What's the current best value for a Md legal Ar15?

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  • Uncle Duke

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 2, 2013
    11,667
    Not Far Enough from the City
    I don't feel like this is a good analogy. A Ford-trained mechanic telling you to steer clear of Ford? Sure. A Ford-trained mechanic telling you to steer clear of Toyota? Unless he also worked at a Toyota dealership, I wouldn't listen to his opinion at all.


    Ok. I'll rephrase. Instead of factory, let's go with ASE certified instead.
     

    Bountied

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 6, 2012
    6,893
    Pasadena
    I thought that whole point of Mil spec was that it will fit into the specifications the military has set, and for them to purchase parts and rifles that met the specifications they listed. So in essence any "mil spec rifle" is in spec with the military's specifications and thereby all the same. Colt included...

    So many Colt fanboys on MDS. Colt's seem to be the standard, but standards are the baseline.
     

    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,178
    Sun City West, AZ
    Colt is the standard but not necessarily the best or the best for every application. Many salespeople in gun stores when trying to sell you a "brand X" AR-type rifle you'll often hear "It's just as good as a Colt." You'll hear that for two reasons...they don't have any Colts in inventory and want to sell what they do have in stock or that the brand they have has a higher profit margin than a Colt will. It's simply a sales technique and any retailer would rather sell you what they have than see you go elsewhere to buy what you want.

    I'm not gonna say a Colt is the best out there...but you know what you're getting and that it carries a certain level of quality, proven track record of performance and resale value. Some of the others can't say that even if they can get the job done. During the big run on black rifles prior to the 2016 election I saw an AR rifle with the "Good Times" brand name. Are they still around anymore? They probably went under following the election. Companies were roll stamping their names on rifles of who knows what kind of quality because they could sell them for big profits at the time. The market has shaken out now and the good ones are...at least so far...the survivors and they survive because they're probably a good product. The crappy ones fell by the wayside but lots of people bought them at inflated prices they thought they wouldn't be able to later.
     

    tailgunner

    Active Member
    Oct 18, 2013
    109
    PAsadena Md.
    I've been assembling my own lately using BCA and PSA uppers. I've mounted them on Anderson and composite lowers, all run fine. I only own a couple expensive ar's. Keep it cheap so when the dumbocrats nazi's take office again here in md and hopefully not Washington, and their Gestapo police force kicks in your door to take them and possibly shoot you dead on the spot, you wont be out a bundle of money, that is if you're still alive.
     

    Sigfan77

    My dog loves his Sig, too
    Feb 8, 2017
    62
    Fredneck, PRM
    Love my Windham

    Works great. Not terribly expensive. Chrome barrel. And you can find them around. Never had an FTF/FTE using several types of ammo. No, mine hasn't been buried in sand for a month and then taken out and fired. But it's worked every time so far.
     

    thedutchtouch

    Active Member
    Feb 14, 2023
    167
    20740
    Bumping this old post (re-opening the opinion can of worms?) because I am continuing the typical new gun owner path and now wondering the same for a future AR purchase. Obviously the $ from prior posts may be inaccurate now, so wondering about 2023 costs and opinions. I don't have the desire to build one from the ground up (yet) but do have the desire to own at least one well functioning AR Rifle (or at least one good lower and a few uppers) so looking g for a factory gun or an assembled lower/upper to look for.

    Let's say a 1000-1500 price point though I'm more of a buy once cry once person, so open to hearing why changing the $ range might make sense, however definitely not interested in 3-5k+ at the moment. Cost would be excluding mags, sights, accessories, etc. for a MD legal 5.56 AR (leaning towards 16+ inch barrel instead of one that's pinned/welded for future can/muzzle device compatibility, not sure how much to care about that). Also interested in 350 legend and 22lr upper compatibility, though those details are not as important as general fit/function.

    what are you fine people recommending these days, same names as already mentioned in this thread? Or have prices or manufacturer QC changed drastically?



    thanks in advance
     

    jrumann59

    DILLIGAF
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 17, 2011
    14,024
    Bumping this old post (re-opening the opinion can of worms?) because I am continuing the typical new gun owner path and now wondering the same for a future AR purchase. Obviously the $ from prior posts may be inaccurate now, so wondering about 2023 costs and opinions. I don't have the desire to build one from the ground up (yet) but do have the desire to own at least one well functioning AR Rifle (or at least one good lower and a few uppers) so looking g for a factory gun or an assembled lower/upper to look for.

