Advice on AR-15?

[Jensey]

I have been shooting USPSA for about a year, and I am very comfortable with pistols. I know what I like in them, which brands, which caliber, which grip. I am very interested in entering the rifle world and eventually the 3-gun arena, so I want to get an AR-15. There are so many choices. I want to buy one that I could eventually use for 3-gun. I know it is going to be what I am comfortable with, but walking in a gun store the advice is.....well......you guys know. So, my question is what should I be looking for in a rifle that could be used for 3-gun? I am a petite female. I have shot someone's AR-15 at the range one day (it helps to be a cute female--I get offers to shoot fun guns :-) and I did well with it, but I don't know any of the specs on it. Also, is there anything specific I should avoid when I look? Thanks for any advice.

[Aglifter]

You'll want a flat top. Otherwise... They're grown-up Legos...

All I can suggest is trying out different items, and seeing which ones you like.

[rangerguy]

Welcome to the can of worms that the AR platform is. Well a normal plinking ar is way different then a 3gun rifle. Being petite your going to want an adjustable stock. Flat top upper will help when you install a decent optic on it. Burris M-tac is a great entry optic. Your going to want a freefloat handguard for better accuracy but then that means changing gas blocks. 16" barrel 1/9 twist will be fine (most everyone shoots 55g bullets anyways). A good comp helps with recoil. That will get you started. After that your can upgrade your trigger and install a bad lever and abi safety. There is alot of options out there and any decent Ar will start you off in the right direction. Good luck and let us know what you get.

[Jensey]

Welcome to the can of worms that the AR platform is. Well a normal plinking ar is way different then a 3gun rifle. Being petite your going to want an adjustable stock. Flat top upper will help when you install a decent optic on it. Burris M-tac is a great entry optic. Your going to want a freefloat handguard for better accuracy but then that means changing gas blocks. 16" barrel 1/9 twist will be fine (most everyone shoots 55g bullets anyways). A good comp helps with recoil. That will get you started. After that your can upgrade your trigger and install a bad lever and abi safety. There is alot of options out there and any decent Ar will start you off in the right direction. Good luck and let us know what you get.

Oh dear God. I need a personal tutor. Way more to these bad boys than a pistol!! I did know about adjustable stocks and assumed I would need one. The rest of all this........dear God!

[rangerguy]

Ok maybe I went a little over board. I was describing a 3gun rifle. If your wanting to pick up an AR, flat top upper and a 5.56 chamber 1/9 twist is a start. You can add everthing later as you skills improve and you want to get to the next level. Dpms, Bushmaster's are good stating platforms. AR's are like pizza you can get them plain or with everything, all depends on how much you want to spend.

[mpeltier]

I would recomend calling JP Enterprises and order a jp15 with their lightweight 18" bbl and anything else they recomend for you. Tell them about yourself and trust their recomendations. The hardest part will be writing the check.

[OkCorey]

I would recomend calling JP Enterprises and order a jp15 with their lightweight 18" bbl and anything else they recomend for you. Tell them about yourself and trust their recomendations. The hardest part will be writing the check.

This, IMO is good solid advice

as you shoot 3 gun there will be people with rifle issues by going the JP route you simply avoid having a Frankenstein rifle that may or may not run smooth.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I have been shooting USPSA for a year, and am very comfortable with pistols. What pistol are you currently using?

What level of USPSA are you now (C,B or A?)

I am very interested in rifle and the 3-gun arena, so I want to get an AR-15. How much money did you want to spend for the total rifle, with sights?

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

PM Sent with a possible contact in your area

[toothandnail]

You don't have to spend a TON of $$, I have a "Franken" gun cost under $700.00 + optic (Burris).

It has served me well for 5-6? years, I did change the trigger when the factory one wore out, should have done that earlier..

I'm NEVER gonna win my class at a major match(I'm usually in the top 5 at small ones) so why waste $$ on a rifle(any gear) that MAY at BEST, move me up a spot or two, Buy AMMO and practice, when you can OUT SHOOT your gun, you WON'T have to buy another, you will have won SEVERAL at matches to chose from.

[markhawkeyeordnance]

I just want to throw this into the ring. There are not a lot of women in the game yet but that has been changing quickly in the last year or so. Most of the advice here doesn't contemplate that you could very well be top lady just by getting into the game. We need more women in the sport. It is good for a lot of reasons including PR, which is more important than ever right now.

