Never owned one & haven't really fired such a platform since 1968. I can pick up a new Bushmaster XM15 A3 M4 Type Carbine locally. The rifle will be a defensive arm in work role but I'm sure it will be shot a bit on the range in fun role. At $734.00 out the door its in the budget. The catch is I know nothing of substance concerning the ARs. Good choice?

I bought 2 of those from target sports usa for $650 delivered and then a $50 mail in rebate....so $600 each, now that's a great deal on a great AR

A 50.00 rebate here also, $684.00. Target sports usa aren't showing any.

I'd probably pass on a Bushmaster. They aren't the same company these days. Cerberus/Remington took them over and the quality isn't what it used to be. The current Bushmasters are made at the Remington plant in Ilion, NY.

CDNN has some bargains on Colt ARs, I bought one of the CSR-1516 models for $699. It has a 16 inch match barrel, and a nice trigger. It does NOT have a forward assist or dust cover, if that matters to you. It's also made in Texas.

If you really want to save some $$, buy a $42 stripped lower from AIM Surplus and a $499 rifle kit from Palmetto. Add a couple of magazines and ammo and you're ready to go under $600.

Bushmaster should work fine for both uses, but the one I have is an old one. You can beat the price on line but FFL fees might eat that up.

Bushmaster is not the old Bushmaster (that's Windham Weaponry now).

I believe the barrel will be a 1/9" twist so the heaviest bullet you can use accurately will be the 62 gr bullet in the "Green Tip" M855 round.

Any lighter bullet will do just fine too.

Many types of ammo out there, hollow point and soft point are good too. Us civilians aren't bound by any of these international accords.

Magazines are everywhere and the prices for them, right now, are excellent. All you have to concern yourself with is quality.
Magpul Pmags are good to go as well as Brownell's metal magazines. You can get these direct from Brownells.

The gun is just like a Lego set for adults now a days. All kinds of things to bolt on them, top and bottom. You can mix and match just about anything on one to suit yourself or just leave it 'as is'.

Down the road, you should get a small supply of the parts that are easy to loose or wear the most.

I'm thinking about ordering another.

Miles, what kind of parts wod you reccomend having around? I've got a handful of AR's and a bunch of extra parts, but most of the extras are stuff I've taken off to build to suit my needs! I figure you've got way more experience with heavily used AR/M-16's than me so I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Top quality for lowest price in years because of the glut of AR/M4s on the market. Walmart has them and there are deals all over the net. An even better deal is from BCM - look for the deals on a marked down upper with FREE BCG and CH on their web site. Go to G&R Tactical and get their BCM blem lower and a LPK.
Agree with others about BM.
If you want to read up on the subject check out m4carbine.net for info from pros. The ar15.com site can sometimes be good too.

You can get a new in box Colt 6920 with flat dark earth Magpul furniture right now from Grabagun for under $860 plus $6 shipping plus transfer fee at your dealer. In the case of my transfer dealer, it arrived to me under $875 OTD. Very hard to beat that deal for one solid using AR.

The BCM upper deal is also fantastic. Great quality. Some argue better than Colt. Some argue the other way around. To me, I'd be happy with either in my hands.

Begin with the following:

Firing Pin Retaining Pin
Bolt Cam Pin
Extractor
Extractor Spring
Extractor Spring Insert (Rubber bumper)
Extractor Pin
Firing Pin
Bolt Rings (In sets of three. Loose one, replace all three)

Front Sight
Front Sight Spring
Front Sight Detent

Then on to:

Hammer Spring
Hammer/Trigger Pins
Trigger Spring
Disconnector Spring

Then:

Buffer
Bolt Assembly
Bolt Carrier Key
Bolt Carrier Key Screws

These are the easiest parts to loose or break.

Of course, I always suggest finding and cultivating the friendship of a National Guard Armorer or Army Reserve Smallarms/Artillery Repairer.

I can't think of a reason why one needs one of these evil black rifles, besides everyone knows the mouse gun is of no use at all on anything bigger than a chipmunk.

