly recommend getting a barrel in some type of GI-profile (lighter under handguards or lightweight in general).

Also the RRA comes with a very nice 2-stage trigger that will make your 300 yard range shooting so, so, so much more enjoyable and accurate.
 
FWIW, Olympic does not offer a chrome lined barrel, they are chrome/moly steel.
ETA: +1 for the RRA.
 
Some don't care about chrome lined, for me, it's a deal breaker if they don't offer it.


I'd do non-chromed only in a stainless match-grade barrel. Like a DCM rifle, a varmint/sniper rifle, or an SPR which has a SS match grade barrel. Situations where my goal would be to make the tinniest groups.


For everything else, go chrome.
 
Are you handy??

The best AR is your own.

Get a quality lower and good parts and you can build your own customized to your specs fairly inexpensively.

A good lower would be DPMS, STAG, Bushmaster, Rock River, Armalite, Colt, or even better pricewise a Cavalry Arms.

Then you can either buy a lower parts kit, and spec out whatever upper lower parts group you want. We have built several and quite frankly are now the ones that get shot the most. You can then buy a complete upper from J&T distributing or CMMG or the major manufacturers, or build your own.

AR15.com has some excellent articles on how to do this, and it really doesn't any special tools unless you do your own upper. Then you need a barrel wrench and an action block (good tools to have anyway). This way, you will know your gun inside, outside, and backwards. You will love it!!


Okay, just saw the competition comment. Assuming it is service rifle High Power, you will probably want a 20 inch stainless barrel with an A2 upper with the DCM legal free floated handguard.
 
Olympic is fine

There is nothing wrong with the quality of Olympic Arms weapons. They make everything in-house and stand behind their products. There are bigger manufacturers, and there are more famous ones with JBT endorsements, but if you can't afford of of those, Olympic will be a good choice.
 
I haven't heard much bad about Oly, I thought they were on the same page as Bushmaster.

DPMS and Stag have come up quite a bit recently, I've got a DPMS lower that I'm happy with. Stag is building parts for those snazzy SW M&P15s.

My favorite? I like RRA. Think you get the most for your money. Just my opinion though, it's not like I've owned (or could afford to own right now) some of the AR brands. No Colts for me. I believe RRA's DEA contract was the biggest one given to any of the AR manufacturers besides Colt.
 
If you want to go with Oly and want to shoot small groups, look at the K16 or K8. If your looking to build go for their SUM barrel.
 
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