who makes a good ar-15

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madmike38

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i'm going to buy an ar-15 in the upcoming months, but i don't know who's,rock river arms is tops on the list. bushmaster and dpms. are also on the list, kind of in the info gathering stage right now,any ideas, comments or suggestions, would be helpful.
thanks, mike.
 
I'd rank your three Rock River first, then DPMS and Bushmaster. All are good. Caution: You should check for availability before ordering...a dealer may be able to sell out of stock. Most current production is going to the military and law enforcement. I placed an order through the Ft. Benning Rifle and Pistol Club with Rock River for a 20" flat-top Varmint upper nearly three months ago...no delivery date as yet...:cuss:
 
Colt, Colt, Colt...While any company can produce a lemon every now and then (and they usually do) Colt is the standard by which the rest are judged. I'm sure this post will be greeted with howls of protest from fans of the other manufacturers. You'll hear that everyone buys their parts from the same subcontractors. That's true, but only Colt has to buy parts for their military production weapons, FN does too, but you can't buy an FN AR because their contract doesn't allow them to sell on the civilian market. Anyone who is selling you FN uppers or other parts is either selling stolen government property or trying to committ fraud. Do you think it's possible that the other manufaturers get the parts that Colt and FN reject. Not that there is anything at all wrong with most of them, but they might not meet the spec for use in a military rifle.

Rock River is building a good AR as long as you can live with a 1/9 twist barrel.

Bushmaster makes a good AR, but they have some serious quality control problems at the factory. They do ship weapons without staking down the carrier key. They have excellent customer service but it is a pain to send the rifle back to them for repair. They also only do 1/7 twist barrels as special order so you are limited to 1/9 twist.

Armalite has no big issues I'm aware of but I think they are a little expensive.

LMT and some of the newer companies in the market show a lot of promise.

Stay away from Olympic Arms, ASA etc.

Jeff
 
Does Rock River make any that weigh under 7 lbs? I was looking at the Bushmaster Superlight series because the barrel is lightweight. I want to build or buy a complete rifle that is short and light.
 
If you are going to build it You have lots of options
RRA makes great stuff just built one, very light weight
Colt is always a good thing but everyone else has closed the gap and some are better (did I type that)
 
TooTaxed said:
I'd rank your three Rock River first, then DPMS and Bushmaster. All are good. Caution: You should check for availability before ordering...a dealer may be able to sell out of stock. Most current production is going to the military and law enforcement. I placed an order through the Ft. Benning Rifle and Pistol Club with Rock River for a 20" flat-top Varmint upper nearly three months ago...no delivery date as yet...:cuss:
Click to expand...

+1

Rock River, you should see their 1911s, SWEET.
 
Can't go wrong with A,B,C, D or R's
(Armalite) (Bushy) (Colt) (DPMS) , (RockRiver)

Like you, I researched all of them and decided on the RRA. Just make sure you spec the chrome-lined barrel...not the chrome-moly one that'll be standard.


Lex in NC
 
+1 for Colt.

Also take a look at www.ar15.com - lots of info on the various manufacturers. Take the info there with a grain of salt, the guys can be a little rough on each other, especially in the Colt vs. Bushmaster vs. Rock River debate :D

I've got a 6920 that is amazing...goes bang everytime with any ammo I feed it and I would definitely trust it for SHTF.

My next AR will also be a Colt, most likely a 6721.
 
I'm not a Colt Kool-Aid drinker (nor do I play one on TV) but I have found Colt to be the best maker of AR-15 type rifles by a fairly wide margin. I have had good and bad experiences with AR's manufactured by Bushmaster (mostly good, but inconsistent QC will keep me away from now on), Armalite (poor construction) and DPMS (OK, but little nagging problems). My Colts, both pre-ban and post-ban, have been exceptional performers and I have yet to have a malfuction in any of them over many, many thousands of rounds. I feel they are well worth the slight premium over the other brands, and hold their value very well if one chooses to sell.

HTH,
vanfunk
 
I've owned several and handled many... Taking all factors into consideration, my preferences run the following:

1. LMT (DSA is LMT, but with a much higher price tag.
2. Colt LE models (I personally wouldn't buy their civilian models)
3. Bushmaster
4. RRA

I wouldn't hesitate to own any of the above at a good price; they are all good. Personally I've never owned an AR that didn't function flawlessly though.
 
I have only owned one, but fired a couple brands. I have an Armalite M15A4. The first 300 rounds had me scared, as it was acting up badly. After that initial break-in, cleaning and lubing, it runs like a top. I would trust it in SHTF
 
I also subscribe to the A,B,C,D, or R rule. Well done Lex - ya beat me to it. :D

Some other interesting makers out there who show promise as also has been pointed out.

The only advice I'd caution ya against are those who espouse any one maker as being markedly better than any other. Not true with ARs at all - despite what any Coltaid drinker wants ta tell ya.
 
