Best AR-15?

[Supplicate]

9MM (M4)...

huh? If you mean an M4gery such as one from RRA, you can get them with .223 or 9mm uppers. 9mm is popular just because its cheaper ammo. Thats also why the .22lr uppers are becoming more popular as well.

 

[$nowMeansBroke]

Unless you're in a war zone or competition, a stuck case should be a minor inconvenience at most. But in those circumstances I doubt anyone would be shooting wolf anyways. Any serious shooter should have a cleaning kit at the range, and it takes all of 30 seconds to pop the upper loose, take the bolt out, and tap the stuck case out with a cleaning rod. I could see problems in a Wylde or .223 chamber, but I would hazard to guess that the majority of AR's sold are 5.56 chambers, and a good percentage of those are chrome lined. If you shoot enough of any type of ammo you'll eventually have a problem or two. I dunno what they would do without coating the cases. I think rusty ammo would have more problems than coated ammo would.

To each their own, but if I'm out plinking and shooting at steel plates it doesn't make much sense to buy Black Hills 77gr. Match ammo when Wolf will do the same thing much much cheaper. That could just be the cheap college student in me talking though.

 

[wyofreeride]

Wolf = Cheap, Dirty, Jams on Occasion, Not reloadable

I shoot Wolf though my AR's, because it is cheap and abundant. I wouldn't use it ever in a self defense situation though. It requires a lot of cleaning afterwards also. I have had a few stuck cases, failure to eject, fail to oload etc, with it, but I think that all depends on the gun tolerances too. I have friends that run only wolf, and have never had a problem, but they may have a little looser chambers.

TheHuntingShack.com sells good brass range ammo, for about the same price as a case of wolf runs now, at least around here, so I will not be buying up much wolf in the future, unless it gets cheap again.

As for the guns, I have 4 bushmasters, and a DPMS 308, with more DPMS lowers, and a couple Charles Daly Defense M4S's coming also. I have not had any problems with any of them while running quality brass. I have shot Stag, DPMS, Olympic, Sabre, and several others, and all the major brands build quality guns. If I had the cash, I'd buy a POF Gas piston upper or a complete Sabre as the next gun. All depends on what you plan to do with it though.

If you know what you want in a gun, buy a quality lower, and then put it together with only the parts you want. You can also buy assempled uppers or rifle kits from places like M&A, Model 1, MidwayUSA, and Brownells, along with many other places. AR's are very simple, easy to build guns, that don't require too many special tools. There are nice how to's on several sites, just Google it. Also, the lower is the only part that has to go through an FFL, as it has the serial number, the rest you can pick up on the web or wherever.

If you arent sure yet on what you want, get a standard M4 style AR with a removable carry handle (A3 Upper) and a 16" Barrell and go out and shoot it. See what your buddies have on their guns, browse around on AR15.com, and make changes as you find out what you want. Only problem is that you are going to end up with an AR junk drawer full of Plastic handgaurds, A2 gas blocks, carry handles, etc.

My AR's

Bushmaster Modular
16" Fluted Chromo Heavy Barrel
Free Float 4 Rail BMAS (YHM) Handgaurd with Lo Pro Covers
CAA Tactical Grip (Similar to the Magpull MIAD, cant think of the name)
CAA Folding Foregrip (Battery Storage for Light)
M4 Collapsible Stock with CAA Cheek Saddles (Battery Storage for Aimpoint)
BMAS (YHM) BUIS Front & Rear
Surefire 6P (Old School) on CAA removable mount, want a Larue though
Old Laser of some sort, want a Wilcox PEQ7
Aimpoint Comp M2 Red Dot on Mil Mount
Bushmaster and Brownells Mags w/Magpul AT Followers and Ranger Floorplates
Magpull PMags if they ever show up

Bushmaster M4 Patrolmen (I think)
M4 Profile 16" Chomo Barrel (w/ M203 Groove)
Standard A3 Upper
Surefire 4 Rail front grip
Streamlight LED (Model??)
EOTech 553
M4 Collapsible Stock

DPMS LR-308
All stock with Leupold VX-III 4x12

Plus 2 More Stock (NIB) M4 Patrolmens and 2 Charles Daly DM4S and DM4

They are all very good guns, and very fun to shoot. If you are wanting an AR, find a good brand that you can actually get ahold of, and snatch it up, if its not exactly what you want, change it. Or go the lower route, and you can put it together as the money allows.

