Who makes the better AR-15?

Question

I would prefer to have a Colt but those are very hard to get today. I am looking for another good manufacturer of the AR-15. I have so far checked out Bushmaster and Olympic Arms.

Answer 1

I did a search and came up with these Manufacturers:
ArmaLite
Bushmaster
Colt Manufacturing Company
DoubleStar Corp.
DPMS Panther Arms
Fulton ARmory
High Standard
JP Enterprises
Les Baer Custom
Lewis Machine and Tool Co.
Olympic Arms
Rock River Arms
Stag Arms
Smith & Wesson
Wilson Combat

Answer 2

I build match AR's. I have an Oly I used for 15 years in military Service Rifle Competition at dozens of PacFleet, All Navy, and Interservice Matches. Olympic Arms rifles are as good as they get. The problems is you are using the wrong bullets. DUH! What rock have you been hiding under? Back in the 1970's the AR-15/M16 had a stamdard 223 Remington 1:12 twist rate optomized for 40-55gr bullets. Around 1986 the M16A2 adopted the 1:9 twist optomized for the 62gr green tip ammo. Today 1:8, 1:7 and 1:6.5 twist barrels are common. You cannot fire 40-55gr ammo in a moderm AR match barrel. Notice the barrel is stamped 5.56mm? Notice you cannot find ammo branded 5.56mm on the box that is 55gr or lighter? That is because barrels stamped 223 Remington take 40-55gr and barrels stamped 5.56mm take 60gr and heavier. It is only been this way for 23 years!!! Bottom line. Your barrel is probably 1:9 (could be 1:7 or 1:8 too) and is designed to fire 62gr ammo and heavier projectiles. The only reason you are finding boxes of 40gr and 55 grain ammo on the store shelves is because nobody can use them, or, wants them any more.......... unless you have an old Colt SP1 barrel AR-15 or a bolt action 223 rifle. Please wake up. Read your owners manual. Take a safety course. People like you give AR's a bad name. As I said - things have been this way for 23 years........ I think you had ample warning.

Answer 3

Take a look at DPMS/Panther Arms AR's.

Of course Colt is tops, but like you say, They're getting hard to find, and harder to afford.

I personally prefer DPMS to Bushmaster or Olympic, but they are nonetheless both good guns as well. The Olympic "plinker" model has probably the best price on ANY AR you are going to find.
You might also consider getting an Oly, Bushmaster, or DPMS complete lower and purchasing a Colt upper to go with it. This way you'd save some $, and still get a Colt barrel.

Part of the beauty of the AR15 is the fact you can get one lower, and use it with numerous different uppers, with different barrel lengths, handguard configurations, sighting options,...even different calibers.

Answer 4

Bushmaster makes one hell of an Ar-15. Try Armalite, they made the original Ar-15s before selling the plans to Colt. My honest opinion would look at Stag Arms. I curreltly own a left-handed Ar-15 from them. They make left and right handed AR's. Stag makes many parts for most of the companies that make AR-15's today. They, I believe, would be your best bet.

Answer 5

DPMS makes a really nice AR in all the variants. I've built several of them using DPMS parts and receivers and have no complaints at all. Colts are too expensive!!! I can build a complete AR in a standard a2 or a3 or xm style for $600.00 for my self that will rival any other brand out there. You can also trust the parts from Brownells, but my all time favorite place to purchase rifle kits is M&A parts (www.MAPARTSINC.COM) The are excellent, the people there are military contractors with years of experience. If you buy a rifle kit from them ( all parts but the stripped lower receiver) they assemble the upper and head space and test fire it for you. It comes with a heavy match barrel too.

Answer 6

What do you want to use the AR for, do you want an M4 style, Varmint type, A2...? Personally I would go with a Rock River Arms out of the pack of ARs listed due to the out of the box trigger and the Wylde Chamber(.223 and 5.56) offered in most of their models. Don't shoot 5.56 Nato out of a .223 chambered AR as a side note. If money was no object I would go with a LMT(Lewis Machine & Tool) upper with a Stag or RRA lower, but it is and I'm happy with my RRA M4.

Colts are overrated.

Answer 7

Well you have a list above of every maker of the AR platform rifle.
You wanted to know who makes the better ones.
Bushmaster
DPMS
Colt(Obviously)
Wilson
Les Baer
Rock River

Answer 8

I agree with the fulton armory comments. Great weapons, decent price for an AR.

Answer 9

Stay away from Olympic arms.

Rock river is the cheapest platform, in line with bushmaster, but bushmaster's quality has gone down.

Fulton armoury uses krieger barrel blanks, then turns them down to their own specs.

Armalite is good too. Plus with a LIFETIME warranty, you can't go wrong.

Answer 10

Try this website. I didn't think these AR-15s were half bad.