If you are on a tight budget, you don't want to build your own, and you just want it for urban self defence then I suggest that S&W M&P 15 sport. For Sub $550 you can have a full thickness quality barrel while all others in the price range will give you a thin pencil barrel that might overheat and give less accuracy (some on this board love their pencil barrels, but the US army doesn't use them. I wonder why?). The sport lacks a dust cover, but for urban use, you don't need to worry about getting it jammed in a sandstorm.
ELB wrote:My buddy's birthday is coming up and his wife is going to ask him what he wants for a present. He's going to say "a Porsche." When she gets done screaming or laughing, depending on her mood, then he's going to say "an AR-15."
So he asked me what brands would make a reasonable off-the-shelf buy. I am an AK guy, so not the best source for AR recommendations. I know I have read similar threads, but the search function on this forum is not helping me (it ignores small words like "AR" and "15", even if you put "AR-15" in quotes. grrrrr.) I know I saw a similar thread around here recently, but dang if I can find it.
He's not going to want to build his own, or tinker with it, it pretty much needs to shoot reliably right out of the box for a reasonable amount of money. Not the cheapest AR, but not the most expensive. Basic urban defense arm, not a 800 yard sniper rifle. I will recommend a flat top rail with iron sights, he can get an optic later.
What say you? List brands/models or previous threads that I can't seem to find on my own. There's a Colt LE model that seems to be "the standard", what else?
Thanks!
