First off, Welcome to the board; I’m kinda new here too.
Second, I’d stay far away from American Spirit. When I was lurking here I’d read all the posts about how bad they were, but I didn’t heed the advice. I got some parts from them and sure enough, they suck.
I don’t have any experience with Olympic; heard good and bad about them so I’ve gone with Colt and Bushmaster. Their products are great, top shelf, more expensive but I seem to be one of those folks who only gets what he pays for. I have a friend who has an Armalite, I’ve never had a chance to fire the rifle but it looks nice and he seems to like it.
I’m trying to put together a match rifle myself. I have a Colt 6601, 20-inch 1 in 9 HBAR. I have replaced the plastic buffer and would like to get the LEO or cut down M16 bolt carrier for it. Hopefully I’ll get to a couple matches this year. This winter I plan to send it down to Compass Lake Engineering for their float tube, trigger and match sights.
The barrel on the rifle is not chrome lined and works just fine. The heaviest load I’ve fired through the weapon is the Federal GMM with the 69gr SMK. With this ammunition and a little Zeiss 6x I can get five rounds into a group that can be covered by a quarter at 100 yards. I figure this barrel will be good for a few seasons and by then I hope to have my skill up to necessitating a Krieger barrel.
Hope this helps,
Best regards, J