After I sell my SCAR 16, I am going back to an AR style piston rifle.

Trying to decide between the ADCOR A-556 Elite with the new key mod rails, The PWS MK114 Mod 1 and the LWRC M6 IC SPR.

I know everyone has their favorite, so make your case and help me make my decision.

Any help and advise will be appreciated.

What about POF?

POF is pretty heavy from what I have read.

Very happy with my PWS MK114 Mod 1, though I have owned neither of the other two you are considering, and I've only had my PWS for a couple of months.  But so far, it's great - reasonably low recoil thanks to the long piston design, light weight, nice keymod rails, and standard AR controls.

LWRC's come with a free Aimpoint T1 until August 31'st.  Makes it  a no brainer to me.

Any plans to run it with a suppressor? If so, I would suggest going with the LWRC A5 model over the general SPR. The adjustable gas block works wonders.

Kinda hard to argue with that Although the PWS piston design (long stroke integrated with the carrier Ala AK) is outstanding. If cash were free I'd get one of each.

You cant go wrong with LWRC or PWS in my humble opinion. Ive owned both LWRC and PWS, and the only one I wont ever sell is my PWS.

Just purchased my 4th PWS last month. Fantastic weapons and the customer service is the best. The last has not had any range time but, can tell you I have been impressed with the others.
The best of luck.

If you will carry the firearm and do CQ with it the PWS is better balanced and lighter.

While I believe the design is also superior I do not think that is relevant. If you are mostly sitting at a bench it won't matter about weight and balance.

I have 4 PWS (2 MK114s a MK116 Mod0 and a MK114 Mod1) and like others have said I won't be without a PWS.
It is (as of today) the end all lightweight carbine made bar none.

On GB they can be had in the $1600.00 range NIB

I own three LWRC's.  1 of the first 500 M6IC's, Six8 UCIW, 16" Fluted REPR.  First thing that attracted me to LWRC was the ambi controls on the IC.  I like the feel of them in my hands, the balance.  Their CS is second to none.  They have incredible QC also.  I don't know anyone that owns a PWS, but have heard great things about them too.

OP, do you have the opportunity to hold any/all of them?  If you do, do a test of holding them.  One may feel better in your hands than the other.  When I started looking at ARs, I narrowed it down it HK, LWRC, POF & LMT.  From there it was HK & LWRC.  The LWRC was lighter and felt better in my hands.  Also I didn't like that HK has many propriety parts limiting the aftermarket parts available.  I love HK too, have two of their hand guns.

My recommendations in order and corresponding reasons:

LWRC:
Warzone and LEO tested. Long history of reliability. Lightweight, cohesive exterior design with fluted barrels. Almost too beautiful to be a work gun. Higher end shops will have at least one or two in stock which means if you need a proprietary part, you can get your hands on it (may be expensive but at least you can negotiate something).

PWS:
Commonly regarded as the softest shooting and most accurate carbines across a wide range of ammo type by virtue of the long stroke design and their use of 1:8 barrels. Not as widely available. Looks are indistinctive for the premium you pay, but then again, that's way down the priority list for most.

ADCOR:
Rare bird. You'll probably be the only person within 500 miles with one. Entered into the military's M4 replacement competition.  A few interesting innovations, but there is no clear feel for whether this company will be around 5 years from now, next year, or even tomorrow. ADCOR isn't an arms company as much as it is a precision machinist and manufacturer company that decided to dabble in firearms production. If something breaks, given its somewhat proprietary design, where does one find parts or get it serviced?  

I have an ADCOR and love it.  I can't say much else about it that Shadow_Dancer didn't already say, as he hit the nail on the head with his quick summary.  I will say that when the front charging handle had a part break their CS was awesome.  The only cost to me was gas driving to the UPS store to drop it off.  They replaced it with an upgraded part also, so they seem to be standing behind their product.  Of my four AR's, it's my favorite, and when aliens attack it's the one I'm gonna use

Here is a comparison of two of the three you mention. Not the exact models but many of the features are the same.

https://youtu.be/tqiBVUJrrV0

I have a PWS and an LWRC.  I'd go PWS for the weight and the no spring piston.  Their muzzle and 1/8 barrel put it 1% ahead--but in my opinion their both 3% behind my SCAR.

A previous poster mentioned he would not sell his PWS. I will not sell mine either. I do plan to add a LWRC down the road.
The PWS shoots very soft and and the muzzle flip is nil which makes  staying on target easy. You will not regret buying the PWS.

What gives the SCAR the +3% upside in your view?

I guess some people like broken stocks.  

