What ar 15 should i buy

Home defense. The AR is a good choice for home protection. Magazine Size: What is Legal? Key Takeaway Determine your purpose for purchasing the rifle. Some common purposes for purchasing an AR include target shooting, hunting, home defense, and competition.

See if the company has a satisfying reputation. Look for a great warranty or guarantee to save you from encountering issues in the future. That quality sight would have lasted practically forever, and come with a lifetime warranty. But I realized that I was encouraging the wrong line of thought.

There is a point of diminishing returns in the AR world. Sure, you can spend a lot more than that. If a manufacturer starts advertising too far below that price, then you have to ask what compromises they are making to get there. But if you ever suspect that you might be in a position where the rifle going bang every time you pulled the trigger is important to you, then you should consider spending a little more.

By that, I mean starting with a proven reliable configuration to serve as our model. Toyota designed, tested, and has proven that each component on the vehicle operates reliably for years upon years. Some folks want to add more lights, racks, bumpers, lift kits, suspension, and other mods.

All of these things make for a more capable and fun vehicle, but the tradeoff has to come from somewhere. A supercharger adds power, but stresses the engine. Lift kits and larger tires add ground clearance and off road prowess, but shorten the life of other drivetrain components.

To summarize, every step you take away from the original design introduces variation and complexity that has drawbacks elsewhere, many have negative long term effects. I think the AR is similar to this. For most of modern small arms history, there was a persistent belief that infantry rifles needed to fire the most powerful cartridges that could be tolerated by the average man. Such requirements usually included the ability to make aimed hits at yards and still take a target down.

As far back as the s, there was a competing theory that a smaller and lighter bullet moving at high velocity was able to deliver most of the terminal capability of a larger bullet at relatively short distances, such as to yards. Kent published a report backing the theory with evidence and hypothesized about future development.

Casualties from aimed small arms fire almost all happened within yards, and almost never happened beyond yards. Beyond that, it was essentially as random as shrapnel from artillery or a grenade. The most important factor for whether or not someone is shot is how long they are exposed and how quickly the shooter can aim and fire. To survive meant being lighter and quicker, and to be effective meant improving sight acquisition and rate of accurate fire. By those standards, Hitchman theorized that the ideal infantry weapon would be lightweight and effective up to yards for aimed fire.

Around this same time, Armalite designs the AR rifle around the newly-adopted 7. Through the use of new manufacturing methods, lightweight aluminum, and composite materials, Armalite is able to reduce the weight of the heavy-hitting rifle. It unsuccessfully competes against the M rifle for adoption by the US Army.

But the lightweight rifle made an impression, and Armalite eventually gets a request to scale the AR down so that it shoots the lighter and faster experimental.

The rifle is ideally suited to combat at less than yards, but still effective to a bit beyond that. This is eventually the M, and the primary specs of being lightweight and primarily used as a general purpose rifle for up to yards serves as our baseline. I started developing this concept several years ago when interest in the AR began spiking among my friends and coworkers. The suggestion that follows is the result of nearly ten years of experimentation, competition, training, and study.

The minimum capable carbine is one that reliably performs most tasks well. This gives you time to learn the ins and outs of the platform and develop your skills with a rifle that grows with you. This AR carries well, has good accuracy, and always fires as long as a basic maintenance routine is kept. It is equally suited to home defense as it is carrying on a hike through the woods.

But before that, the question will come up:. When I started out, buzz said was that it was cheaper to build your first AR The idea was that you could buy the exact parts that you wanted and assemble them. The hidden costs added up. From shipping all the individual parts to all the extra tools that I had to buy to complete the assembly.

On top of that, I still had to pay someone else to assemble the upper correctly. I watched them do it and always questioned whether they did it right.

To date, that upper has been rebuilt three times. That kind of money could have bought me a KAC SR or some other very high-quality rifle out of the box. These days, there are so many good manufacturers making such a wide variety of rifles that it is silly to choose the individual part selection route for a first rifle. My suggestion, especially for your first AR, is to buy a complete rifle from a good manufacturer. These manufacturers produce a good product right around the sweet spot price point.

If you still have the itch to build, then you should buy a stripped lower receiver to finish. Then pick up a complete upper from one of the mentioned manufacturers. Several years ago, a gentleman by the name of Rob S put together the infamous Chart.

These specs contributed to the reliability and performance of the rifle. In the years since the chart went public, the gun buyers got smarter and more demanding about what they wanted. In response, manufacturers started touting their compliance, lest they be seen as inferior. These days, the chart is long gone, and nearly all those specs show up on every AR sold. That made it more difficult to tell the difference between a good quality AR and a lesser quality one by only looking only at the spec sheet.

