I have used, owned or am quite familiar with most of the AR 15 brands on the market and with Senile Joe wanting to ban them, I am sure some people are interested in buying one-five just in case. I had the advantage of representing several major gun dealers prior to becoming a federal law enforcement attorney (AUSA) and then continued advising dealers after my retirement, meaning I got access to all sorts of these firearms 1) Anderson: Made in Hebron Kentucky near the Greater Cincinnati Airport. Their receivers are widely distributed. They tend to be pretty decent in terms of quality control: many of the builders around here use the receivers. 2) FAXON arms-made in greater Cincinnati. I own several including two of their PCCs -one I run in competition. The owners are wonderful guys and they are good members of our community. Their top of the line ultra lite rifle is one of my favorites. I have never had any issues with their guns. Their bolt carriers for PCCs were one of the first "tapered" bolts that could be used on 9MM rigs with standard AR trigger groups 3)HM Defense-Made in Mount Orab Ohio-about an hour east of cincinnati. I own one of their few 9MM rigs-two of their standard rifles (one built to my requirements) and one of their old Billet Receivers (no longer made). Their intergal gas bloc barrels are well respected and they have the best bolt carrier group going . The guns are really tight 4) Colt-At one time this was the only game in town. The old guns were really well made-the last couple I used extensively seemed to be coasting on their reputation. They seemed to be a bit overpriced compared to more recent entries into the market. My old Colt HBAR is a great NM rifle but my Rock River arms is better. 5) Rock River Arms. Has one of the best triggers of standard rifles (compared to say an Armalite 3G match gun that my son runs that came with a Giessele trigger) Their big selling point was that one worker assembled each rifle from start to finish. The NM one I have shoots under 1 half inch at 100 yards with lake city match 6) Windham Arms-this is the renovated Bushmaster/quality machine parts operation in Windham Maine. The owner sold to Remington-and Remington closed down the Maine operation. when the no compete contract expired, the owner started the old factory up and hired lots of the former staff. My son has a basic rifle-its solid middle of the road. I have their top of the line John Proctor carbine-its pretty much top end. SHTF weapon 7) Smith and Wesson. shot a ton of these-and they are backed by obviously a huge company. John Benner-president of the nationally famous Tactical Defense Institute notes that of the standard priced rifles that he sees by the hundreds in his school, the Smith's tend to be the most reliable Continued
Part Two DPMS. Ron Luthe started this operation I believe in Minnesota. Have a lower that I bought because I got a really good deal on a varmint upper. Its pretty similar to the Smith and Wesson. I don't shoot it much but I took it apart and the machining was really good. The stock trigger was a bit grittier than some of the other standard rifles but I put a Timney in it since I was setting it up for varmint use. The heavy bull barrel is very accurate but unlike most of my other rigs-it is .223 only, no 556 9) SIG MCX-got a great deal on this-it's my primary home defense rig. unlike most of my other rifles I am experienced with-this is a short stroke piston gun. I realize some swear by these and others love the Stoner DI system. Frankly I cannot tell much difference. What I like about this one is the stock folds like an FN FAL and doesnt have that spring in it 10) Spikes tactical. Don't own a full gun-I bought a couple complete lowers during the Trump Slump and built one into a custom rig using a PSA upper. These have great reputations=at least with the guys I shoot with. The fitting of the parts is very good 11) PSA-for the money good stuff. I have built several PCC rigs off of their 9mm Glock magazine lowers and they work great. Their blemished lowers are cheap and work well. Someone claimed these are forged by FNH-the big government contractor near them in SC but I don't know if I ever followed up on that. Their uppers are really decent for the money though the finish can be a bit iffy 12) Daniels Defense-The most expensive one I own-I tend to prefer the proctor over it and bought it more as an investment. It runs great as is very accurate but its twice as much as many of the other choices 13) JP-these are 3G race gun jobs I bought right after Sandyhook for 3G, the triggers are out of the world and these shoot under a MOA. these were 1900 in 2012 14) Armalite-my wife bought my son one for 3G, It was a top of the line dedicated 3G rig. We had a cheaper one as well that he uses for home defense. HIs top of the line one is very accurate and the trigger is top of the line. PSA is a good source for parts as is a company in Illinois called M&A Parts. their uppers are well made and often are Lewis Machine Tool made stuff. That's another great brand that I have not shot enough to comment on. Same with Wilson (Big Bucks) LWSC (even bigger bucks) and Les Baer. I used to run a Baer in bowling pin and if his rifles are as good as his handguns-well that is a good sign for the money I'd go Windham or Smith and Wesson for weight the Faxon ultra lite for home defense-I think the SIG might be the most trouble free along with the HM due to the bolt carrier
Across all my ARs, I had one problem. S&W M&P-10 in .308 would not cycle 7.62x51. Swapped the buffer spring. Off to the races.
I have a RR AR 10-prefer the three FN FALs I have including an original belgium one, an Imbel and a DSA. true-they suck for mounting a scope but I also have a Super NM M1A1 set up with a top of the line scope
