a friend of mine is looking to buy a rifle. he's thinking of getting a Mini, i'm trying to convince him to buy an AR. I'm trying to find him an AR at a good price. who's got the best deal on new AR's?
looked at the Bushmaster site, am going to call. anyone else got any ideas?
thanks,
colt

Ask him if he wants mags for it, Mini's are pricey!

c-rock

Can't help much on the price issue but thought I'd help out on the convincing.

If he buys a Mini he's stuck with a basic rifle. He might be able to add a scope or something but he's limited to what he can do with the rifle.
If he buys an AR-15 he has many future options that can be built off that one lower receiver.
He can buy a short handy carbine today then if he later decides he needs a 20" rifle its a simple matter of buying a new upper.
In fact his options are limitless:
He can buy upper barrel lengths ranging from 16"-24".
He can get carry handle uppers that include iron sights or flat top uppers to mount optics.
He can get many different calibers:
223, 7.62X39, 45ACP,40S&W, 9mm, 9X23,  10mm, and I'm sure I'm forgetting one or two.
I think there are .50BMG uppers available.

If he decides he wants to try Highpower rifle competition he can use his AR-15 and very competitive.
There are 10X's as many vendors selling aftermarket parts for the AR-15 than for the Mini.

As c-rock stated the price for quality magazines are very far apart. Used factory mags for the mini sell for over $100 each. You can easily buy 3-4 AR-15 mags for that price.

If all that doesn't convince him tell him that Bill Ruger shares a large bit of the blame for some of the anti gun laws, why would he want to support gun control?