Bushmaster First, then Rock River Arms a close Second,

Colt however much,"the standard setter", it is still just an AR, with M4 feed ramps, and absurdly overpriced weapon, IMHO. You can get a Bushmaster that is just as spec as the Colt, minus the M4 feed ramps, oversized pins(if they still do this:cuss: ) and it will hold value almost as well. My Rock River lower, for my PDW build, is a Little tight, or it could be outta spec parts, but it is flawless. Will hold it's value almost as well as a Busmaster or Colt...

I don't have the M4 feed ramps, on either my Bushie or Rock River, but only the Bushmaster has had a single feeding problem. My own stupid fault for taking Varmint rounds that had a star pattern opening at the front,(apparently designed for a bolty) and would load the first round fine, but the second round would jam up against the mag's front,compressing the bullet into the case. Threw the rest of the bunch in a drawer as single shot ammor when bored..Jacketed hollow points, softpoints, and of course FMJ, all feed with no problem in both weapons. I haven't tried ballistic tips yet...

I don't like the idea of paying extremely exhorbinant prices to a company that only grudgingly sells to the commercial market, and with overblown prices because they possess government contracts, and are the current pattern holder of the M4... I hear Armilite is good, but have no personal experience.
 
AR-15s

MY PD bought Bushmasters back in 2002. We received them in September.

[I recommended that they buy Colt A3s in January. They didn't make a decision until May, and at that time none of the Colt distributors we talked to could promise a delivery date, because of all the military orders. Rather than wait, our management team at the time (all since retired, thank god) decided we had to be in a hurry to make up for the fact they couldn't make a damn decision for five months. (We were also the victim of some deliberate dis-information from a local distributor that was dropped by Colt and began distributing DPMS, but not knowing that was OUR fault -- we should've done more research)

We had a new gun right out of the box with a cracked barrel, and another with a cracked gas tube.

None of the gas keys were properly staked into the bolt carriers, and they keep shooting loose. The factory apparently bought a new machine to properly stake the gas keys in. We sent three bolt carriers in to get staked in late September and have not yet (as of 11/04) received them back.

The magazines have a tendency to split where they are pop-welded along the back seam. We have broke about half a dozen magazines in three years.

I have read anecdotes about Bushmaster bolts cracking after heavy use but have no personal knowledge of that and don't know anybody who has any personal knowledge of that.

The DPMS guns can be pretty rough but appear servicable. Several of the smaller PDs locally bought them.Several have had to send guns back because of various problems. I'd take a serious look at whatever you were considering buying.

The agencies locally that bought Colt AR-15A3s have been happy with them. I have not heard of any reliablity or maintenence issues with them. My next long gun is going to be a Colt A3. I have heard internet rumors about Colt's quality control being erratic at times, but I own 3 Colt rifles and have never had a problem with any of them (A plain vanilla AR I bought in 1977, an A2 I bought in 1990 and a 9mm carbine I bought in 1993). I don't know anybody personally who has had any problems with Colts, either.

Which is not to say that they NEVER have problems -- I just don't have any hard verifiable data based on my experiences or the experiences of anybody I know. This of course, does NOT mean that Colt's don't suffer from breakdowns and worn parts due to use. I dealt with M16s for 20 years in the National Guard, and for the last 9 years I was a CATM instructor in the ANG and did basic maintenence and repair on LOTS of Colts and FNs. Ejectors break, springs get weak, sometimes you find a gun where the chamber is eroded and have to pull the barrel (which I never did, since I wasn't trained to), etc. Any gun will break if you shoot it enough.

The fact that Colt does magnetic particle inspection of ALL of their parts does make me more confident.

A Sheriff's Dept to the south of us got Rock River Arms M-4s in the spring and so far they are very happy with them, but of course you can't really evaluate any weapons system until you've used it a quite a bit for three or five years.
 
I've had a colt 6920 for four years with thousands of round through it. had zero failures to date... ZERO. no parts breakage, no malfunctions, nothing. shot everything from gold medal match ammo to wolf and everything in between. Zero problems.

One of my friends bought a bushmaster M4 and has had two different parts break, and for some reason from time to time gets failure to feed problems. the gunstore he bought it from has torn it down several times and exchanged both mags and the problemm still creeps up from time to time. I even went so far as to loan him mags that I know work well in my colt and have even cleaned his bushmaster for him to make sure it wasn't something hes doing, but no fix yet. his has almost two thousand rounds through it and the same problems as when it was brand new.

so my suggestion from experience... COLT LE6920

everything else is just a wanna-be.... (flame suit on)..
 
Rock River Arms Carbine with midlength gas system.

Zero problems at 3100 rounds using XM855, XM193, Black Hills 68grHP,Winchester White Box 55gr FMJ.

I have never seen my buddies Bushmaster choke on anything.

A different friends built up AR has never choked. RRA and DPMS I believe.

My gun had an occasional problem with extraction with British mil surp (RadwayGreen). With all the flawless rounds of other stuff I would say it was ammo related.

Colts are good if ya got the cash.
 
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