That said, I want to run down the key specification points and offer some tips. This is not a comprehensive detailed breakdown. Each of these topics has their own associated blog post getting into more detail. Choosing your barrel is a stressful decision for most beginners. There are simply a lot of options out there.

I highly suggest you check out the full piece on choosing an AR barrel , which prepares you for making this decision.

Get it with a chrome lined bore and fixed front sight. This combination is the most versatile for people who own only one AR and need it to do lots of things well. The length primarily affects the velocity and balance of the rifle. Velocity has a huge impact on the trajectory of the bullet as well as its effective range. They targeted these towards competition shooters since heavy barrels tended to be more accurate. Their extra mass also helps put up with higher volumes of fire.

The accuracy thing is interesting. But if this is your first AR then you are not likely to take advantage of the increased capability. Otherwise, you are better served by learning the rifle and shooting out the first barrel as you practice.

That will take about 20, rounds. For most people, that represents may years of shooting, if they ever get there. A lightweight profile puts up with plenty of abuse while also being easier to carry and maneuver. Weight matters. There are a lot of barrel steels out there.

It has a bit more durability for use in firearms due to its higher carbon content. Stainless barrels are often used in precision rifles. Historically, stainless barrels were easier to machine and polish, while also being more resistant to corrosion. That means manufacturers shorten their supply chain and produce more consistently machined barrels. Stainless barrels come with some risks in durability, particularly in very cold weather.

For that reason, stay away from lightweight profile stainless barrels. They should always be a medium profile or heavier. If you want to go the stainless route, then buy one made from or r stainless. If you plan to use the rifle in below freezing weather, then stick to r. The compromise is that nitrided barrels are much less heat tolerant of high rates of fire.

This applies more to fully automatic rather than your regular semi-auto rifle. I know there are nitrided stainless barrels out there on the market. Be cautious here, since the temperature used for nitriding is very close to that used for tempering a barrel.

For more information here, read my article all about barrel nitriding. Look for a twist rate of or Some cheaper barrels have a twist rate, which work fine for shooting bulk ammo in the 55gr to 62gr range. But if you ever want to use the heavier and more accurate 77gr family of bullets, then you need the faster twist. If you want more detailed information about selecting the right twist rate for your rifle, head over to my article all about rifle twist rates.

Some people are particularly passionate about this. They are usually lighter, plenty durable, cheaper, and replaceable. I usually find them more comfortable as well since the shape is ergonomic and internal heat shields help protect my hand after lots of shooting.

Rails come in either free floated or non-free floated format. These days, I see no reason at all to have a non-free floated rail system. There are several well-made rails on the market that are even lighter than plastic handguards. AR triggers are a highly personal thing, and everyone has their own preferences. I suggest reading my longer article about AR trigger selection as a follow-up to this. All of those are great triggers.

I love my nice triggers, but I also realize they circumvented the process of learning to squeeze the trigger well. Lighter triggers are not a replacement for poor fundamentals. A practiced shooter can take any trigger and use it effectively.

Get a decent mil-spec trigger and practice. To be honest, this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Far too many people are getting too complicated with this. If one of those applies to you, then cool.

Take your pick, as they all work about the same, and will cause you and everyone else the same amount of headache when you shoot it near them. The stock is one of those things that most people take for granted.

If you are buying a complete rifle, it probably comes with a pretty good stock already out of the box. Shoot it and enjoy it. The only criticism against the company is that they struggle to keep up with the demand for their products , so it's hard to find their complete ARs in stock.

In addition to their own website , you may also want to check out Brownells. It has a mid-length gas system and an A2 pinned front sight block. The barrel is 16" twist rate and made of chrome moly vanadium steel. Over the barrel is a standard M4 mid-length drop in handguard with heat shield.

The Aero Precision-built lower has a flared magwell , a standard Mil-Spec buffer system, and a standard M4 collapsible stock. Aero Precision also makes the regular AC , with a carbine-length gas system and handguard. The M4E1 from Aero Precision is more my style, with a free-float handguard over its 16" barrel.

You can choose the length of your handguard at check out. The creator of the military's M4 Carbine, Colt, has long been known for making fantastic ARs for civilian use. While some manufactures have arguably been more innovative in recent years, many gun owners continue to go back to Colt as a name they can trust.

With it's fixed front sight base and traditional handguard, the Colt LE is a more classic-looking AR It has a twist 16" chrome-lined barrel , an A2 flash hider, and a carbine-length gas system. Unlike most of the rifles on our list, it also comes with a rear Magpul flip-up sight.

