Top 5 premium AR brands?

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redneck2 said:
I’m assuming that the BCG is an integral part of what makes a“quality” AR, obviously along with the barrel and trigger. I knew a guy that had a business that assembled about 250,000 BCG ‘s a year. At that time there was much chatter about nitride, shot peened, magnafluxed..........whatever. He supplied to many of the big name guys, including some of the very high dollar guys.

So anyway, I asked what the difference in the quality was. As far as BCG’s he said all his were identical
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The problem with these stories/claims is a number of the top tier manufactures have proprietary systems. Sorry that PSA sourced bolt will not work in a SR-15. etc. etc.
 
AlexanderA said:
Sure, you can spend a lot of money, but does that correspond with an equivalent increase in performance? 99% of users probably wouldn't notice any difference.
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^^^^This^^^^

What's the "top tier" automobile? Is it the most expensive, or the longest lasting? An Infinity is just a snooty Nissan. Perhaps Volvo or Saab? Tesla? And, what sort of automobile? Sports coupe, sedan, Crossover? Gasoline, diesel, or hybrid? Perhaps a 1/2 ton medium-bed pickup?

"AR" encompasses all of those choices easily. Is a $5000 AR twice as good as two $2500 ARs? Or five $1K ones? Or ten $500 examples? Dunno. Only the individual can answer that.
 
1) No, S&W are not "top tier". They do, however, seem to be the recent go-to, completely assembled, rifle purchased by mass shooters.

2) Based on a recent thread in General Discussion, it may be our own Gunny; not many of the companies previously mentioned in this thread make and sell $8000 rifles as he did.

3) I'm partial to Stag unfinished lowers and then build my own. Why? Because I'm a lefty and Stag marks both sides of the lower for safety positions, making my ambi and right-sided safeties easy to set. And I've done 8 or 10 builds and they all match tight as a fiddle with their uppers.
 
I have no clue, I only wanted 1 "fighting" rifle and about 8 years ago the best I could put physical hands on was a Daniel defense. It's a great rifle and I haven't needed any other - one and done for me. The rest of my money will go for lever actions and revolvers .
 
Varminterror said:
Really gotta define what makes an AR a premium product…

“Elite tier” models generally agreed on arfcom are largely ONLY fighting carbines, with near zero relevance for civilian context. Premium fighting carbines, sure. Any other use? Eh.

For example, if a guy wants the best of the best for CMP/Highpower, Compass Lake or White Oak built rifles own the day, with Fulton filling a large niche - and “fighting rifles” like DD, Noveske, and LMT won’t even make a showing. If a guy wants a Go-Fast 3 gun rifle, JP, Seekins, Taran, etc come to the roster. Pursuing PRS gas gun division after the idea came to you during an acid trip? GA Precision (and I would personally put Mike Milli’s work against anything).

And of course, in all instances, shooters needing extreme performance in any of these pursuits will be best served by a custom, purpose built AR with individualized (subjectively preferred and individually fit) furniture.
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This gets to the crux of the question: how many AR owners are involved in any kind of organized competition? Maybe 1% out of millions of owners? I agree that for those 1%, a "bespoke" rifle might offer a competitive advantage. Not so for the ordinary mortals. A $600 "parts gun" might serve their purposes perfectly well.
 
My opinion, which is only that, is that the “top tier” is far more crowded than at any other time in the AR’s history. What stands out will be specific features that a person finds important whether it’s an LMT BCG or a Geissele trigger pre-installed.

There are only a handful of companies, some of them long time players, who are happy to race toward the bottom as competition tightens.

If I could have my pick of rifles, I’d chose SOLGW for an all around defense carbine, Seekins for a good looking and reasonably accurate hunting/paper punched, and a custom if competition demanded it.
 
I can't confirm this story but I have no reason to doubt the person that told it to me. He was a marketing/product manager for DPMS and he told the story of a market survey that was contracted with a third party marketing research firm. One of the questions on that fairly larger market survey of potential gun buyers was, "Who make the best AR-15 currently on the market?" S&W was ranked at or very near the top. The amusing part was this market research survey was conducted more than a year before S&W released their first AR based firearm. :rofl:


But the customer is always right.... :D
 
AlexanderA said:
This gets to the crux of the question: how many AR owners are involved in any kind of organized competition? Maybe 1% out of millions of owners? I agree that for those 1%, a "bespoke" rifle might offer a competitive advantage. Not so for the ordinary mortals. A $600 "parts gun" might serve their purposes perfectly well.
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For those folks, those words like “top teir” or “high performance,” or “best” doesn’t mean much, if anything at all.

But as you’re pointing out, a bespoke rifle - a parts gun, rather than a factory offering - tends to best fit the objective needs and subjective desires of all AR buyers, at all levels.
 
A higher end barrel with 5.56mm chamber, good bolt that closes snugly on a "go-gauge" and a decent trigger is all you need to build the foundation of a good gun.
I do my own triggers, my plan was to murder cheap hammers and trigger until I figured it out. Depending on how quickly you want to knock them out you need surprisingly little tooling.
 
Why not build your own with top tier parts? I have no clue about them never built one only owned two. A Ruger and bushmaster. The Ruger blew the bushmaster out of the water. But the bushmaster was used.
 
