So I'm in the market for a AR rifle, target shooting and predator hunting.

Got a bonus from work so not really on a budget or anything.
Just want a good one, that's dependable and good shooting.
What's something that good?
What do you all like, and don't like?

Thanks for any input

So many more makers now than there was a decade ago. Many will advise you to buy the parts separate and build it. If you dont want to do that, there are numerous good brands out there.
$1000-$1500 Rock River Arms is popular around here for predator hunting
$2000-$2500 Daniel Defense is solid.
Many, many others out there....others will surely have good suggestions
There are much cheaper ones out there, but youll end up buying better triggers for them. If price is not an issue as you stated, buy once, cry once....

Just buy a psa. Buy the completed lower and completed upper separate. Be under 600 and get you all you need for the job your asking it to do.

Reviews on the cheap AR’s are often amazingly good. My thought is unless my life depends on having top tier parts throughout, go with the 6-800 rig and throw another 150’ish at a nice drop in trigger. PSA or Primary Arms have a few choices in that price range.

Find someone that builds em near you and get what you want. Make it a fun project.

I started with a 16" A2 bushmaster. It has the fixed handel on top. Yes it was a long time ago. I didnt know what I liked or wanted at that point. I started swaping out parts. Flat top upper receiver for arm better trigger ect. Eventually all I needed was another barrel and lower receiver to have a 2nd gun.

The point is figure out wabt you want and how you want it before spending money and e ding up with a box of parts. On the flip side I did Eventually figure out what I like and why and friends got a lot of free parts I gave them to get started.

Most I have shot will out shoot cheap bulk ammo ability when loaded with good ammo. Price range is about 400 to above 3k . The top end models use top end parts and will be able to shoot a little better sometimes and ma hold up better under hard use. But being realistic few will be in combat with theirs or need true hard use. And if you wear one out you could buy several replacements for the cheaper models for the price of one top end gun.

If starting over again I would well what I did with my most recent gun. I bought quality parts I wanted for the parts that matter. Trigger larue 2 stage(sp) barrel fn, bolt carier group bcm, charging handle Gisele. Cheap parts milliseconds buffer tube and receivers. Cost more than an entry model at about 1400 at the time but its what I wanted how I wanted it and cheaper than some others.

Its all about what you want and your use. If you want top end name operator used gear get it. There are also several cal options I like better than 5.56 depending on intended use. Its all what you want. You can also have more than one.

Unless you are in a,state like WA where you can't even buy parts, get the parts and make what you want/ need and research to make sure you get good parts to make your accurate rifle

I have built AR's for over 40 yrs. I would buy a stripped lower and put it together how you want. You can get a good drop in trigger for 90.00 on sale to 200.00. There are some many parts and they all interchange. I buy plan Jane upper and find a good barrel. The rifle below are Aero lower and upper. I purchased the stripped uppers on here a few months ago. And lower from Runnings in Moorhead MN. And put them together. The key is good barrels and triggers. These are 6MM ARC and 223

I have a 5.56 palmetto state armory and a 300 blackout from durkin tactical. Bought the kits. Both go bang when trigger is pulled and shoot good. Only 3 boxes of ammo through the 300 so far,, just built it. But many rounds through the 556. No complaints and no reason to want an expensive one.

for a ready to run rifle it is hard to beat the Ruger , not the cheapest not the most expensive , decent well featured gun with the stuff you want.

https://ruger.com/products/harrier/specSheets/28600.html

I have 9, from 5.56 to 458 SOCOM, they are all parts guns, the cost reflects the quality of the parts.

I have a couple ARs in .308. A Ruger SAFR and a Live Free made in Florida. The Live Free cost less but has a very nice trigger and says groups around an inch or less. Both good guns for what they are. I prefer the 308 far above a 223 for shooting anything tougher than paper especially if they arre up to no good I want them to stop it now The Ruger is a little lighter, the Live Free much nicer trigger

Very good information everyone, thanks

IMO, just for fun type gun, buy one of the cheapest, put a $100-125 drop in trigger in it and a decent scope on the top and you'll be happy with the results. I have less than $500 in mine an it shoots really well....

