Hello everyone, new member here with a new AR-15. I just got into highpower service rifle match shooting and was using an M1 Garand. I was going to make the Garand into a true match rifle but after looking at the pro's and con's I decided to go the AR route. Our local gun shop had a NIB Colt Match/Target that was sold as used because it was a customer trade in. I bought it for less than what a new Bushmaster would have cost so I think it was a good deal.

Anyway I want to free float my barrel and have it service rifle legal. I know most if not all AR-15 makers offer the free floating tube and I'd like to know if one is better than the other? I've looked at the Bushmaster add and the Fluton's add, the Fulton says it is welded and won't pull out. Are they all welded were the front hand guards go into?

I personally think the best free float tubes out there are the Rock River Arms National Match tube and the White Oak Armament tube.  The RRA tube comes with thermo-mold handguards too so that's a plus.  I believe the two above are welded, but I'm not sure, I'll have to check.  MJD

This was just covered the other day... here are the links

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=10&t=383711

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=248418

http://www.compasslake.com/float_tube.htm

Welcome to the forums... and to High Power

Thank you for the info and the links. I checked out both links on the Compass Lake Engineering and White Oaks and I am leaning towards the Compass Lake. If it is good enough for the Marines it will work fine for me (plus I was in the Marines many years ago). I also was reading the post on how a Colt will not make a good match rifle. I am just starting into the highpower game and no expert yet, so will the Colt HBAR barrel shoot well enough for a beginning shooter? I ask a similar question when I was thinking about making my Garand a match rifle and was told not to spend high dollar on a Krieger barrel but instead go with a lower price Douglas or Wilson. They said until you become a better shooter you will not benefit from the Krieger barrel. So hopefully by the time I get better I'll be ready for a new better barrel for the AR. Also my Colt does not have a sear block in it so that should not be a problem. After I get the float tube done I want to get the triger work done. The post about the Colt not making a good match rifle noted the difference in the triger pin size. I think I've seen were you can still get a nice match triger job done for the Colt. I have $800.00 into the rifle with no work done. By the time I free float the barrel, get triger work done and upgrade to a match sights I think I'll be around the price of a RRA-BM CMP match rifle NIB. Well, once again thank you for the help and any more advice you all may have in the future.

A good read if you are considering an AR for Highpower matches is Black Magic - The Ultra Accurate AR-15 by John Feamster.

I will have to get that book.