AR-15; AR-10 Recommendations

[fabsroman]

I'm planning on getting an AR-15 and AR-10 in the near future, but I do not know too much about these guns. I have looked at Armalite as a starting point and am interested in the AR-10(T) Ultra and the AR-15(T), both of which have 24" stainless steel target barrels on them, with the AR-10 being chambered in .300 WSM.

I have also looked at Rock River Arms' website and they have an AR-10 equivalent coming out late this summer. Rock River Arms' suggested retail prices are a lot lower than those given by Armalite.

Are the prices about the same on the street? Are the guns about the same in quality? If not, is it worth it to pay the additional money for the Armalites?

What other manufacturers of the AR-10 and AR-15 are out there, other than Bushmaster? Should I be looking elsewhere for a quality rifle? At most, I am willing to pay $4,000 total for both rifles.

[TreeDoc]

Hey, to each his own, you know that Fabs, but why so many Dinero for a lead slingin' gas gun?

Dang, I've got a Bushy V-Match A3 upper that's sub MOA (1/2") just shooting Blackhill's 52gr Reloads and I have well under a grand into the upper or lower combined if you don't consider the glass.

I also have an AK Shorty as an upper and even that mutha kicks tail.

I don't know, I guess I have always viewed the AR's as a SHTF gun yet being extremely accurate all the same as well as a "I must have because they say I can't anymore" rifle. The Bushy does that for me, they are very well made components, probably the best without going fully custom. I have used it for Varminting out to 300 yards quite successfully but I admit, my "go to" varminter is my Weatherby SVM in .22-250.

Just food for thought.

[fabsroman]

My brother has a Bushmaster AR-15 and I hate the trigger on that gun. I was hoping to get something with a match grade trigger on it. Does Bushmaster make such a beast, or would I have to deal with an after market trigger?

Edited to add:

I initially checked out the Bushmaster website, but I wanted an AR-10 and not an AR-15 and Bushmaster does not make the AR-10 anymore, if it ever did. They do not offer the AR-10 on their website right now, and if recollection serves me correctly, they were just discontinuing it when I started looking for these guns. The Bushmaster varmint/target AR-15 costs about the same as the Armalite, maybe a little less. The AR-10 I want is the expensive gun out of the two. I think it is listed at something like $2,300, but I have seen it for sale at around $2,000. The AR-15 I am looking at is about $1,200 to $1,300.

[TreeDoc]

I installed a Jewel 2 stage trigger in mine. They're about $200 and incredible! They are fully customizeable in that if you were to shoot your AR competitively, you would need a 3 lb trigger. You can set the take up for 3 pounds but the release for 8 ounces or go the other way, take up real light with release heavier. It's all a Do-it Yourself install as well. I don't believe there is a better trigger on the market.


I have been out of the loop so I don't know if they do the AR10 configuration, perhaps you know that info already.

I sort of consider Bushmaster the "Dillon" of the AR world. They are very good with customer service.

[Tater]

http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/weapons/pcwa3s20.asp

I got a Bushmaster a few years ago for $800 and never had a complaint. I don't know about the others but Bushmaster makes a nice bang-stick.

[Steverino]

Hey Fabs,


You may want to check out the below website- www.dpmsinc.com as I have seen them advertise in alot of my monthly rags. I know nothing about this company's offerings but it does look like they manufacture an AR10 equivolant.

BTW- My brother also shoots a Bushy and I do think that they are accurate-having shot it on a couple of different occassions. Good luck and enjoy the process!

[TreeDoc]

I have seen and used some DPMS products and have never been terribly impressed with their quality of workmanship. I bought an A2 handle/scope mount for my A3 Flat Top and it was so far out of plumb that my Leupold didn't have enough adjustment to put a shot on target.

My local firing range used to sell DPMS stuff when it was legal to do so in California and it was really raunchy stuff compared to Bushmaster's equipment.

Perhaps they have cleaned up their act since then, I would inspect very closely before I would consider any thing of theirs.

