The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Building America's Rifle => Topic started by: alfsauve on April 18, 2025, 08:49:04 PM
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Interesting question.
Not a particularly gun person wants to acquire an AR to plink with and learn about them. What brand would you recommend? PSA? Anderson? JP? Daniel? Balance cost with reasonable quality. This person isn’t looking to shoot <moa groups or participate in competition. They can always upgrade parts as they realize the need.
I’m of no help as my first was an A1 Eagle brand that I quickly started upgrading and all subsequent ARs were DIY.
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I would say aero precision.
They have made lots of very small changes that make it way easier to build. Like the bolt catch being threaded instead of a roll pin. Decent price and good quality.
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Everyone knows Colt's Manufacturing is the Prancing Pony. Anderson Arms is the Poverty Pony. Better than no AR at all, and it can be upgraded as more funds become available.
I also would suggest Aero Precision, since their M4E1 Lower Receiver and M4E1 Enhanced Upper are what I would start with if I was building a new AR. I might even buy a whole rifle from them, or a complete upper and complete lower, and call it a day. It doesn't need to be upgraded, and is as close to "ideal" for multiple users and uses as I've seen in a "premium quality" AR at a reasonable price. An M4E1 PRO RIFLE 16" is $1,999.99 MSRP. I don't know what makes the PRO so special, but sometimes you can get an upper and lower on sale for a total of $700 or so.
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The pro has a Ambi mag release. It is a significant cost upgrade over the standard lower receiver like $200. I personally don't think it's needed but some people do. Honestly if someone's never built an AR before I always recommend aero precision. The amount of annoying / hard to do tasks they replace with set screws is wonderful. The bolt catch. Safety detint spring is held with a set screw not just the end plate. It really does make the only difficult task being the front take down spring pin. Which I always use the razor blade method, but there are several cheap tools you can buy to do it.