[Guest]

Hi all,

Im going to buy my first Ar15 soon and was wondering if anyone can give me a little advice on whether to choose Bushmaster or Colt. I have heard both sides of the arguement as to which is better including that with Colt you are paying for the name. I have also heard that the bushmaster rifles are the closest thing to what our military uses. The model I have been told is the best for the price is the Bushmaster M4 A3 which is what I plan on getting. I am a noob to AR rifles and would appreciate any advice. Went to the Ar-15 forums but everyone on there seems pretty hateful towards noobies. Thanks

 

[Guest]

..get the bushy!

 

[Guest]

..get the bushy!

hehehe... sound advice :-D

 

[Guest]

Actually DPMS has many of the contracts now. Have you considered Rock River Arms? After an extensive review af all the major manufacturers, I chose RRA.

 

[Guest]

why just the two choices? there are a lot of others and many of them are nice as far as bang-for-the-buck goes. people tend to get a little edgy about their choices of what is best and you will see a lot of "there is no other" type of crap. when i was looking, i read a lot of internet arguing, lots of polls, lots of "every one of these i have ever seen broke" vs. "i have had 4 of those and never had that problem." there is a lot of pissing contest-childish crap out there on ARs. take a look at Rock River, read a little about them on different boards. lots of people have them and love them. i personally got a DPMS and it is very nice.

i have a buddy who turns his nose up at mine because he has a bushy. guess what happens at the range? both rifles go bang every time we pull the trigger and both are terribly accurate. he spent more and maybe the finer points of the firearm are sweeter to those dialed in to look for such intricacies of firearm building, but mine is a sweet firearm too. i'm just saying that we have all been to a gun store and seen people say "oh that thing is junk, you want one of these"... at which point we all thought, "ok whatever, man"

look at more than just the Colt and Bushy, if you are indeed as new to ARs as you say you are. if you are stuck between those two, i third the response of "Bushy".

 

[Guest]

Actually DPMS has many of the contracts now. Have you considered Rock River Arms? After an extensive review af all the major manufacturers, I chose RRA.

beat me to it, lol

 

[Guest]

To me, for the money, either RRA or Stag is the best deals out right now. Both parts are made in the same factory so go for one of them.

 

[Guest]

Rock River Arms lower. Custom homebuilt upper. Jewel trigger. White Oak armament barrel. YHM Standrad lightweight forearm. JP Tactical carrier group. .5MOA $1050 total.

 

[Guest]

Just build one for $700. Its tons of fun. You then will see how the gun works, and have the pride of knowing you built it. Here's mine minus the scope, battle grip, and ledwave light.
Lauer Custom weaponry lower, RRA trigger, parts kit, and 6 position stock. Hogue rubber grip, sherluk(local Ohio company) upper(16 inch chrome moly with bayonet lug), and M4 hand guard.

 

[Guest]

I agree with the responses here. I have have a "bushy" and I love it. It was between Bush, RRA, and DPMS. I dont do pissing contests, but I just didnt like the finish on the DPMS that I looked at, and the RRA was super sweet, but didnt like the Hogue grip, but I did like everything else, however I ended up getting one with a snake on it. I never once considered Colt.

 

[Guest]

I've got a DPMS and love it. I'd seriously consider them. Colt in my opinon is just overpriced.

 

[Guest]

If you are going to buy a AR buy the best get a Colt.

I own 2 Colt's and they are awesome and much better quality firearm with out building your own. I have bench rested and shot bushmaster's, DPMS and RockRivers with my Colt 6920 M4 (Group of buddies at the range). The colt out performed them all in accuracy. My friend who has a RockRiver couldn't get very tight groups with M193, M855 or Winchester Q3131. Now that I think about it I'm not sure it was a 5.56 barrel. We were shooting the same ammo from the same lot number. The DPMS had frequent jams and feed problems. But could have been the owner not taking care of it. The bushmaster did pretty good and was un-modified like my Colt.