As you may be able to tell from our other top picks, I'm not the biggest fan of fixed front sight bases. I prefer to run a red dot with backup flip-up front and rear sights see the best red dot sights here.

Still, many others like the dependability of a fixed front sight, so go for it if that's your thing. This is the lightest complete "full-sized" AR from a manufacturer that I've seen, at just 4. While it likely isn't the absolute lightest available, Faxon hasn't done anything too gimmicky to get it below the 5 lb mark. The FX has a All parts of the upper are made by Faxon—including the lightweight bolt carrier group—with the exception of the Radian Raptor LT ambi charging handle.

Faxon used more parts from other manufactures for the lower, but chose wisely. Last to note is, like the Daniel Defense rifles, the FX has an ambi safety selector. I own one of these and love it , but there's a few things to know before spending this much on the FX My Faxon FX First off, the good: If you haven't experienced shooting a sub-5 lb rifle, the difference between this and a 6 lb rifle is really noticeable.

It feels extremely light, yet it's remarkably easy to shoot, in part due to the 3-port muzzle brake. Rock River Arms were founded in They have been steadily earning a solid reputation as an AR manufacturer ever since. With a hogue grip and A2 flash hider, the LAR is comfortable to use, accurate and built to last. The inch carbine length barrel has a twist rate, and is coated in a very rust and corrosion resistant Armornite finish.

The firing pin is chromed for superior durability and longevity. A very lightweight carbine at just under seven pounds. The Saint Victor is most noted for its Accu-Tite tension bonded flat top forged upper receiver.

The inch carbine length barrel is built out of a nice Melonite finish that is very rust and corrosion resistant. Meanwhile, the free floating inch hand-guard shields both the barrel and the mid-length gas system. A muzzle brake on the end of the barrel helps to reduce both recoil and muzzle rise. The bolt carrier group is built out of a very durable steel.

Spring loaded flip up sights also come installed on the rifle for rapid deployment. Both the upper and lower receivers are built out of a high quality aircraft grade aluminum. There are a host of great resources out there that give even more specific info about how to shoot an AR properly. How to maintain them, and how some AR models could be better for certain purposes than others.

The world of ARs is vast and we can only fit too much info on a single article. Please let me know in the comments below! Hi there, I'm Will and I'll be your guide. Here at Gun News Daily, we support guns for self defense and and competitive shooting. We believe that America should be free and support the 2nd Amendment.

I share your fondness for the MOE handguards. Pls advise. Just curious if you picked up the Saint or did you decide to go with another and are you happy with your decision? What an informative nicely written narrative for those like me looking to purchase their first AR CY Armory. Nicely written! How do I send my grandchildren to school. Sorry guys this hobby will doom us all. There is no hope left. Switzerland reguires citizens to own a gun and provide free training and they have the lowest crime rate in the world!

Switzerland regulates guns. I am of an age where I remember when the NRA was an organization focused on gun safety. I left the NRA because I was tired of being duped. And how does not banning guns work…have you looked at the United States?

Are you ok with you having to think about you and your loved ones safety every time they leave the house? Nice straw man argument. Guns are heavily-regulated, from manufacture to sale. So, what specific regulations DO you really want? Regulations on guns just keep honest people honest. Criminals get their hands on any kind of gun out their.

Read the CDC website on how many lives are saved annually due to someone protecting theirselves with a gun. If deaths per year are due to gun violence half that many are suicides.

But dont take my word for it. Check the CDC report on it. My whole point is. STOP blaming guns and start blaming criminals who get them. Stiffer penalties for ALL violent crimes should be mandatory. Lets compare numbers of fatalities because of drunk driving. Does that mean we should ban beer? Or Cars???? The government will never take my right to defend myself, my family, or my home. They or anyone else who wants to try will have to kill me to take mine away. I believe that without the second amendment.

The first amendment would carry no weight. Because if we allowed ANY politician, especially someone like 44 Obozo to disarm us. We would lose the right to protect free speech and would become another Venezuela..

Your grandchildren are about eight times more likely to be killed by lightning than they are in a school mass shooting. You obviously buy your game in the supermarket. And an AR fires no slower or faster than any other semi-auto rifle. Please become educated about a subject before spouting off on it. Possibly a chipmunk?

In fact, I will argue you will have trouble finding the entry hole IF you actually kill the animal with it. No right is absolute. I have 6 sons that are now or were in school. I believe that when i was young and someone brought a gun to school we worked on it in shop 8th grade , and we all had pocket knives. No one shot anyone or stabbed anyone. We had guns in racks in our truck with a shotgun and rifle in it.