Hey everyone.  I'm a junior in college, and i've been looking to purchase an AR for a year or 2 now.  After realizing earlier this year about the possible sunset of the ban, i decided to wait.  What i am looking for is a 16" A3 Bushmaster(i really want the removable carry handle).  
This is pretty much what i was looking at before.

Now that they are available, i would prefer a collapsible stock, bayonet mount, a couple 30 rnd mags, etc.  

Im not set on the manufacturer, i just want a good gun thats fun to shoot.    This semester is absolutely insane for the workload, i just dont have time to do research on it.  

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

yeah uh...... i'm retracting that 'thanks in advance' statement.

Talk to these guys, they'll hook you up.

www.cmmginc.com

I got this from them last Saturday.



They can get you anything you want and I'm pretty sure they'll beat Atlantic Firearm's prices.

The Ban's OVER???  When did THAT happen????

uh oh...somebody call the WHAAAAMBULANCE!!!  

Quoted: yeah uh...... i'm retracting that 'thanks in advance' statement.

pfft!

Quoted: uh oh...somebody call the WHAAAAMBULANCE!!!

you really didnt pose a question besides manufacturer...............................and that all depends on your local FFL dealers.....................................

go talk to them and THEN buy any and all you can afford!!!!!

personally though, i like bushmastmer uppers, besides that i've built lowers off of dpms, rra, bushmaster, you name it..............................

I was going to respond earlier - but I figured everyone else would, so I didn't bother  (maybe everyone else thought this too - in which case we have a classic example of "bystander apathy" )


You really can't go wrong with Bushmaster (although the price on the thing you linked to seemed pretty high).

I'd say the really good brands are Bushmaster, Eagle Arms/Armalite, RRA - and a bunch of others.  As long as you stay away from the really bad ones (like Hesse - does Hesse even make ARs?) you should be fine.  Colt are great too, but generally a little overpriced.

My personal recommendation is Bushmaster.  Find an inexpensive dealer, buy one and have them ship it to a local FFL (you should pay no more than $30 to have a local FFL transfer it to you - no sales tax or precentages or any BS like that).  I like Bushmaster because they have EXCELLENT customer service.  I once sent back an AR to them because I didn't QUITE like the fit between upper and lowe. At their cost, they had it shipped back at their cost and replaced the upper.  When I was still not happy, they had it shipped back at their cost again and replaced the entire rifle.  Nothing was wrong with it - I just was slightly unhappy with the way it looked.  I'm amazed at that level of cusotmer service.  When I had to deal with armalite about ordering three parts from them, they fucked it up three times (on the same order, and tried to make me pay the resturn shipping every time when they had sent me the wrong parts).  Those are just MY experiences, so they may not be a general representation.

Definitely shop around.  There are some great stores out there.  I always check quantico arms (I think their website is quanticoarms.com or something like that).  I bought an Eagle Arms complete AR for less than $600 recently, and they are a great bunch to deal with.


(btw - as far as I know - the bayonet lug on a 16" carbine is kind of pointless, because I don't believe a bayonet will fit anyway, so that's not really a big deal.  Experts please correct me if I am wrong).

bayonet will not fit on a 16" carbine

The barrel in my setup from CMMG is 14.5 inches and the Phantom flash hider makes it 16" so I can actually hang a bayo off my gun.  I figured we've waited ten years to be able to hang a bayo off a new rifle, and I'm gonna do it dammit!

I know Bushmaster makes 14.5 inch setups in case this is an issue.

the 16" M4 bbls won't take a bayonet

the 14.5" M4 bbls with permanently attatched flash suppressor to make it 16" will