OK, so this is how my interest in an AR15 began.

I went to the Charlotte Gun Show on Saturday, WOW , never been to a gun show before so I cannot say how good a show it was, but there must have been 100,000 people there. Lot's of firearms, and a couple of places had what I thought were a good assortment of reloading supplies, with the exception of bullets.

Any way, I got the chance to handle a few AR's and they felt great and now I want some, OK maybe just one to start with.

I, fortunately was able to resist an impulse buy, because I want to learn more about the gun and ask ya'll for your thoughts and recommendations.

You know calibers, manufacturers, reloading. So what's up with the AR15?

Oh Lester, you have been bitten by the black gun bug!!!! In my opinion these are one of the easiest guns to learn to shoot and to shoot well. the .223 is effective and the recoil is nonexistent so flinching just doesnt get learned.

The AR-15 is most commonly chambered in .223 rem. They can be had in a wide variety of calibers from .204 Ruger to .458 SOCOM including the WSSM family of cartridges. Dtech of Minnesota makes some real hammers in these calibers. The neat thing about them is that to change configuration to a different caliber or barrel length, sight system etc. it takes maybe 20 seconds to push the two takedown pins and swap out a new upper on the lower. The major players in the AR-15 manufacturing are Rock River, Remington-Bushmaster DPMS, Stag arms Olympic arms,Armalite and a whole bunch of others. Parts are interchangeable since all are patterned off of the Mil Spec.

The ATF regulates the lower reciever as the gun part since that contains the fire control parts. The upper reciever is the barrel and sight system and is not regulated. You can have an upper mailed to your door.

The classic service rifle configuration has the carry handle permanently forged into the upper with the rear sight in the carry handle. 99% of these are in A2 style that has windage and elevation adjustable rear sight and a 16 or 20 inch barrel with a 1:9 twist or slower for bullets up to 62 grains. The A1 early variants allowed for windage at the rear sight and required elevation be adjusted in the front sight only and many had a 1:12 twist.

Service rifles can be tricked out with faster twist barrels (1:7),1/4 moa sights and a free float tube under the hand guards and be made for precision target shooting out to 1000 yards with iron sights. White Oak Precison and Compass Lake are two of the best service riflesmiths for the top end guns.


The newer style A3 and A4 have a removable carry handle so a scope or dot type sight can be mounted lower and closer to the bore. These often come with a six position adjustable stock and many picatinny rails for scopes lights lasers and various othe "tacticool" add ons. Most of these are carbine length barrels.

The varmint style has no carry handle or front sight and are designed for scopes only. The have longer fast twist barrels.

The AR-10 family is a larger big brother version that handles the .308 family of calibers(.308,260,.243 and others)

The flash suppresors were legal, then banned and are now legal again for the time being. A Post ban gun has no flash hider on it. A Pre ban gun has the birdcage flash hider.

Hopefully I answered a few questions but I am sure raised a few more. Just ask.!

Hey Lester, AR's are about as simple as you can get but, if you do get one and want it to be a .223 get a 5.56x45mm NATO instead. The ones chambered .223 can't shoot the NATO ammo but if you get a rifle chambered for 5.56mm you can shoot both. There's also a neat little upgrade you can get for it by Adam's Arms. It's called a gas piston system. They cost about $500 but they are well worth it. Also get one that's either an A-3 flat top or an M-4 type.

Les, I bought a DPMS "Lo Pro Classic" a couple years ago for my first AR. It has become a "varmint rifle", due to the overall weight. My best group so far was around 0.7" at 100 yards. Now I'd like a lightweight carbine...

OK, first thanks for all the input.

I will be buying an AR15 in 5.56 cal, and also will be buying my grandson a Savage Varmint .223, so brass is covered.

I was reading a post elsewhere where it said the you can but an UPPER and a LOWER and just slap them together.

Is this real?

I would think it is just a bit more difficult than just slapping them together. Are any other parts needed, magazines, bolt, whatever?

Also, I am looking a a Stag, anybody have any experience with them?

Les,

It IS as simple as "slapping" them together. You can have one lower and several uppers in different configurations and change the upper and be shooting almost as fast as changing the magazine.

A friend at my gun club has a Stag, and he let me fire one day. He did months of research once he made up his mind to get an AR, and ended up with it. It's a great gun, and I don't think you can go wrong there.

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Yes Lester it is that easy as long as the magazine dimensions fit the AR-15 size 5.56 lower, you can slap any type upper on your Stag lower. The only Caveat is that some of the real old colt lowers had a different size front pin hole and you would need a special adapter to use one of those with a newer upper.


Get a DPMS in .204 or a Dtech custom in 25 WSSM and it only takes pushing out two takedown pins and lifting the one upper off and slapping the new upper on and re inserting the pins. The bolts and bolt carriers are not interchangeable between the uppers tough.


If you want the larger cases like .308 or .243 you will need an AR-10 lower.


Off the top of my bald head, I can come up with this list of available uppers that will slap onto any AR-15 lower.... .223/5.56, 7.62x39, .204 ruger,17 remington 20 tactical, 6.5 Grendel, 6.8 SPC, .243 WSSM, .25 WSSM, .358 SOCOM, .450 Bushmaster, .50Beowulf

For about half the price of a whole new gun you can get a different caliber upper and BONUS! no FFL required! you can order one from Cabelas and they will mail it to you.

I have not heard anything bad about Stag arms. I hear a lot of good about Rock River.

Les, as a friend said to me, the AR is the "LEGO set" of guns. It's easy to swap parts around to get any configuration you'd like. I've changed the pistol grip, gas block and recoil buffer on mine while sitting in the den.

Take a look at AR15.com for lots of info.

lesterg3 if you have not bought one yet i have a new bushmaster cabon 15 in 9mm with 3-32rnd mags,carry handle and 1200rnds of ammo for 1200.00 if interested at dakota1060 @ peoplepc.com