I formerly owned an ADCOR. Sold it recently as I just didn't enjoy it as much as I used to anymore. I've kept my LWRC. I enjoy that one much more that I think I ever did my BEAR. I do miss my ADCOR though. I'll probably never see it again. If you see a gen 1 ADCOR on a knights SR15 lower and a tripple tap floating around anywhere it was mine. If you do end up buying it please take care of her.

I bought one of these.  Best decision I ever made.

If I had the cash and was buying today, I'd get the LWRC IC, get the free T-1, sell the upper and but a PWS upper.  

I have this exact setup for my flawless 10.75 SBR, but I had to pay for my T-1.

I'll add my .02. I've had quite a number of piston rifles as its all I'll own after being in the military. I have POF, 3 Adams Arms rifles, LMT, and my LDub. I sold the POF because it was a tank and it just felt goofy *subjective*. My brother has a PWS and he likes it. However, I will never, NEVER part with my M6IC SPR. I have over 5,000 rounds through it in many different environments, training classes, and a Wisconsin winter. I have only cleaned it a handful of times and have never had a single failure. I wipe the bolt and run it. Cant go wrong with LDub.

Where's the 516 rank among these? Not thread jacking but I'm looking at the MK110 really hard as well as the 10.5 Sig.

Functionally and reliability wise, it's easily on par with LWRC or PWS.
HK has notoriously sub-par consumer level customer service. The professional community gets absolutely immediate response.

With Henderson Defense saying they only get 10k rounds out of their HK's full auto before they start keyholeing, there is no way on earth I would pay $3K for a rifle that the barrel won't last 10K rounds.
I have an early PWS/Addax and I love it. Quality machineing and well thought out piston design in my opinion.
I want another.
For me it would be PWS or LWRC.

That's odd, the military has had excellent results with the HK416 barrels. Like 30,000 round service lives.

I wonder if they were MR556's converted to full auto? Supposedly these come with non chrome lined barrels due to something to do with import regulations

He did say it started life as MR556. Not sure about the rest. Link. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_118/677135_High_round_count_AR_M4_s__over_100_000_rounds__and_how_they_have_handled_on_our_range.html&page=1

I would not consider ADCOR.

Curios as to why not?

Curious, do you have any experience with HK customer service?  Most reports of poor service are very old(decade plus) and my experiences have been steller. The internet has forced many companies to walk a straight path when it comes to customer service. Also, why bring up HK when he asked about a Sig?

As for Sig, I tend to approach anything they do of late with caution although their gen II 516 rifles seems to be doing well. I only have experience with the 16in model.  I would buy the PWS personally if it came to those two rifles.

One of HK's US HQ's is about 40 miles away. Local shops and smith's in the area have mentioned that while their civilian side customer service has improved, it's still not as good as others. Admittedly, this is  hearsay since I own no HK products. Perhaps this is leftover echo in the chamber, but as they say - do one thing right and they'll tell 3 people. Do it wrong and they'll tell 10.

As for why I mentioned HK, that answer is simple. I'm a putz and just realized I confused the manufacturer of the 416 with the manufacturer of the 516.

The big question is how much longer will they be around?

^^^Correct.

One of the biggest reasons I was okay with letting go of my BEAR (aside from needing the money) was also this fact. The BEAR takes a barrel that needs special cutouts for the forward charging handle. Unless you are going to cut your own barrels whenever you need a new one that could become a big issue. Also once parts dry up that will also pose a set of challenges few would be willing to overcome to keep their rifles serviceable. Additionally there is not a high demand for these rifles so the likelihood of another manufacture stepping up to the plate to support it is almost nonexistent.

Can't go wrong with LWRCI

You're missing out on the best part of the IC. The lower.

Just curious.  When I was building up a 16" AR15 recently I obtained a complete upper in LWRC M6A2-S in black and mated it to a complete ambidextrous lower in POF 415.  I inspected the LWRC lower but didn't see any advantage.  Not saying you're wrong, just curious about what I missed.  In fact, I liked the trigger in the POF better than the delivered trigger in the LWRC...liked the POF trigger enough to buy another drop-in to install in a 24" barreled varmint rifle built from scratch.  A friend has one of those "Spartan" LWRC models with the sexy finish and fluted barrel.  That thing is awesome, but it's three grand and doesn't seem to offer more in the way of features and performance than mine except for appearance and the fluted barrel.

On the PWS vs. LWRC issue, my brother-in-law has a high end PWS 5.56 carbine.  It's a great rifle, and I like it as well I like my LWRC.  I don't think there's much performance difference between the two brands for the most part.  If one had to flip a coin to choose between the two, it wouldn't be a big deal.  It would probably come down as much to some slight appearance and feature issues as anything.

