Armory Sponsor
Posted: 4/14/2008 1:26:50 PM EDT
| What is the best rifle available now? |
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Like many things in life, it depends. What do you want the rifle for? Home defense/shtf purposes? Hunting? Target shooting? What is your budget? If I were only going to own one rifle, it would be an AR-15 just for the versatlity. You can quickly switch calibers, barrel and overall length just by swapping uppers. Mags are cheap and plentifull, .22lr adaptors are available, just about any optic you can imagine is available for it. |
QFT |
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The best gun EVER. First, sit down and make a list of your intended purpose and use. Are you going to be hunting game, punching paper, clearing your ranch of coyotes, door kicking and clearing rooms, home defense, SHTF? Are you wanting a rifle that can do more than one of these things? If so, how much versatility are you going to need, and if you need to make compromise - how much and where will you be willing to? Are you ready to head into NFA territory to get what you need, if you're legally able? What is your budget going to allow? Can you get replacement parts easily? How much are magazines (if applicable)? Ok, now that you have an idea of what you're wanting to do with it, get some trigger time on as many possible options as available. Which one do you feel the most comfortable with and is the most natural for you? Are the controls intuitive? Does it lend well to a natural point of aim? Now that you have an idea of what you're looking for, search around and look for feedback on various vendors for your particular platform. Rifle, shotgun, handgun, crossbow ... there are reputable, quality manufacturers and junk dealers for just about anything you can imagine. THIS is where these forums will shine and be your greatest asset. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been kind enough to spend god knows how much money on every piece of equipment imaginable. Learn how to seperate the "my brother's wife's cousin's ex-roomate heard this at a gun show" from "I've owned and used several, along with other comparable brands" and you're doing good. If it's out there, there are at least a few people who can give you feedback in the proper forum. We've got our intended purpose, we know what will work for us, and we know who makes the best of them. Send our money out, and we get our shiney new toy from our FFL. Now, we are going to sight in our rifle, and put however many rounds we need down range to make sure it functions and is reliable. We now take the time to identify what accessories can enhance our rifle to our specific goals. Slings, grips, rails, scopes, stocks, lights, lasers, mag cinches, sights, etc. We then take those out, and work with those, keep anything that is useful, and get rid of anything that you thought might have helped though doesn't really add anything practicle. Now, we're going to spend some serious change on learning to use our rifle. This is where a lot of people start falling short. What kind of courses can I take to become familiar with potential situations. Did my goals have room clearing, and tactical applications? Or is my need long range, precision oriented? Again, these decisions will be based mostly on your mission objective. Maybe you have more than one. Now, we take what we've learned, and we practice. Practice, practice, practice. Shooting is a persishable skill - you cannot expect to take a course once, then broom closet your weapon for 2 years and expect 100% retainment of knowledge. We're going to take refresher courses every so often, if need be. The best rifle is not something that can be answered on a forum. Quality can be debated, personal experience and taste can be opinionated, feedback on vendors, where to get what, advice on what to do when you encounter a problem - these are the things forums will do best. Resources and practicality will vary greatly as well. The best will be someone who has identified their needs, has spent the time and resources to apply and maintain a tool designed specifically for their purpose, and continues to evolve and progress their skills. If you cannot be bothered to commit yourself to the idea that a rifle is merely a tool, there are different kinds of tools for different kinds of jobs, and that you can spend X amount of dollars on conglomeration of metal and plastic to achieve a certain goal, you are destined to fail. The best rifle, in short, is nothing more or less than a long, painful, fun, boring, expensive, cheap, crazy, mundane, absurd, and practical evolution of an idea that works best for you. ETA: This is just my opinion and observation. YMMV ;) |
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