Hello everyone. I'll be getting my first AR15 within the next month or so. This past weekend my girlfriend and I went to a "shooter's show" at a local indoor gun range. Firearm vendors offered their guns to shoot for free, with no range fee, just the cost of ammo that had to be purchased at the range. Besides the handguns we shot (she's a new shooter and we were checking out 9mm carry guns for her) we shot a Bushmaster and three Armalites. The only other AR15 vendor there was DPMS, and we didn't even look at those. This was our first time shooting an AR15.
The Bushmaster was their "16in M4 Type Carbine with Bird Cage Flash Suppressor" and A3 upper, the Armalite AR-15 was the same M4 style as the Bushmaster. I don't see it on Armalite's site or in their catalog, but it was like their M15A3 carbine but with the step down barrel. It had a Leupold 1-3x14 Mark 4 CQ/T scope. The other two Armalites were the AR-10A4 SPR, scoped with a Leupold something or other, and their AR-50 ($5 a round, and she got to shoot that for free). I was surprised to see the AR-10A4 on Armalite's site as an infantry weight barrel because I didn't remember it as that. Is it possible it was a heavy barrel? They only show infantry weight barrels on their site and in the catalog.
She liked the Bushmaster more than the Armalite AR-15, and said the Armalite was heavier. I'm 90% sure we were shooting the Bushmaster M4 style 16", not the shorter barreled model with the Izzy. Could the scope have made that much difference? My memory is of the birdcage suppressor, not the Izzy, on the Bushmaster; and I'm positive both it and the Armalite had a step down barrel. One thing we both disliked about the Armalite was the buttstock on it was smaller than on the Bushmaster, and the stock didn't extend as far either.
The AR-10A4 was nice. I used to have an HK91 and this seemed the same in recoil. I liked the Armalite better than the HK for stock fit and overall handling. Bushmaster didn't have their .308 there, as far as I know. The AR-50 was a loud kitten. Recoil was a soft push, not a slap.
When we got back from the range, she made a shopping list: coffee, batteries, AR15, ammo. My plan is to get the Bushmaster.
GL