With alot of AR manufacturers, trying to differentiate in terms of quality is like taking 150 Glock 17's but branding each one differently and then trying to determine which is the best. Many use the same parts, suppliers, guts, etc....

Of course there are tiers of quality, but narrowing the premiums down to 5, and getting 5 people to agree, would probably be impossible.

I'm not even in touch with or familiar with anything that would be considered the best in the competition realm, I would guess LaRue would probably be in that top 5 but I wouldn't know and am probably wrong. I have a pretty good bead on some of the top grade options of off the rack duty grade AR's that are sometimes called Gucci rifles, or some consider the "best", but I think best is too subjective.

I like BCM.....:D
 
aaaaa said:
So I searched Startpage.com for Best AR-15s and the first four hits all include the S&W in their top picks. So I guess best and top tier must be different worlds.
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aaaaa said:
Yep, there I go, out of this thread, because here I am in way over my head. o_O
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Internet search engine top choices are always slanted weird due to advertising, bloggers, gunwriters, webstore content, etc.

Don't worry too much about it, though. There are times it's best to sit back and take in the info at places like THR and process it with other info. That's what I do when it comes to many things in the gun world. Especially ARs.
 
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What purpose is your AR?

A hardcore home defense AR can be quite lowly. Cheap melonite or chrome barrel. KISS or 1x redot and BUIS is fine.

A race carbine with a LPVO is another deal.

You've got, in order of cheap to expensive:

KISS carbines- ex: Colt 6920

1x red dot carbines - Springfield Saint Victor

Carbines with super tough, but more accurate barrels- Larue, KAC, Noveske.

LPVO rifle- Maybe an expensive tough barrel, maybe a precise SS barrel, adjustable gas block, 18"+ rifle gas, adjustable buffers and springs. Race guns. JP, Odin Works.

SPR- varmeter with more powerful optic. AR10 etc.
 
LiveLife said:
When I was in the Army working in our unit's armory, I was not impressed with "Mil Spec" often indicative of cheapest/lowest cost suppliers that barely met specifications. (And why this medic was "volunteered" to work in the armory as brand new "mil spec" weapons (1911 mostly) didn't work reliably and armory staff had to make them reliable.

So government awarding mil spec contract doesn't mean it's the "best" quality but minimally met required specifications - https://hansandcassady.org/UnderstandingMilitarySpecificationStandardRequirements.pdf
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This is true. And a lot of civilians think that just because something meets "Mil Spec" that is it the best. Being Mil Spec does not make something the best. Yes the majority of M16A2 rifles and M4 carbines are all made by Colt or FN and are good to go. But they ship out lemons just like every other company. I have seen some weapons systems and equipment that were total garbage and should never have been accepted for military use too.

I do believe that @entropy was an 45B (armorer) also. And I am sure he will agree with us. And as a 44E (machinist) I worked a lot with unit armorers to repair weapons. I was even allowed to do some depot level maintenance on weapons while stationed in Germany. It was quicker for me to do the work versus sending stuff back to state side repair depots.

Outside of the military, law enforcement, and competitors a sub $1000 AR will suit the majority of AR owners just fine. And there are plenty of good ones to choose from in this price range. Again it all depends on your intended uses. The main things to look at are a quality barrel along with a properly heat treated and tested bolt carrier group. As far as the upper and lower receiver goes, there are only a hand full of companies that actually make the raw receivers. So the only differences is the attention to detail when the different companies do the finish machine work.

That being said, if you want what you feel is the best, by all means get what you want.
 
nobody has owned all of them, so lists are only so useful because most of the opinions are conjecture

based on what I own, have/owned:

1. Larue
looks and feels like a million bucks
everything is tight like it was hand fit
reliable
shoots tiny coin sized groups

2. JP
lots of innovation that works, if you want it
Larue-like quality and finishing
reliable
shoots tiny coin sized groups

3. PWS
liked my first so much I bought a second
reliable
mod 2-m is one of the best looking receiver sets IMO
gas piston operation that is as reliable as DI
superior AR platform suppressor host
offers NATO death squad tier fit finish and performance at mid tier price

4. Daniel Defense
nothing special to look at, makes you wonder why it's twice as much as a Colt or BCM
reliable
performs almost like a Larue and all of a sudden you're less butthurt over how much it cost
at the end of the day if I have DD money to spend I am getting something else
that said, you cannot fault how they function

5. Spike's Tactical
nothing special to look at
reliable
shoots 2+ moa
sits squarely in the Colt/BCM tier of affordable carbines you can bet your life on
 
Like 12Bravo20 said, milspec is a minimum requirement to be met. The good ARs far exceed milspec. I will also agree with him that the barrel and the BCG are what matters most. After that I'd say FCGs. While the milspec parts there are serviceable, you can buy a lot better trigger for a little money.
Some spend on ergo 'improvements', 45 degree/ambi safeties, extended/ambi mag and or bolt releases. I've fired M16A1's and A2's left handed, and adapting to the issue controls was not a problem for me. I'd rather invest more in the barrel and the BCG, then FCG, then optics.
 
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