So if you are going to buy a complete AR get the best and buy a Colt. You will be much happier long term. If you head over to AR15.com and read about the surveys on who's the "Best" AR manufacture. Colt is always on Top.

I was sighting in my new EoTech 552 which is mounted on the Colt 6920 M4 Saturday and was getting 1" groups at 100 yards shooting Winchester Q3131 ammo. Here is the Pix of the target 10 rnds had two flyers. I think the EoTech is ready.

 

[Guest]

My vote is for RRA...You can get a midlength with a 16" barrel and the longer gas system hels the rifle shoot even softer.

 

[Guest]

A lot of people will tell you that a Colt is better than the rest. The local AR guys say that all you are paying for with a Colt is the name. They sell Bushmaster, Colt, Armalite, and Stag and say that the Stag and RRA are the best bang for your buck going right now. I ended up buying a Stag flat top and am totally satisfied with it. As others have said, the Stag is made with the same parts that a RRA is made with, just a different stamp on the side. One big plus that Stag offers is a left handed model.

 

[Guest]

Well if we are bringing in others that were not on his selection group. then I vote for the S&W AR15T, extremly accurate and beyond beliefe reliable.

 

[Guest]

I would give RRA a good look I just ordered a RRA myself. I would not order a Colt do to the simple fact that Colt uses a different pin arrangement than all other AR manufactures and so its take special parts if you later want to mount your Colt upper or lower receiver on a matching non-Colt receiver. Colt is not that much better than any of the other AR manufactures to put up with that headache.

From all the guy I have talked to RRA just seemed to be a great deal for the price. RRA also had a configuration that was closest to what I really wanted. Mine is on order hopeful to arrive by the end of the month.

What I do not understand is why every one it buying ARs with 16 inch barrels and then using the short gas system? You now have a super short sight radius and a gas system that runs at much higher pressures than the mid length or standard gas system. I can understand wanting a short rifle but given that US law requires us to have a 16 inch barrel why would you run the short gas system on that barrel? Just curious. Seem like it would be more reliable to run a mid length system on a 16 inch barrel.

I personally went with a 20inch barrel, free floated forearm with a full length gas system with and a weaver gas block (no front sight). Given that I will be using iron sights I already have plans to mount my front sight just behind my flash suppressor.

rambling
mcb

 

[Guest]

..get the bushy!

If you decide on the 16" barrel length Bushmaster, get the Heavy barrel. The M4 barrel looks cool with the "step down" cut for the M203, but outside of the military, you won't have a need to mount a grenade launcher.

Unless the "zombies" attack........... LOL

I added the M4 handguards to my Bushy.

I even added a mount for a Harris bi-pod.

 

[Guest]

What I do not understand is why every one it buying ARs with 16 inch barrels and then using the short gas system? You now have a super short sight radius

huh? with the many choices in gas blocks, sights don't necessarily have anything to do with the gas tube length. if that is the setup you choose to use, then ok, but i have a carbine with a middy ff. i can put the sight wherever the heck i want to, i.e. at the same position a middy would have it... not to mention the many options of eotech and the like... just my penny and a half...

 

[Guest]

if you build your own and you need a set of carbine handguards, you can have mine. i used them 1 time. i second the heavy barrel, too.

 

[Guest]

huh? with the many choices in gas blocks, sights don't necessarily have anything to do with the gas tube length. if that is the setup you choose to use, then ok, but i have a carbine with a middy ff. i can put the sight wherever the heck i want to, i.e. at the same position a middy would have it... not to mention the many options of eotech and the like... just my penny and a half...

I was not as concerned with sight position/radius as much as the alleged problems of the higher pressures in the gas system. As you said there are work around for sight but when the gas port taps the barrel that close to the chamber the pressures are significantly higher than further out the barrel. From my research I have read this can cause more fouling and more wear and tear on the parts. Assuming those reports are true why use the short gas system when your barrel length would easily allow for a mid or full length gas system. The short gas system is really only required on the short barrel (10.5 inch). But it seems everybody is using them with 16 inch barrels. Just curious there may be a good technical reason but I haven't seen one yet.

mcb