hello, im new to ar's and dont know anything about it. i have a fabten lower receiver (Im in cali) and i now need an upper for it. i want a 24 inch barrel but dont know of any pros and cons, free floating tube or not? bushmaster or any other brand out in the martket. if anyone can please give me any suggestion i will greatly appreciate it! Thanks.

fish,
you gotta help us out a bit more bud...

1) are you going to be target shooting or just plinking?
2) are you going to be using a scope, a red dot, or just irons?
3) how did you come to the conclusion that you wanted a 24" bbl?
4) what's your budget?

ar-jedi

lol, im sorry.
1) i'll be shooting target shooting and would like to be hitting dimes at 100yds.
2)can i say both? But more with a scope, irons will certainly improve my shooting skills.
3)24' barrel is more accurate?? or maybe 20 inch barrels?
4)upper can be up to 700 bucks? But the cheaper the more guns i can get.
5) Thank you for your help ar-jedi.

Quoted: 1) i'll be shooting target shooting and would like to be hitting dimes at 100yds.

well, you can do that with a 16" bbl as well.  read on...

2)can i say both? But more with a scope, irons will certainly improve my shooting skills.

so you want a flat top upper, A3 style. thus you can move from irons to red dot to glass as needed.  do not buy a clamp-on carry handle -- save that money and instead get a proper BUIS like the ARMS #40.  this way you can fold it down and out of the way when you mount new optics.  

3)24" barrel is more accurate?? or maybe 20 inch barrels?

longer barrels give more muzzle velocity, which translates to a slightly flatter trajectory and a bit more reach.  but for shooting at 100 yds the difference between 16, 18, 20, and 24" is marginal.

4)upper can be up to 700 bucks? But the cheaper the more guns i can get.

well here is where the trouble starts.  a top quality free float tube from Larue, Daniel Defense, or PRI can easily set you back $250 to $300 or so -- a big chunk of your budget.  you may want to put this part off until a bit later.  ergo, my suggestion is as follows: get yourself a good barrel and upper for starters.  there is no sense hanging a fine free float tube over a crap barrel.  so, a bushmaster 4150 chrome lined or stainless target barrel would be great, or you could go with Denny's (GTS) midlength WOA stainless barrel (see his post in the EE or here in this forum).  ideally stainless gets you the best accuracy assuming the barrelmaker knew what he was doing.  again, with respect to bbl length the difference at 100 yds is not going to be much.  in the longer bbls, check out the bushmaster "varminter" series, in both 4150 and SS flavors.  you can get these uppers ready-built and all set to mate with your upper.  and they shoot great right out of the box.  or you can get a barrel and upper assembled for you by the likes of Denny, or Wes, or Steve, or...

5) Thank you for your help ar-jedi.

no problem.  

ar-jedi

try www.stagarms.com

wow,bushmaster wants 725 for the complete varminter barrels. How about rock river arms?? are those good? it only cost 620 bucks? and how about dpms bull barrels?? any good? thanks alot  ar-jedi.

what do you think of this one??  http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/uppers/post-ban/pura2b20ss.asp. will this do just fine for me??

www.bushmaster.com/shopping/uppers/post-ban/pura2b20ss.asp

no need to reply three times with the link.  

Quoted: www.bushmaster.com/shopping/uppers/post-ban/pura2b20ss.asp

that's a very nice SS upper.  as i suggested above get the "A3 with no carry handle" config and then order a ARMS #40 BUIS from the Equipment Exchange (EE) forum here on ar15.com.  if you eventually going to put a scope on, you may want to order the upper with a flip up front sight/gas block -- this way you get what you need up front and don't have to either send the upper away down the road or do the gunsmithing yourself.  BM armorers will do the work for you for free when you buy the upper.
www.bushmaster.com/shopping/bmas/yhm-9395.asp
www.bushmaster.com/shopping/bmas/yhm-9360k.asp
i have the following on one of my rifles, and i love it:
www.bushmaster.com/shopping/bmas/yhm-9370k.asp

note: be wary of any bbls marketed as "bull" or HBAR.  consensus here is that you will just be carrying around extra weight.

the prices on BM's website are MSRP; you can get better pricing from BM distributors.  

one good one is Eagle Firearms in Colorado.  excellent folks there.  www.eaglefirearms.net/

they don't list all of the various BM uppers on their page,
www.eaglefirearms.net/bushmaster_uppers.htm
but if you send them some email they can quote you on anything BM makes.

ar-jedi

thanks ar-jedi, you've been alot of help to me and have just saved me 2 months worth of research. I have contacted eagle arms and i'll purchase the bushmaster 20 in ss upper.