I've been doing a lot of online research, trying to find a rifle that's right for my needs. I'm soon to be getting a new place, and wanted to celebrate by buying myself a semi-auto rifle (to complement my pump-action shotgun and 2 pistols).
From what I can tell, I want a 5.56mm/.223 rifle (I want something very mainstream, so it'd be easy to find the right parts, so it was this or a .308, and I'd rather start light). I shoot lefty, so I want something with ambidextrous controls. I'm fine with brass flying across my face (as long as it isn't hitting my face), but I want the ease of turning the safety on/off and releasing the magazine when I'm firing on the left side.
When I buy a weapon, I generally buy it for dual-purpose - plinking and home defense. While obviously I plan on doing the former almost exclusively, I want something that I can rely on in the later. I also want a quad-rail handguard, not so that I can "mall ninja" it out, but so that I can attach a few items I would consider necessary in an HD situation.
I've been strongly looking at what seems to be pretty popular with a lot of the new rifles, which is the gas-piston system (either short- or long-stroke).
Money isn't too big of an issue (I can always wait another month and save up), but if there's two models that fit my needs and one is significantly cheaper, I'll take the cheaper one.
Here are some of the rifles I have looked at:
POF P415 - Supposedly you don't even need to clean this one, and some of the reviews I've read have said people have tried to test this, and after 16k or more rounds, they had to clean it for another reason. Then there was the group that was firing on the full auto variant for over 1000 rounds (swapping magazines every 100) with the only malfunction caused by a jammed magazine. However, I've also seen a lot of negative reviews, but I'm not sure if those were older models (and its fixed on newer models) or if they still have problems.
FN SCAR - Looks awesome, ambi and all that, but I've heard in a CQB situation there is an issue with the bolt getting caught on cover, which is a turnoff for something doubling as an HD weapon.
Bushmaster ACR - Looks fairly promising, although I haven't read too much about this one.
AWS - The AWS rifles looked promising (long stroke system seems like it would wear less on itself), but none of the rifles I looked at had ambidextrous controls.
Ruger Mini-14 Tactical - Seems to be like an old pony with a new saddle, but a lot of soldiers I've heard wish they still used the M-14 instead of the M-16 (can't tell if this is due to the action or the caliber, however, as the mini-14 wouldn't change the later). Would be a lot cheaper than any of the others I listed, but is the quality there?
Anyway, I'm sure this ended up being a wall of text, but I was wondering if anyone had any first-hand experience with the rifles I mentioned, or any advice regarding other options I could pursue.
From what I can tell, I want a 5.56mm/.223 rifle (I want something very mainstream, so it'd be easy to find the right parts, so it was this or a .308, and I'd rather start light). I shoot lefty, so I want something with ambidextrous controls. I'm fine with brass flying across my face (as long as it isn't hitting my face), but I want the ease of turning the safety on/off and releasing the magazine when I'm firing on the left side.
When I buy a weapon, I generally buy it for dual-purpose - plinking and home defense. While obviously I plan on doing the former almost exclusively, I want something that I can rely on in the later. I also want a quad-rail handguard, not so that I can "mall ninja" it out, but so that I can attach a few items I would consider necessary in an HD situation.
I've been strongly looking at what seems to be pretty popular with a lot of the new rifles, which is the gas-piston system (either short- or long-stroke).
Money isn't too big of an issue (I can always wait another month and save up), but if there's two models that fit my needs and one is significantly cheaper, I'll take the cheaper one.
Here are some of the rifles I have looked at:
POF P415 - Supposedly you don't even need to clean this one, and some of the reviews I've read have said people have tried to test this, and after 16k or more rounds, they had to clean it for another reason. Then there was the group that was firing on the full auto variant for over 1000 rounds (swapping magazines every 100) with the only malfunction caused by a jammed magazine. However, I've also seen a lot of negative reviews, but I'm not sure if those were older models (and its fixed on newer models) or if they still have problems.
FN SCAR - Looks awesome, ambi and all that, but I've heard in a CQB situation there is an issue with the bolt getting caught on cover, which is a turnoff for something doubling as an HD weapon.
Bushmaster ACR - Looks fairly promising, although I haven't read too much about this one.
AWS - The AWS rifles looked promising (long stroke system seems like it would wear less on itself), but none of the rifles I looked at had ambidextrous controls.
Ruger Mini-14 Tactical - Seems to be like an old pony with a new saddle, but a lot of soldiers I've heard wish they still used the M-14 instead of the M-16 (can't tell if this is due to the action or the caliber, however, as the mini-14 wouldn't change the later). Would be a lot cheaper than any of the others I listed, but is the quality there?
Anyway, I'm sure this ended up being a wall of text, but I was wondering if anyone had any first-hand experience with the rifles I mentioned, or any advice regarding other options I could pursue.