Not to put a bunch of crap on you but I know some amazing women that made the transition to 3 Gun that you are contemplating now and I think they see the opportunity of being early adopters in their gender and that the sky is the limit for them in the sport. Why am I writing this to you this morning? No clue - I guess I am urging you to make sure the gear you select is up to the challenge. JP is the gold standard and you can't go wrong if you have the $$$. There are other great, made for, rifles out there that are less expensive - avoid starting with a standard AR-15 (if possible) and get a competition rifle and optic so you can hit the ground running! In the long run it will save you money unless you intend to become a rifle builder. Top Lady probably awaits you sooner than top dude is available to my fellows and I. Good luck and welcome to the sickness.

[apetrulis01]

How much money are you looking to spend, that is the big question in all of this.

[Jensey]

How much money are you looking to spend, that is the big question in all of this.

Seeing that I am just starting with rifles, and I'll be a novice at 3 gun, and I'd like for my husband to not kill me--about $1000-1400 realistically.

[ranger]

I would buy a used 3 GUN AR15 off the BE Classifieds here and shoot it for a while. See what you learn - then either upgrade that rifle or sell that rifle for most of what you paid for it and buy exactly what you want after you know more.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

I would shoot as many rifles as you can get your hands on. Different barrel lengths, try different comps people have, different grips (You would probably hate mine very aggressive) sights, dots, scopes, Try what people will let you use. Keep a diary and write down what you liked and what you did not like. See what works for you.

If there are clubs near you, go and visit. Make sure you are talking to action shooters so they know what you are looking for. When you have developed a list, see what the manufacturers offer. Colt,DPMS, JP, check them all out. Prices can go from $800 to thousands of dollars.

Being new, if you choose to buy used, take someone with some experience with you to look at the used gear.

There are a lot of people here that know a great deal about rifles (I am not one of them ) Take the time to read and don't rush into anything.

Good luck and I hope the contacts I suggested work for you.

[EkuJustice]

For that budget I would ask around at the club and see if the club has anyone with tools that could help you assemble one.

Barrel 16 inch mid length or 18 in mid or rifle length

Hand guard. Midwest gen2 15 inch

Upper/lower. Whatever you can find for a good price with the roll mark you like

Stock fixed magpul moe rifle stock

Optic burris tac 30 in a pepr mount.

Trigger. Hyper fire

Compensator. Miculk comp.

A pretty competitive rifle can easily be assembled for that budget

Edited October 19, 2013 by EkuJustice

[GuildSF4]

I have a Stag and a DPMS, both work out of the box. (There are others that are good.) The parts I would replace on both are the grip, the trigger, the safety selector and the muzzle break. (Both of these are 1 in 9 twist which if you didn't know refers to the number of inches of travel down the bore for one revolution of the bullet.) 1 in 9 or faster is suggested for best accuracy of heavier bullets. (Twists as they were recommended to me, 1 in 9 for 40 to 69 grain bullets, 1 in 8 for 50 to 80 grain bullets, 1 in 7 for 50 to 90 grain bullets.)

Hope this helps.

[mpk1996]

give Omar a call at Southern Guns LLC in FL. they are building rifles at a very reasonable cost and he can go through the basics with you. then you need to decide if you want to just by a "factory" gun or custom build one. there are advantages to both. it really depends on how picky you are. no sense buying a factory gun to then change out the handguard, trigger, stock, ect. but if you find one that you are happy with, go for it.

basically the things that really make a rifle are the barrel and the trigger. uppers and lowers are very similar across the board (for the most part as long as you are sticking with major manufacturers) and the rest is ergonomics, not really performance.

personally, i would get something with a 1 in 8" twist so you can shoot what you want (you might not always want to shoot 3 gun with it). also, the handguard is important as you will be gripping it a lot. so make sure its something you like. for me a quad rail is way to big and uncomfortable. the centurion arms CMR or noveske nsr are great choices. they are smaller and smoother to grip. you can add rail pieces if you need to add things like a light (say you have a stage with a dark shoot house, you might want a light and not like it mounted at 12 o clock).

i like the shorter barrels, and where we shoot, we don't have lots of real long distance stages. the comp will be important too. seems like the the SJC titan is on the top of the list and I have been happy with mine.

optics are the next thing to look at. they can run a pretty penny as well. again, take a look at where you will be shooting and decide if you need a 1-4 or 1-6x or if you can get away with a 1x red dot. i know a lot of guys run them at our matches with out any issues. in fact, i really haven't dialed mine up yet, but i know we have some matches coming up that will require longer shots.

as others have said, go to one of the matches you want to shoot and see what the others are shooting. that kinda gives you an idea about what you might need to be there.

[BobS761]

And if all this is confusing, just wait until you ask about the shotgun! IMO, Stag or Doublestar 3G rifles will get you started., and not hold you back. There are plenty of others as well.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[Jesse Tischauser]

How much money are you looking to spend, that is the big question in all of this.

Seeing that I am just starting with rifles, and I'll be a novice at 3 gun, and I'd like for my husband to not kill me--about $1000-1400 realistically.