Daniel Defense is a really good upper middle range option.

Good fire arm but paying for the name. For the average guy and what the o.p. is looking for D.D. is overkill.

For guys (like me) who are not up to speed on "building" an AR......which could also be described as assembling a bunch of components.........I had to look it up as to what we would getting ourselves into. The part that would have me scratching my head would be installing the barrel, as in normal bolt gun terms, that is normally done by a gunsmith to handle the very specific issue of getting the chamber headspace right.

But then guys throw around terms like upper and lower and bolt carrier group and trigger group, etc. To those on outside looking in, hard to figure out what all that means. I have learned the "lower" is the actual "rifle"........the lower is the part that wears the serial number and is subject to the FFL rules. Seems odd as on a bolt gun, the action........what resembles the upper on an AR is the "rifle". All else are parts that get bolted on. Hard to imagine you can buy all these parts and only thing really matters or controlled is the "lower" or action on a bolt action rifle.

And if AR's work like most everything else, if you care about accuracy, what matters more than all else combined is the barrel. Good barrels shoot.......and junk barrels......not so much?

But as for the assembly of an entire purchased kit........what is the order of difficulty? Easy peasy or better have some skills? I've always heard that even brain surgery isn't hard.....if you know how.

Lastly, I can see no upside to going to .223 and no downside to going 5.56........does that sound right?

.223 Wylde is the most precise and can shoot both .223 and 5.56. A regular .223 can only shoot .223. 5.56 can shoot both .223 and .556.

If yout not comfortable puting on a barrel you can buy an assembled upper with barrel, and hand gard you want. With or without bolt carier group and charging handel.

Do you want a m 16 bolt carier group that's had things mike the bolt tested. Or an ar 15 bolt carier. What's the difference m 16 has more material not having part of the bolt cut out so it cant function full auto when combined with the rest of required parts. M16 bolt carier are legal in ar. They add mass and help with reliable I read. I cant tell the difference I have guns with both.

I like nice triggers ( nice dose not mean always expensive just nicer than GI ) they are easy to swap out. I also like ambidextrous charging handles and saftys. But I also have some left handed people in the house.

Mine is a Rock River Arms, it’s a great gun.

Link to an old thread I did thag should he'll explain building an upper lots of pictures
https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8177204/6mm-arc-pt-2-load-testing#Post8177204

Figured you would aim for the centerline. lol

Bottom line is there are good low end AR’s. If you do a bit of research you can get a good shooting rig for < $800.00. ADC and I mentioned where to put another $125 for.

PSA has their Easter sale going on. Check out their website.

how are pickets mill ar's?

You look like Wolfie in that picture..

There are 100's of YouTube videos on putting AR-15'S together. Like I said before get a good drop in trigger and good barrel and your good to go. I have been around 100's of AR's and seen very few of the cheap 400.00 to 600.00 AR's that shot good. Now when I build one for a guy I shoot it after it's together and if I can't shoot 5 shots at 100 yds less than a half inch I send the barrel back for a new one. A rifle that will only shoot a inch ot inch and a half at 100 yds. Will really shoot bad at 300 yds.

Buy the cheapest parts you can find. Buy a barrel wrench. Buy or make the tool to install the pins that hold the upper to the lower. Put all those cheap parts together and go shoot it.
Now you're experienced and can buy better parts and assemble a better rifle.

Huh?
English please.

Pickett's Mill Armory. I had to look it up. Based in Georgia , a veteran owned company making AR rifles and parts.

Does the PSA (or others) have an abbreviation glossary page?

How is pistol lower differ from other lower?

We need more options LOL.

Have a springfield victor saint. Been a good gun. Have had a bunch, dpms, black rain, bushmaster, anderson, psa. Never had an issue with any.

Unless your talking about say a 9mm lower, they are different. But any standard AR caliber 223, 300 Blackout, 6.5 Grendel, 6MM ARC, 22 ARC and so on all use the same lower. In MN AR 's are considered a handgun with the grip. But can build them into any caliber you want and barrel design. Like a 10.5 inch pistol barrel or 16 inch rifle.

An other can become a pistol or a rifle but starts incomplete.

a pistol lower was completed as a pistol , it can be made a rifle and go back to being a pistol

an other becomes whatever it is first finished as , I always toss a pistol buffer on every lower before doing anything else to it making it a pistol and retaining the ability to do either

an other is a non functional piece of metal or plastic with a metal serial number embedded in it. it needs parts to become either a rifle or a pistol so it starts as an "other"

basically they over complicated things in trying to infringe on your rights in 1934 and then had to make a bunch of things like "other" "AOW" and such to un-paint themselves from the corner from their lack of understanding of what they were doing in 1934

did you know rifles and shotguns were required to have an 18 inch barrel , until in 1968 the US government realized it had sold Millions of SBR short barrel rifles to citizens in violation of it's own law. so they just made it 16 inches so that those millions of guns wouldn't be violations.

much like they had done with the millions of 22 rimfire guns in 1936 when they were made aware of their mistake.

and also in 1936 since a lot of prominent business men and senators and such had pre-1934 Ithaca defenders a 14 inch barrel shotgun so the AOW was born with a 5 dollar tax stamp so the well off could still own them. 5 dollars in 1936 was a weeks groceries.

Pete a pistol grip shot gun sold that was from the manufacturer should also be called in and marked as sold as other. The definition of shotgun is shoulder fired and its not rifled so not a handgun.

The ignorance of the gun laws is ridiculous.

Thanks for those replies.

The way I read this a guy should buy pistol lower
to cover all the bases?
I'll bring this up to the Smith.
He likes my questions ha.

Friend had an old police model Win shotgun.
Every warden introduced their tape measure.

Any reputable gun maker makes good AR’s. You can go as cheap or expensive as you want. You can also go as heavy and light as you want, so remember that. Walking around with a 15# rifle isn’t fun. I have a DPMS that shoots great but it’s HEAVY. I have an SFAR that shoots great and it’s light, even with a suppressor and thermal.

the lower should say "multi" on it, it can bee built into any configuration.

I'm not the OP, but am following. Along lines of OP's objective, so far, these guys have been mentioned, plus a few more.......

Picketts Mill Armory

https://pmarmory.com/

Springfield Armory ......Saint, plus the old throwback option of a M16a2

https://www.springfield-armory.com/ar-series/

Bravo Company

https://bravocompanyusa.com/

Palmetto State Amory

https://palmettostatearmory.com/

Probably left out a couple dozen more.........

So comes another question. Good barrels have been mentioned more than once..........so who makes a good barrel? I have two bolt guns wearing Bartlein barrels, but that seems a bit over the top for an AR. So who makes a good one? And along same lines, what twist rate? Some of above are showing twist rates of 1:7, which seems silly for what I would think normal use would be. A twist that fast would only be used for high BC bullets intended for targets way, way out there........like half a mile or so. Would not think that would be normal for AR's????

Multi on the receiver has nothing to do with its legal configuration. As listed by green county its federal determine by how its built the first time.

As for barrels, these guys look trustworthy............and dedicated to the cause............

https://faxonfirearms.com/blog/build-guide-how-to-choose-the-right-556-barrel-for-your-ar15/

MULTI is multi caliber so not a specific caliper

it does not determine rifle or pistol

Well i got one ordered, a Ruger the newer one out.
In 5.56 nato, and the scope just went with what the gun shop recommended.
I've used this gun shop alot , and got $200.00 off on the package.
They will set it all up, I'll just have to sight it in.

Went with a couple extra 30 round clips to.

It's the 28600, the one greencountrypete. Recommend.

Fixed it for you.....congrats on your purchase. It'll be lots of fun.

left to right
stripper clip , enbloc clip , 15 round Glock pistol magazine , 30 round AR magazine

Word of advice get you some smaller capacity mags , Find myself with 10 rd mags more then anything, the 30's seem to always get in the way

Yeah good idea thanks