UPDATE 2.13.24: At Everyday Marksman, owner Matt Robertson, has put together a great “Field Guide to Buying Your First AR-15” for readers. One great part of his extensive and helpful guide is a list of what he considers the “minimum capable carbine features.” He writes:
Minimum Capable Carbine Features
- 16″Lightweight mid-length chrome lined barrel with a fixed front sight base
- Alternative: A 20″ lightweight or government profile barrel with fixed front sight base
- Either quality plastic handguards or a basic free float rail
- Quality collapsible stock
- Quality pistol grip of choice
- Standard trigger or something close to it like the BCM PNT or ALG ACT
- Quality rear sight, with or without adjustment
- If you have the money to buy an optic, then do so- buy one of good quality. If you don’t have the funds for a good one, then run the iron sights until you save for it.
- Bonus: If you plan on using the weapon for defensive purposes, then you should mount a good light on it
- Bonus: You should get a sling, because retention matters
Read more from Matt here.
Originally posted December 13, 2018.
You’ll benefit from spending some time reading “Top 10 Reasons You Should Own an AR-15,” by Mark Overstreet writing for the Federalist. One of the major misconceptions with the AR-15 is that it’s “automatic.” This is false.
If you pull the trigger of an AR-15 and hold it in for five or ten seconds—one round will be fired. That’s it. No more. You control the pace of the next round fired—not the rifle.
One more point, I own a Colt AR-15 and can tell you it shoots as smoothly as a hot knife through a stick of butter. You don’t have to reload it, taking your eye off the target after firing each round. Overstreet’s 10 reasons are:
- Being armed is your right and may be your civic duty.
- The AR-15 is the most useful firearm with which to defend against ‘every species of criminal usurpation’ because, first and foremost, it is a rifle.
- The AR-15 is a semi-automatic rifle.
- The AR-15 is one of the most validated rifles in history.
- The AR-15 is the most modular rifle in history.
- In most cases, you can fix your AR-15 yourself.
- The AR-15 is the rifle most commonly used for defensive firearm training.
- The AR-15 is the rifle most commonly used for marksmanship competitions.
- If you are skilled with your AR-15, you can help prepare young Americans for military service.
- The more Americans who own AR-15s, the more likely the Supreme Court will consider them “in common use.”
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
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