With that price range your only option and it's a good one is a Stag Arms 3G with a Miculek Compensator.

[P.E. Kelley]

How much money are you looking to spend, that is the big question in all of this.

Seeing that I am just starting with rifles, and I'll be a novice at 3 gun, and I'd like for my husband to not kill me--about $1000-1400 realistically.

With that price range your only option and it's a good one is a Stag Arms 3G with a Miculek Compensator.

As much as I would like to promote my sponsor (Seekins Precision) I whole heartedly agree with JT. For $1400 You can't beat the Stag 3G. You might

equal it with the Double Star 3G at the same price but the Stag has a bunch of users and winners behind it.

[carbon9]

Just to add to the confusion.....

My wife and I just built a rifle for her, for comparison's sake she is 5'3" and about 105lbs. She doesn't have a lot of upper body strength and my 17" barrel build with a SJC Titan comp, Magpul UBR stock, Carbon Arms carbon fiber handguard and Aimpoint Comp M3 was still too front heavy for her to use comfortably.

My wife hated shooting it with the Titan comp on it, it is a very good comp but by the end of range time she felt beat up by the sheer concussion of it. Plus the 5oz of weight furthest away from her didn't help. We switched it to the new Carbon Arms comp and it made a huge difference on shooting enjoyability and perceived handling weight. As light as the carbon fiber handguard is, the diameter of it was too much for my wife to feel like she actually had control, she wanted something she could actually grip with her small hands. If you have smaller hands and went with a JP non-billet rifle the handguard would be the only thing I would suggest changing, if weight is an issue you may want to consider a 16" barrel also. Carbon Arms makes some very maneuverable and light weight 16" uppers and rifles also, once again, the diameter of the handguard may not give you the control or grip if you have smaller hands. They are good people and would probably be willing to work with you.

We ended up going with a SAOD Lothar Walther 16" .223 Wylde chambered polygonal rifled barrel for more velocity out of a shorter barrel(i get 3080fps out of a fairly light load in my 17" poly). She went with the Noveske 15" NSR handguard which gives her amazing grip and is super light. A Magpul ACS-L stock keeps a touch of weight towards the back and has a comfortable cheek weld for her. Of course she picked a Carbon Arms comp, although a Fortis Red, if you don't mind a little more blast, runs about the same weight with just a touch more length. I wouldn't say it's better though. A Mikulec comp would be a great choice for size and money. We also went with a Hiperfire trigger so she can adjust pull weight as she gets more comfortable. I chose a JP lightened bolt carrier and SLR adjustable gas block to enable tuning of the rifle for her. The SLR is one of the few clamp on style gas blocks that will fit under the NSR. Two other things that made a big difference in feel for her were the Noveske 60 degree ambi safety and a more vertical pistol grip like the BCM MOD 0. The MOD 0 felt more natural and less cramped allowing her to control everything better. Although she is gonna make me smooth and contour the safety levers for her comfort she doesn't like the sharper texture.

As nobody has really touched on optics or the sheer amount of weight involved with them it makes sense to build a lighter rifle from the ground up. My wife will probably shoot TAC Limited as she does well with the Aimpoint out to 300 yards give or take and doesn't have any interest in the extra pound of weight.....yet She likes a Leupold Prismatic I have laying around even better but only out to about 200yds.

I literally laughed out loud when you wrote "and I'd like for my husband to not kill me--"

He should have known having more then one shooter in the family gets expensive really fast Wait until you tell him you're gonna shoot TAC Optics and must have a Swavorski 1-6.

Best of Luck

Edited October 20, 2013 by carbon9

[Jensey]

"I literally laughed out loud when you wrote "and I'd like for my husband to not kill me--"

He should have known having more then one shooter in the family gets expensive really fast Wait until you tell him you're gonna shoot TAC Optics and must have a Swavorski 1-6."

HAHA! He actually doesn't shoot and doesn't see the point in spending the money on guns. He will spend money on golf clubs, but I would rather make holes on targets instead of in the grass!!

I had never touched a gun a few years ago. I work in a busy ER and I see crime first hand and have been confronted with angry punks before in the ER, so I wanted to learn to protect myself when I'm outside of work without my security having my back. I had a friend teach me to shoot and I wasn't half bad. I got bored just standing still shooting, so he got me into USPSA and I was hooked. I've bought 3 guns and had to ask for forgiveness after each one, lol. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?

Edited October 20, 2013 by Jensey

[Jensey]

So many choices!!!!! So who lives near SC/Ga and is gonna let me try their AR-15 so I can test drive some???

[rangerguy]

If your ever near Myrtle Beach I'll let you shoot mine.