Hey guys, new here and new to the ar-15 world. Have owned a dozen or so guns in my life, but just recently picked up my first ar-15! I've always loved ars though and had an airsoft one when I was younger, then a couple years back bought an S&W M&P15-22, and then a couple weeks ago just ordered up a Doublestar from Buds. Read tons of great reviews on them, and decided that it'd be a good starter gun for me to begin the ar-15 journey.
A lot of info to follow, if you don't feel like reading, feel free to skip to the bottom!
Just mainly wanting to connect with fellow Colorado ar-15 guys, maybe find some shooting / training buddies to go shoot with on the weekends, get advice from seasoned veterans, learn about good places to shoot, and anything else you guys have to offer me - and of course give back any other info that I might have as well. I'm a 27 year old web developer living about 15 minutes north of Denver. I'm into all the tactical (tacticool) stuff - vests, tactical pants, etc - haha, so feel free to make fun of me if you want. Also, non gun-related I'm into computer games, motorcycles (currently have a 1980 yamaha xs850 Cafe Racer), photography (Nikon), zombies and End Of The World stuff, camping, hiking, fishing, etc.
One day when I've recovered from this month's spending, I'll want to either get some type of red dot (maybe an aimpoint or eotech) or maybe a zoom, like an acog. I want to shoot a bit more to find if I see myself wanting a zoom or not mainly. Then eventually get a shorter barrel with a more midlength handguard for more CQB stuff - but that probably won't be for awhile. I'm sure I'll be looking to this forum and others for advice on all this stuff before moving forward.
Have done a handful of mods (if anyone cares): magpul stock, mags, handguard (foliage green), vfg, rear mbus sight, bad lever, ambi single point sling mount, trigger guard, troy claymore muzzle brake, surefire flashlight, tritium front sight, charge handle extension thingy, ha and maybe a few other things that I'm forgetting. I have a cheap red dot and a cheap zoom scope to toy around with to try and find which style i like better. Snapped a quick cellphone photo of it down below, with a few pistols tossed in for filler.
Feel free to start commenting advice for a newbie, give me some shooting tips, tell me some great places to shoot, let me know of meetups, give me your recommendations on optics, or anything else that you think might be of interest.
Thanks!
-Mike