Byron

And little pins for the bolt carrier group. People tend to lose those.

Never mind all the rogue poodles. :)

It was interesting when even a Sergeant Major would come in the shop.

"Uh, John."

You will recall I was a AR15 fan way back when and caught a huge amount of hating by the board, some in fun and some frankly disrespectful and in poor taste.

FYI, it is my understanding that the low priced "Colt" AR15s that do not have a forward assist are made by Unimax and not the real deal milspec Colt. I may be wrong but don't think so. In that many high quality milspec ARs are out there at bargain prices, I wouldn't touch one.

Byron

I figured you were referring back to that and I was adding in my 2 cents in good-natured fun. We really do have a chipmunk problem in our neighborhood, but that is beside the point.

I wasn't always an AR fan and hope I wasn't one of the ones that gave you serious flak. I really like 7.62 NATO in a couple different platforms for my own reasons, but I also like having a couple ARs and AK-style rifles around, too, along with copious mags and ammo for each. Anymore, when asked "What is the best battle rifle?" my answer is usually "YES!" or "One more of each, please!"

We can argue about what is the best cartridge, best platform, whatever until the cows come home. For practical me, when there is such a huge abundance of 5.56 ammo and AR/M16/M4 variants around, it is just plain practical to have at least one, too, along with a goodly supply of ammo. Same goes for AK variants, Mosin-Nagants, Beretta 92s (man, what an abundance of cheap surplus mags around here!), .45 ACP, 9mm, and even .40 S&W. If it ever does come to scrounging for ammo, parts, magazines - whatever - I feel better having a variety of the common stuff so I can continue to shoot, whether for fun or out of necessity.

On a tangential note, I was sharing with a good shooting friend, recently, your experience doing FOF training with airsoft guns. Our boys were at a birthday party that was an all-out airsoft war, which is what brought your post on such to mind. He found your experience with such training interesting and helpful. We've been pondering how we can make that happen for our close circle.

The Colt Sporting Rifles are made by a Colt affiliate, Bold Ideas, in Breckenridge, TX.

I have some of those on hand already and will put together an order soon for midway or brownells. It is nice having a handful of AR's if you really NEED a part, you've got spares on hand.

Do you recommend the extractor buffer? I've heard both ways on them. I've never installed one and have fun a couemof AR's really dirty and havent had issues. I have a .300 blk that I run suppressed 99% of the time and it runs fine, except when my hand loads give issues. I recently swapped a nickle boron BCG into that one so it should be easier to clean now; not that I clean it very often...

Grabagun has Bushmaster A2s for under $600.

http://grabagun.com/bushmaster-a2-223-16-m4a2-30rd.html?trk_msg=DE0996U6QPG41ELCVNP90OM...

I have several cases of the 62-64gr Bonded soft point ammo on the shelf.
The results you got shooting deer from your porch showed me they do work.
Since then I have not personally shot deer, but have shot "other" things and got very good results.

ATB
and yes, I remember the flack you received from some folks here.

when the 'A2 was fielded. Uncle recently changed the material and color to tell the difference; Black now from Blue. I always use them, even on semis, but that's just a 'me' thing.

Some people even go so far as to use the 'D-fender' or an O-ring around the spring, but this isn't really needed unless you're running a real short automatic and even then, only if it's having problems.

I paid attention and bought 1000 Winchester 64 gr. Powerpoints to load. Accurate. Experience with the Sierra 63 gr. SP gives me great confidence in this as an all-around load. Waiting for the .223 to be made legal for deer in this state.

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

adequate, even with the old Colt 3x scope mounted high on the carry handle. Cutting edge!

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Sincerely,

Hobie

got me to look again.

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

Used them off and on for 35 years. This was a kill last doe season at a laser ranged 195 yards. Bang flop off hand with a Barnes TSX 55 grain all copper hollow point. I've used the 63 grain Sierra in the past and the 64 grain PP. Blew the liver to smithereens.

#sarcasm

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

s

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Of the Troops & For the Troops