my first AR

[akhooters7]

Looking at buying my first AR... been wanting one for a while now.. just have had no funds...

What do i need to look for....

1. name brands ? stag / rra / dpms / cmmg ??
2. steel vs chrome barrell ?
3. factory built vs some guy off the street built ?

don't want to spend the $$ on junk.... what to i need to avoid ??

thanks in advance for any input..

t

[Troublco]

Here's my $.02 worth-

First, I'd figure out what you want to do with it. My desired specs vary greatly depending on what I'm going to do with the gun. My 6.5 Grendel AR was built with the idea of using it for Antelope and Coyote hunting, maybe some deer, and secondarily for long range target shooting of various sorts. WAY different set of specs than I would use for an M4 clone, which would be used for much shorter range target shooting, three gun competition, that sort of thing.

Chrome lined barrel? For an M4, sure. For a longer range precision rifle, no.

Factory built, you'll either have to find someone who builds what you want or close to it or have it ordered and could wind up paying more for the same features/options than if you either built it yourself or find someone locally to help you with it. Really, it's not hard to put one together if you have a few basic tools as there are many resources available including folks on this site who have loads of knowledge.

Brand? A lot of it is personal preference. Some folks love Colt, others hate them. Same with Stag, DPMS, Olympic, RRA, etc. Of the ones you mentioned, I like CMMG and RRA. DPMS is OK, and I have no experience with Stag although I've heard good things about them. I also like Sabre Defence, Young Manufacturing, Daniel Defense, depending on what parts you're talking about and what I'm going to do with it. Then for other parts, Gieselle, JP, Falcon, and Magpul for components, just to name a few.