    Let's say a 1000-1500 price point though I'm more of a buy once cry once person, so open to hearing why changing the $ range might make sense, however definitely not interested in 3-5k+ at the moment. Cost would be excluding mags, sights, accessories, etc. for a MD legal 5.56 AR (leaning towards 16+ inch barrel instead of one that's pinned/welded for future can/muzzle device compatibility, not sure how much to care about that). Also interested in 350 legend and 22lr upper compatibility, though those details are not as important as general fit/function.

    what are you fine people recommending these days, same names as already mentioned in this thread? Or have prices or manufacturer QC changed drastically?



    thanks in advance
    I will say this when I got my first AR, I built the lower which is really a 2 hour endeavor for a beginner without proper tools and bought an upper. The upper is really where if you don't know you can make a somewhat expensive mistake.

    As for complete rifles Any of the above or even Aero Precision, Spikes, Seekins, Black Rain is on the pricier side, LWRCI, LaRue, Daniel Defense, POF, SOLGW there are a lof good manufacturers all with their pluses and minuses but all make solid to very good rifles.
     

    FZRracer400!

    Member
    Nov 8, 2022
    93
    RIP MD.
    Bumping this old post (re-opening the opinion can of worms?) because I am continuing the typical new gun owner path and now wondering the same for a future AR purchase. Obviously the $ from prior posts may be inaccurate now, so wondering about 2023 costs and opinions. I don't have the desire to build one from the ground up (yet) but do have the desire to own at least one well functioning AR Rifle (or at least one good lower and a few uppers) so looking g for a factory gun or an assembled lower/upper to look for.

    Let's say a 1000-1500 price point though I'm more of a buy once cry once person, so open to hearing why changing the $ range might make sense, however definitely not interested in 3-5k+ at the moment. Cost would be excluding mags, sights, accessories, etc. for a MD legal 5.56 AR (leaning towards 16+ inch barrel instead of one that's pinned/welded for future can/muzzle device compatibility, not sure how much to care about that). Also interested in 350 legend and 22lr upper compatibility, though those details are not as important as general fit/function.

    what are you fine people recommending these days, same names as already mentioned in this thread? Or have prices or manufacturer QC changed drastically?



    thanks in advance
    S&W m&p sport II’s come in a MD legal model. Same with a ruger ar556. Both can be found for around the 700-800 price point.
     

    joppaj

    Sheepdog
    Staff member
    Moderator
    Apr 11, 2008
    46,456
    MD
    I stand by my opinion from the first page:
    I'll go a different route with this. If you can find a Colt 6920 SOCOM, they're MD legal and for what you're getting they're a pretty solid value at the price most IP's have sold them for.
     

    coinboy

    Yeah, Sweet Lemonade.
    Oct 22, 2007
    4,480
    Howard County
    I'll go a different route with this. If you can find a Colt 6920 SOCOM, they're MD legal and for what you're getting they're a pretty solid value at the price most IP's have sold them for.
    How is that even possible?

    It's got the indented barrel, right?
     

    gungate

    NRA Patron Member
    Apr 5, 2012
    16,730
    Damascus. MD
    I just went through this (kind of) with my 6.5 Grendel AR build. I really did not uncover anything that would say one milspec rifle is better than another for "x" reason. Best I could come up with is the barrel is what matters. Maybe some of the components like triggers. Some of the lower priced offerings include FN made barrels. So I don't think price can be a determiner of quality.

    Originally when I got into ARs I thought Colt was the shiznit. I still have my first 2 NIB Colt 6520s with consecutive serial numbers (never actually shot them). I wonder if it is time to sell?
     

    Sxber

    Member
    Apr 12, 2023
    2
    MD
    On the complete rifle side of things, the IWI Zion 15 is a great value choice. I picked one up recently for $750 and it's been awesome thus far. I tried picking one up from a lgs but no one I called had them in stock, and didn't know when they would. Ended up doing a ffl transfer to Hafer's in WV since that way I could keep the 30r pmag without getting it pinned. The Hafer's store in MD actually suggested that route, plus the WV store has a $35 transfer fee in comparsion to their MD store at $45, which was a nice bonus.
     

    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,881
    " Best Value " is a nebulous concept , with near equal split between " the cheapest one that doesn’t greatly suck " , and " most bestest that squeaks $0.01 under whatever proposed price range " .

    The alternative answer, that may well tell people they probably wanted to ask is :

    The Maryland Legal * Yardstick * of AR Quality/ Price is the Windham HBC .

    Ie If it's more expensive, are the " improvements " worth the extra $ , or if it's less , what are the shortfalls , and are they commensurate with the savings .
     

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