Opinions for new AR

Bartojc said:
S&W should be on your list as well.
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needmorecowbell said:
Seems like the PSA Sabre has a lot of good stuff I’m leaning towards that.
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I like the S&W... for a basic, no frills AR, but any of those in your OP will work.

I like PSA stuff, I think I have 2 or 3 of them... good stuff there as well.

As a caveat, and I understand your desire to not build an AR... but I now always check every AR I get for proper assembly. I had a DPMS AR that had sketchy accuracy... I decided to tear it down and have a look. I found the barrel nut was on hand tight. So... even a 'quality' AR build might need a little attention, first, right out of the box.
 
doubleh said:
The OP said he didn't want to build one. With that in mind I'll recommend the Smith M&P. I bought one of these in the optics ready version before the Sport became available. I don't run and gun, couldn't if I wanted to, but carried it for a coyote hunting gun and range toy. Sub MOA with my handloads and have never had a problem with it. I tweaked it with a free float hand guard that wasn't available on them at the time to get MOA .
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My first AR was the Magpul M&P sport, for $600. I shot it enough to need a new barrel, and never had a malfunction. It was pretty accurate for a non-floated barrel too. Then I floated a wilson combat barrel on it, and got 1/2 moa with handloads. Many thousands of rounds through it now, and very little internal wear. The upper and lower are still as tight as day one. I'd buy one again in a second.
 
Ruger or Smith & Wesson for me in a factory rifle. Good name, factory support and warrantee. That said I like Del-Tons. Don't like PSA.
 
valnar said:
If one were to buy a name-brand AR15 assembled already, and say had $1500 to spend, what's a good one with all the quality bells & whistles?
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I honestly couldn't tell you. My first AR15 was a BCM back during the Obama/Sandy Hook years. I never wanted one until Obama attempted to ban them. I've purchased a few PSA AR15s kits after that and learned how to assemble lowers. Since then, I build my own as I can build a quality AR for less than what I can get form a factory $1500 AR.

If you want a factory AR that has ambi controls, piston driven, quick barrel swap, and a bunch of other bells and whistles, those usually start at $2k-$3k+.
 
InTheSwamp said:
PSA, PSA CHF, or the Colt OEM.
If PSA, buy upper and lower separately.
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PSA CHF is the best option for the money and is better than the Ruger and S&W offerings for around the same price being that it has an CHF chrome lined FN barrel. Colt isn't any better IMHO, but they will appreciate in value.
 
needmorecowbell said:
Also really liking the new PSA Sabre. That might be in lead now
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That would probably be my choice. I have used a lot of regular PSA parts for builds, and they have all been excellent. The barrels aren't going to produce accuracy like a Larue, Compass Lake or Krieger, but you also aren't paying premium barrel money. The PSA barrels I have used have all been accurate enough for general purpose stuff. I use several of them on suppressed rifles and the threads have all been concentric to the bore.
 
valnar said:
If one were to buy a name-brand AR15 assembled already, and say had $1500 to spend, what's a good one with all the quality bells & whistles?
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Might want to look here:
https://kearms.americommerce.com/kp-15-CommunityDefenseRifle.aspx
Or Brownell's:
https://www.brownells.com/guns/rifles/semi-auto-rifles/civil-defense-rifle-cdr-rifle/
The CDR is a WWSD (What Would Stoner Do) rifle, but 'ordinary' parts installed--so, regular buffer & spring instead of the self-contained, and a middle-of-the-road trigger pack; and a simple, non-carbon fibre fore-end.

This is $200 over you budget, but is a very slick build:
https://www.brownells.com/guns/rifl...what-would-stoner-do-2022-configuration/?sku=
Or, direct from KE:
https://kearms.americommerce.com/wwsd-16-rifle.aspx

Now, the several suggestions, above, to buy upper & lower separately has a ton of merit.
You get to better pick the features important to you. Like a fixed front sight tower or not, barrel lengths, handguards, etc.
The lower is the only regulated part, but, picking the features to your preference is a bonus.

Oh, and KE Arms has their lowers on sale right now.
 
drobs said:
PSA Complete Magpul lower $149.99 Free Shipping:
https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa...agpul-moe-edition-black-no-magazine-7065.html

PSA Complete Magpul upper Nitride $309.99 Free Shipping:
https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa...-nitride-moe-upper-with-rear-mbus-bcg-ch.html

$459.98 + $20 FFL transfer
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irishlad said:
Wow! If I was looking for an AR 15 I would hop on this. Thanks for sharing.
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There will be $17 shipping, tax, and the cost of 2 or 3 magazines. Will be $459.98 for the rifle plus about $100 for all the extras fees and mags. Still a good deal. I will never understand how an AR and some other rifles can cost less are the same as mostly polymer handguns like Glocks, M&Ps, Sigs, etc.
 
Ignition Override said:
The OP stated in his opening remarks that he does Not want to build an AR.
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I don't consider pushing 2 take down pins on an AR15, building an AR.
PSA warranties their uppers and lowers.

I have multiple PSA AR's built from both kits and complete uppers / complete lower combinations and have never had a problem with any of them.

Another option is a mid-length upper:
https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa...k-with-bcg-ch-mbus-rear-sight-5165458948.html
Mid length uppers are nice if you have a bayonet lying around.

I find I like Magpul furniture because it's comfortable and easy to mount a flashlight to. You can save even more $ by going with the old school GI furniture. The problem there is mounting a flashlight gets expensive. PSA is basically giving away the Magpul furniture at these prices.
 
Of the three you listed I would go with the Sig. The Ruger uses a very non standard front sight gas block that pretty much eliminates all aftermarket parts for either unless you switch gas block and barrel. Why they did that baffles me. The Springfield has a reputation of bad QC and resulting poor reliability. That can be fixed, but why start there to begin with? Im not a fan of the forend used on the SIg and Id rather not have a stainless barrel unless Im making it into a precision rifle. But that's more personal preference than anything wrong with the rifle.

For that price point Id be looking at PSA. PSA makes rifles all over the price spectrum. For 800 bucks you can get a pretty decent rifle there.
 
Make sure you get a good warranty. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it is what I always say.
 
hoardingthemanual said:
Make sure you get a good warranty. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it is what I always say.
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Honestly, with an AR-15, I'd just rather fix the problem myself... over getting an RO, shipping a rifle, expecting the servicing facility to experience the same issue I am, and having it shipped back... fixed or not. I'm actually in the process of troubleshooting one of my AR's right now... and I'm learning quite a bit on the way. That is not to say I wouldn't consider an warranty on something like an AR-10, or M1a, etc... something that is quite proprietary.
 
Maybe a different caliber .... 300 Blackout or 350 Legend. Both are based off a 5.56 case. Use the same BCG.
 
I recently found out that the Springfield Saint is the number one most popular (off the shelf) AR rifle sold in America last year. Blew my mind, I've never even seen one at a range but evidently a lot of people
out there are buying them. Springfield makes good guns but that just struck me as weird. I would have thought the M&P 15 was, I see a lot of those out there.
 
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