I think 20" is still perfectly OK

by bj , Tuesday, May 08, 2012, 12:55 (4374 days ago) @ Paul

It is short enough to be easy to handle, it gives more velocity than 16", and more weight and stability for accuracy. But ultimately I suppose it depends on what you want to do with it. A 16" rifle is light, and especially with a telescoping stock can be pretty short for storage and carry. Even with the stock extended they are still short. A 20" barrel, especially a heavy 20" barrel, is short enough for easy carry but significantly heavier. If you are shooting more than carrying then nothing wrong with the longer/heavier barrel. If you want to use it for home defense then you don't need a long or heavy barrel. The short barrel guns can certainly be accurate enough. If you are using it for varmint hunting then you could probably get by with the longer barrel. Of course the beauty of the AR platform is that you can have as many uppers as you want and switch them back and forth very easily.

Model 1 sales used to be a reasonable place to buy parts and such, when there were lots of people with names you never heard of selling parts. Depending on demand for factory rifles you could save a little bit of money by buying the kit and assembling it yourself, or you could save a lot of money. At one point in time I figures that the kit approach would only save you $100 and you had to do the assembly and forgo a warranty, but I think today you could save a little more money than that.