Bolt lock and bolt release is ambi. Not just bolt release like on every other lower. Also the mag release for the left side is in the best location in my opinion and I say this having had an SR15 lower.

I like the Gen4 pof lowers a lot better then the lwrc ambi lowers that always looked homemade out of left over parts. When i used the more advance pof lower it felt more natural to me and the trigger guard doesn't dig into my finer like the gen 3 do. I sold my gen3 lower because of the trigger guard and got a l15 and that will be replace by gen 4 soon.

Not impressed with the POF gen 4 lower either. Unfortunately the best ambi lowers aren't made by piston manufacturers.

Quoted:
Not impressed with the POF gen 4 lower either. Unfortunately the best ambi lowers aren't made by piston manufacturers.


Which manufacturer makes the best ambi lowers?

Going to again have to disagree with you there. As I said compared to all the ambi lowers I've used by far bar none LWRC makes the best in my opinion.

Why?

Every ambi lower I have used has not truly been 100% ambi. LWRC is to my knowledge the first to have a full 100% ambi lower.

Every other ambi lower I have used from Knights, POF, ARFCOM, and just about everyone else claiming to have an ambi lower have come close but not to the extent LWRC does.

When all these other companies have not just an ambi bolt release come back to me.

Some of them don't even have an ambi mag release.

Putting an ambi safety on an AR15 lower and a BAD lever does not make it ambi. Does it help? Yes.

One of the other things that I have found to be critical with ambi lowers is where that ambi mag release is located. Having owned an SR15 lower as mentioned before they come close but I honestly found it still wasn't where I wanted it.

I have no issues manipulating any of the controls on the LWRC ambi lowers. They are in the best place I have found to date on an ambi lower. They really did their homework on these lowers. I was amazed when I first got mine how instinctively I was able to utilize the controls due to their location. It was honestly done right and I can't stress that enough. From dropping mags, locking the bolt, dropping the bolt, charging the rifle, using the safety, by far bar none as a left handed for all my life individual the LWRC M6 IC period was the most instinctive rifle I have ever used that is based on the AR platform.

In all honesty there are very little things I would change about it. In fact I already did change my biggest gripe I had with the LWRC lower and that was the safety. I found the levers to be too thing for the amount of force required to flip them. I felt that the safety was too stiff for the range of motion required and this was quickly solved by replacing it with a BAD ASS 45 ST.

The only other thing I would change about the M6 IC would the the length of the handguards. I would make them longer. Yes I know the SPR has longer handguards but I want to keep my adjustable gas system. Additionally I would use M-Lock as a mounting system. While the screw on rail panels do work just fine the industry as a whole is moving to keymod and M-Lock.

Every ambi lower I have used has not truly been 100% ambi. LWRC is to my knowledge the first to have a full 100% ambi lower.

Every other ambi lower I have used from Knights, POF, ARFCOM, and just about everyone else claiming to have an ambi lower have come close but not to the extent LWRC does.

When all these other companies have not just an ambi bolt release come back to me.

Some of them don't even have an ambi mag release.


Explain how the pof gen4 lower is not a ambi lower. Have seen or used a pof gen4?

http://www.cflgunandtactical.com/product-p/00629.htm

That Gen 4 is full ambi but I still personally prefer the LWRC over the POF. I don't care for the fact that the bolt catch is within the trigger guard, I much prefer to keep the space within the trigger guard to just operating the trigger.

The MR556 barrels are not chrome lined, only military and leo get the good barrel. not sure if its because import laws and reasons or its because HK hates us and reasons.

I believe it's a German government thing.

I was thinking of the older POF ones which I used in the past.

I was going through the same decision about two months ago but had narrowed it down to just two: LWRC or PWS. So, this advice is coming from a recent shopper rather than AR expert. I ultimately went with the PWS MK114 mod 1. Assuming that you are not going to run your rifle to it's limits, both would probably meet or exceed your needs as they seem to be very comparable high-end rifles. I base that opinion on spending a week or two reading every PWS and LWRC thread that I could find (thanks everybody...this forum rocks!). My decision to buy the PWS boiled down to cash flow. If you shop a bit, you will find the PWS for around 4 to 500 dollars less than the LWRC. If I had the extra cash, the LWRC would probably have been the better purchase due to: 1) A local gun store stocks them whereas I had to have the PWS shipped to a local FFL, and 2) The AimPoint offer, that LWRC has right now, makes up the difference in price. So, if you have the extra $$ and you really like AimPoints, go for the LWRC. If you're trying to avoid the wrath of the wife by spacing out you large purchases or you're not sure that AimPoint is the optic that you would prefer, get the PWS.
Oh, by the way, my new PWS is an awesome gun!

PWS

PWS