[fabsroman]

Last night, I tried to do a search on AR-10 Rifle Manufacturers and DPMS came up in a gunblast.com article. Those guys seemed to like the three guns that they tested out from DPMS, so I checked out their website and their .300 Remington Short Action Ultra Mag vermint setup costs about the same as the Armalite .300 WSM, so I'd probably stick with the Armalite. Their AR-15 offerings were in about the same ball park too. It looks like I might just have to go with the Armalite series, bite the bullet, and pay the money.

[hofts]

i have always heard olympic arms make good ones, great barrels.
gunshop here in town sells a lot of them, guys at range say they are very accurate. i have a bushy varminter in 223 and quite happy.

i think the site is
olympicarms.com

[hofts]

sorry, it is
olyarms.com

[quigleysharps4570]

Always was a Colt fan myself. Had 4 of them at one time...course that was before all the changes the government made them all do. So I don't have a clue what they're like anymore.

[Ridge Runner]

fabro's
How bout this, an AR15 varminter of your choice, I like the 24" fluted 1-8 twist, and an extra upper in 25 wssm, and later on this year there is a 300 wssm coming out. Not quite the power of the rsaum or wsm but about 2.5-3 pounds lighter and they'll all work off the same lower.
But basicly the story on AR's is, they're all about the same, the only fully In-House manufacture of AR-type rifles is Olympic arms. The rest just contract others to make parts for them and then they assemble, those "others" also sell parts to any other AR distributor who is interested. Now the distributors buy where they get the best price so thats why RRA uses wilson barrels and J&T uses shaw and so on, other than that you could buy an AR of every make and model and they could be made by the same outfit. hope this info helps
RR

Just checked one the links in my fave folder, check this out
http://www.accuracysystemsinc.com/ar10_supermagnum.html

now if you can buy a custom AR-10 upper in a wssm for 1600.00 I'm sure you can get a lower for less than 600.00, you could buy one stripped and get an AR-15 lower kit then you only have to buy about 3-4 other small parts, thats all that don't interchange, and they're just pins and springs.

[fabsroman]

RR,

Accuracy Systems was one of the first sites that I checked out. I love those guns, but they are really pricey. I wouldn't mind getting an AR-15 and AR10 from Armalite and then buying some of Accuracy Systems uppers for them.

The one big question I have is whether or not their uppers will fit on a lower for the AR-10(T)Ultra. Is the lower of an AR-10(T) Ultra, the Armalite gun chambered for the .300 RSAUM, any different than a standard AR-10 lower?

[Ridge Runner]

all Ar-10 uppers will fit any AR-10 lowers, some lowers use a different mag though.
All ar-15 uppers will fit any AR-15 lower with the exception of some colts, for a few years colt made they'res different so they wouldn't fit any lower, spin spacing was different. Now colt also made some small pin lowers too those either go on a small pin uppers or you use and offset pin set. as far as the rest, just mix and match, I have 3 lowers all RRA NM and I have 4 different makes of uppers which I interchange as I wish.
Hope this helps.
RR

[Ridge Runner]

fabro, if you buy a complete rifle they a 12% tax on it somewhere along the line just cause you ordered a complete gun. You may wanna look into buying the lower, which has to go through an FFL, and then buying an upper, which can be shipped right to your home, would save you some money doin it that way.
Your talking 1200.00 for an AR15(T), heck you could get a RRA NM lower and a custom upper built for that,
near as I can remember the (T) series were just heavy barrelled free floated uppers, thats about a standard configeration and I think you can get the same upper with a premieum barrel on it for that. last year the price for a 22" SUM upper chambered in 25 WSSM for a lil over 800.00, now a 223 or 5.56 would be lots cheaper since its the standard caliber and the SUM barrels are top notch. email this guy he builds both AR-10's and AR-15's using oly parts, he's my go to guru on AR's and a heck of a nice guy dtech1@paulbunyan.net
RR