 

[Supplicate]

I dunno what they would do without coating the cases.

use something other then steel...

To each their own

I'm not trying to change your mind. I'm just putting out the reasons I don't shoot steel cased ammo in my AR.

Another thing you should think about concerning your argument about the cases not expanding far enough; think of the explosion that goes on inside that case. Do you really think that steel case is strong enough to resist the few thousandths of an inch it would need to swell to "seal off" a SAAMI chamber? If it really could, they should buy that stuff inches thick and use it for armor...

 

[$nowMeansBroke]

Wolf = Cheap, Dirty, Jams on Occasion, Not reloadable

Not to keep harping on Wolf here, but if you get the boxer primed stuff you can reload it. It works fine for loading up cheap FMJ's for plinking. And unlike brass cases, the steel cases hardly stretch at all which means you don't need to trim them often if at all. They generally can't be reloaded as many times as brass cases though, but even once and you've saved money. I've got a gallon ziplock bag of Wolf cases resized, primed, and ready to load once I get some time to do it.

 

[Supplicate]

And unlike brass cases, the steel cases hardly stretch at all which means you don't need to trim them often if at all.

they also tear up your dies easier since they aren't as malleable...

 

[$nowMeansBroke]

they also tear up your dies easier since they aren't as malleable...

A quick tumble in walnut media will clean all of the crap off of the cases, they won't scratch the dies simply because they're steel. The steel that reloading dies are made from is a lot harder than the cheap steel that those cases are made from. Having junk on brass cases is hard on dies too. Besides, a set of Lee dies is about $25. I wouldn't run them through a fancy Dillon setup, but if I had $1K to blow on a reloading machine, I probably wouldn't be shooting wolf anyways.

 

[Supplicate]

malleability doesn't have anything to do with cleaning up your cases, you should do that regardless of what material they are made of.

Simply put, steel is a "tougher" material then brass, therefore it will cause more wear and "tear up" your dies more. It doesn't matter that the expander ball is carbide or the body is heat treated whatever miracle steel they are using now. Wear is wear, it might take a couple hundred thousand steel cases to wear them out compared to a million plus with brass, but it will still wear them out.

Not to mention that steel, being less malleable, is more likely to stick in a die, as well as neck tension will be lost at a faster rate on steel due, again, to malleability.

 

[$nowMeansBroke]

True, but the fact remains that wolf cases ARE reloadable, assuming you get the boxer primed ones. I'm not saying they're gods gift to reloaders, but theres nothing wrong with loading up some plinking rounds and using them a few times and then leaving them lay. Even loading 10K steel cases won't shorten the life span of your dies enough to notice in your lifetime.

 

[wyofreeride]

Not to keep harping on Wolf here, but if you get the boxer primed stuff you can reload it. It works fine for loading up cheap FMJ's for plinking. And unlike brass cases, the steel cases hardly stretch at all which means you don't need to trim them often if at all. They generally can't be reloaded as many times as brass cases though, but even once and you've saved money. I've got a gallon ziplock bag of Wolf cases resized, primed, and ready to load once I get some time to do it.

Good to know, I didn't know that steel cases were reloadable, reagrdless of primer. I'll start saving. -Joe

 

[MtnDoo]

Ok, all of you Redneck-Nation AR lovers... check out this classic Tommy (NFA licensed unit of course):

http://site04436.customer.hagenhost...results_format=long&db_id=246&query=retrieval

 

[MtnDoo]

And one for the ladies: