After over 20 years of gathering, I've decided that I'm ready to trade quantity for quality.

I'm looking to get rid of the majority of my plethora of PSA, Anderson, DS, Meme Lowers & generic Ar's and get a few really nice bucket list items.  After that I think I'll be done.

My short list is:

Colt SP1 (although IDK anything about them or which one to get)
Colt 6951 to replace one that I had years ago
Colt 6450 again to replace one that I traded for a 1919 back in the early 2000's
Sig MCX Spear LT
Sig MCX Spear in 308

Any thoughts on something that I might be overlooking?

If you insist on Colt, the 6940 is just about a perfect 16” AR

Unless you have girly hands and can’t touch a rail.

I know nothing personally of SIG so I can’t comment on those.

Oh that's an awesome suggestion for the 6940 I forgot about those.

I did just get a 6920 and like it.

Wait though. Do you mean the 6940p or 6940?

I don't trust Sig engineering of their long term commitment to sustaining products. They have a history of beta testing products on customers and abruptly abandoning product lines. Maybe a SCAR L and SCAR H in place of the Spears? or HK MR556/762 Or LMT MARS-L and MARS-H or SR-15/SR25

Any reason for the Colt & SIG preference?

Your choices are all good, but there are other manufacturers that make high quality complete rifles.

I only have a 6940. Or 3 as some got lost fishing I just can’t remember.

I always wanted a P but the proprietary parts would make me not want to shoot it.
The Ps are becoming collectible now.

And i was thinking. You need at least one ‘other’ receivers. With today’s brace tech and design a braced poor man’s SBR is a no brainer. Besides, you have to have some reason you’ve got those SBR uppers laying around.

You know what you're right about that and I forgot about the SCAR...

Ok so I'm swapping the SIGs for the SCAR 16S and 17S

I have not been impressed by the sig mcx’s I have shot. I dig the SP1’s and 6520’s my dad collected those and that’s what I shot growing up. I would look at the 6960 and in lieu of the sig I would get a geissele super duty or noveske chainsaw

What exactly about the mcx do you dislike?

I’d stick with the MCX.  The SCAR is a much older platform, past its prime years for .gov contracts.  Some still exist, but I doubt we’ll be seeing much of anything new in that realm, at least anything significant.  You have to remember, FN is first and foremost about government contracts, so if those all dry up, I wouldn’t expect to see much support for the SCAR going forward.

On top of that, the SCAR has been known to not play nice with many suppressors in stock form (requiring aftermarket parts) and FN won’t warranty the gun if you break something suppressed.  Replacement/spare parts are insanely expensive to boot.  A replacement SCAR 16 bolt (just the bolt, not the entire carrier/assembly) is currently $400.

The MCX on the other hand has had essentially one major revision since its inception that included changes to core parts affecting compatibility.  That was primarily with the bolt/barrel going from Legacy to Virtus.  Yes, other stuff has changed, like receiver length, but you can mix and match stuff (like a Virtus recoil assembly and barrel into a legacy receiver) and everything works fine.

Going from Virtus to Spear, there were many changes, but backwards compatibility essentially remained.   You can swap a Virtus barrel or bolt into a Spear, or vice versa, and rock on.  It’s really only a problem perpetuated by people who don’t understand the platform.

Looking at current contracts, the MCX has done nothing but continually expand, so I would expect continuing support for current models and updates that maintain compatibility with common core components.

I say all this as a guy who’s divested himself of everything MCX except my Rattler upper due to the niche it fills.  I simply prefer the AR platform.  Stepping outside the basic AR though, there isn’t a better solution than the MCX with its parts availability, parts cost, ease of maintenance, modularity, and available aftermarket support.  

Just my $0.02.

If you are doing a SCAR ignore the 16 and get a 17.  The 16 really is not worth the cost over a high end AR.  The 17 at least gets you a 308 rifle that is lightweight and light recoil while being very accurate out of the box.

Remove the Spear heavy from your list. The handguard shift issue is real. The accuracy issues are real. It’s a turd.

I’d instead get a LMT MARS-H, DD5, Colt M7, or a Seekins SP10 for a large frame AR.

Get both. Quality and quantity.

This is all true.
In terms of non-ARs, the MCX is the future (and the SCAR is the past)
Is it perfect, no, but no relatively new platform is going to be as refined as a high end AR that has 60+ years of development behind it.
My only real gripe with the Spear LT is the handguard-to-receiver lockup; hopefully they fix that one day, but there is a longer top rail at least, for anything that needs to be hard mounted.  The MCX will continue development and support long term... no worries there.  It is being purchased in significant quantities by govt entities the world over.  It does a LOT right, in my opinion.

In terms of the general thought process... While I definitely like nice rifles, I would keep a couple beaters around as well for whatever you might need them for.  I do various "new-to-me" component and part testing on guns I don't care about.
Also, the performance difference between a beater PSA and a top end rifle is... potentially pretty thin, depending on your use case and expectations.

Admittedly I’m a SCAR lover but I agree with most of what you posted. It’s a legacy weapons system at this point and aside from little tweaks like the 6.5 Creedmoor DMR version of the 17 and the 15P it’s been pretty much abandoned by FN.

As far as suppressor use, it was designed to run suppressed, it has a suppressor setting on the gas block. It’s a hell of a lot easier to set it up to run ideally with whatever suppressor you chose than a DI gun. The only “aftermarket” parts you may need is a different gas control screw. Those cost $8 and can be swapped out in a minute or two.

I can’t believe how overblown the whole warranty thing gets. Just use a little common sense and it’s s none issue. A way over gassed AR will start to break parts and eventually beat itself to death also. Durability is one of the scars strong suits and something I don’t worry about.



I agree with this. Lots of piston 5.56 guns to choose from. Even 15 years later there aren’t many direct competitors to the 17.

How does the MCX perform with a suppressor?  Is it ready out of the box?

I recently shot my RR with a can and it was very - very - unpleasant.  (Still fun as hell, but dirty and painful to my face) I learned that special charging handles can mitigate this for the true AR platform, what about the MCX?

In my opinion they perform fine, on par with a similar AR, but they are gassed to run without a suppressor out of the box.
It would be nice if Sig released various gas plugs for user tuneability in the future, and I believe that is in the works.

Special charging handles in ARs do virtually nothing, in my opinion:
1) The area around the latch doesn't even get dirty, so how could a bunch of gas be going through there?  It isn't.
2) The gas in your face is coming out of the chamber/ejection port, not the gas tube.  See #1.  Even if you subscribe to the theory that the charging handle is doing something in the AR, in the MCX it wouldn't since it's a piston system anyway.

SCAR cost of ownership is the downside to the whole SCAR series.  I would love to have a 16 but the cost of the rifle and what I am getting over a high end AR I just do not see the benefit.  I could get a number of different rifles that are comparable, maybe better, or basically on par.  I did almost trade a friend of mine for his 16 but he started turning into a "I know what I got" wanting way more than what I wanted to trade and playing the I overvalue my item and undervalue your items.  He was basically wanting about 4500 in my items for his SCAR 16 so I passed.

The LMT is my favorite and I have shot it a lot. I put Vortex on it after the Bushnell reticle became an issue for my eyeballs.




I might pick up a used Sig Rattler MCX if the opportunity arises, but that's different.....

Here’s the real challenge: can you sell ALL but one of your current rifles? You’ll feel a lot more relieved and enjoy shooting a lot more. You’ll also feel way more professional considering you’ll be able to swap out any parts that may never break or wear. It’s a scary concept but I’ve been doing it for the past year actually almost 2 years. I did buy a dd ambi rifle but sold it with the upper on my previous lower.

That's a great question, yeah I think so but of everything I have I might not want to keep one hah

For fun I have an rr m16, and honestly I never shoot any of the ars I've got.  Idk if it's because why bother, or they just don't do it for me.  But if I had some nice lookers, worth more as collectors items, or recognizable names even to grandma that makes it feel like more of a collection rather than a sum of parts.

It's not utility, just preference at this point.

After my father passed away I recall he had a large collection of watches. I remember growing up he would always go out and buy them and collect them, and always being very careful about how he wears it and making sure no scratches get on it. But after he passed away, we're left with figuring out what to do with the watches. I started watching safe opening videos and it kind of dawned on me that this was someone's prized collection. They probably acted just like my father did where they would have some reason for purchasing it but it did nothing more than saved it for someone else to use and enjoy, probably in better or worst ways than he did before him.

So looking at my own life I realize that I had a lot of collected items, many of which did nothing but stayed in the safe. Sure they might have been collectables and something worth it, but I know a day and a time will come when I won't be around anymore and after which, who knows what might happen to the collection and just how much someone else might value it. Looking at my dad's watches, a few of them I had memories of them and would keep them but the rest, will probably go someday or eventually.

With that in mind, I think my focus now is to use my items, and if they're not being used, they should be gotten rid of. If I tell myself, "but this is a collectable..." and it goes on sale instead of me keeping it because all I'm doing is holding it for someone else.

Personally I think you should look at your collection right now, think of which ones you use the most. If your purpose of buying the "quality" rifles is to just keep them around as collectable, I would instead question if you can get by with just 1 collectable instead of many. If you use the rifles, perhaps having something that you can share memories with yourself and families. You'll never remember about that SP1 you had in your safe that's in some corner that someday someone will show on youtube that they discovered this hidden gem hidden behind all the other collectables you had. But if you used that same SP1, took your kids out to shoot, and youreself out to shoot, and someday when you pass away your children can pick it up and remember all the nicks and scratches and tell a story about how it got on there or even more so how that one time you shot the barrel out and how you went on search for a replacement barrel but you had to hold off because you had to pay your kid's tuition until some years later where you finally got the replacement. That will be a lot more valuable than anything you purchase today.

A Colt SP-1 is 1960's tech, its only value is collector status.

I like Colt AR's, a 6920 is good enough for me. Because AR's can be built by anyone at home, I would consider building premium uppers instead of buying commercial. They won't hold resale value, but they will be better than anything you can buy commercially.

I'd say colt is solidly mid grade.

Nothing wrong with them, definitely a step up compared to what you have, but the only reason to seek out a colt is if you are a collector, and I think even colt collectors are starting to become less common.  FN has provided rifles to the US military, and I think id prefer a FN.  But then there are plenty of other collectible ARs (I think clone builds will be more collectibles than generic colts in a configuration that were never issued).

If you are looking for truly top tier ARs, I'd be looking at

1) KAC/LMT - depending on what features are most important to you.

2) Geissele

3) Daniel Defense

Home build mutts certainly aren't necessarily lower quality than a geiselle or DD, but it sounds like you are interested in factory rifles.

If I were planning to dump all my ARs for one or two top of the line factory rifles, my first choice would be an LMT Mars-L, and if you want one in 5.56 and 308, a Mars-L and a Mars-H. After that, KAC of your choice.

Uh.. what am I missing here.  I just went to gunbroker to look up a KAC rifle and the money don't make sense to me.  11,500 for a semi auto rifle? 675 dollars for a charging handle?  250 for a safety selector?

What's the deal?  What are you getting in this thing?

I’m far from the biggest KAC fanboy, which is why my first choice for top tier AR is LMT. But if you have the money to afford KAC, sandcutter BCGs, E3 bolts, proprietary gas system (despite being proprietary) makes for a smooth shooting rifle. I can’t speak personally for Geissele rifles but after the initial issues, they seem to be well liked, well performing rifles for way less than a KAC. I’ve just never shot one.

I haven’t kept up with what’s going on with KAC currently but I remember reading last year that they weren’t doing any civilian orders which is why the used market pricing on them has been so high the last couple years.  If I’m wrong, someone will be along with the correct info.

You could always just build your own custom to your preferences. You can always build something amazing with today's parts.

For example, I built a lightweight precision 223 rifle with a custom Bartlein barrel, JP bolt, carrier, buffer spring, VSeven 2055/2099 upper/lower/rail/receiver extension as well as all their lightweight small parts, Geissele trigger, etc. Ended up with a 6 pound even, 3/4 MOA rifle that I absolutely love.

As far as buying, you could also consider a larger caliber but lighte weight/small form factor 6.5 Creedmoor or 308 from POF.

If you just want ultimate accuracy from a large frame you can co.pete with there is always JP.

I always seem to end up disappointed with the uber expensive factory military type rifles. They just never seem to have the bleeding edge accuracy you would want from something as expensive as they are... and only accurate rifles are interesting.

From what I understand KAC kind of went under, a bit. I think they lost their military contract and fired most of their staff and redid their factory space.  Most of their glass door reviews been really negative. They also sold the rights to their rails to a company off brownells and I think they're selling them for way less.

As far as I can tell they are not fully operational. They're really focusing on their military contracts instead or what's left of it. They are making rifles here and there but whenever they get into the market, it is immediately bought by someone who then re-sells it on gunbrowker for the really high price.

Personally I think KAC will end soon.

How much better is the 6940 over the 6920?

Where’s the quantity?

I have had both at the same time and was not really a difference to me, maybe a bit more accurate for the 6940 having a floated barrel.   I like to be able to work on mine and the 6940 takes some special tool for the lower part 9f the handguard.  If that's not really a concern, the 6940 is a great way to go.

For the OPs original thoughts,  if you want something different,  an Aug or x95 are nice for a non-AR.  I have had both, but since I want to  be able to change up more on my own, then weren't for me, both are great though.

I think the questions to ask yourself is what is the purpose I want these for, unless you just have the money to buy, then definitely enjoy yourself!

@Ronnoc

Thanks.

Sig is known for leaving customers without parts/support. They drop new generations like a bad habit.

The big FN warranty nightmare story that went viral was a guy whose bolt carrier broke and seized. They denied it because he changed out the muzzle device and ran a suppressor on it. It was a big deal because FN said there is no suppressor setting on the SCAR and it’s made for adverse conditions. They stated outright removing the muzzle device voids the warranty, therefore so does suppressing it.

His barrel was fine but FN refused to replace just the carrier. They made him buy a new bolt and barrel not because they were damaged, but because they said all three items have to be matched by FN.

I think the Spear LT will be the actual next general issue rifle after the XM7 rightfully tanks as a standard issue gun. I don’t think I’d buy one yet though. They need to fix the barrel mounting issues.

I’d be looking at a SR15 or Suoer Duty if I wanted peak 5.56 gun.

I did own an FN SCAR16 a while back and the manual did mention that putting a suppressor on voided the warranty. I imagine since they can't control the ammunition used or the suppressor gas blow back level, they really can't warranty their products. However the thing about the scar though is that it is an optic killer. The reciprocating part is really massive compared to other similar rifles and really pounds into the upper. I had the non-reciprocation charging handle model but the bcg would still be a massive chunk of steel and the charging handle is more like a ar15 one where it's just a thin sleeve that locks into the upper.

My thought is to avoid an FN SCAR if you're going to buy a "premium" rifle. The barrel replacement is in the 1.3k ranges, and who knows if one will still be in production. I never seen a spare bolt or assembly for sale and when they do, again 500-1000 for a simple bolt or assembly. With a suppressor the gas blow back is significant as well and I imagine it would wear parts, and optics out sooner even in the "suppressed" setting.

The only thing I liked about the SCAR was that it was a very easy shooter with the ugg boots stock. It was comfortable and nice and very easy to clean and disassemble.

It's the only fighting rifle in the world offered that has 0 input from actual warfighters. I do agree that a very nice DI gun is a better idea. LMT, KAC, or Geissele are probably going to be the top of the list in terms of the best type of AR15 you can currently buy.

I'd skip the Sigs and go with an LMT MRP & MWS with MARS lowers.  They have some proprietary parts, but a number of the parts can be replaced with standard AR parts.

Sig has a longgggg history of abandoning platforms.

I've had SCARs, they are nice but finding replacement parts can be a problem.

Also, you are picking an awful time to try to sell your unwanted ARs.