the most adamant anti AR-15 guy here. I have a half dozen around the farm now. I like the concecpt so much I am buying a 1 1/4ton GM CUCV that has built in racks for a pair of ARs...Hows THAT for a bolt on AR accessoryThis is not the specific Blazer that I buying , but it gives one the idea. Detroit diesel, out of a museum being gone through right now.

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

and got to use one, several times a year. before that i had a mini14, after that it went down the road, traded off.
by the end of my hitch in 1983 i knew i had to have one. got a colt CAR-15 SP1 made about 1975. still have it , and i guess those early ones are kinda collectible. have owned mini14, HK91 308, and M1A...all of those are gone now......cant think of one thing they do better that the AR platform [ i have a CAR style 16" DPMA 308 that is superbly accurate and reliable ] and most things, like handling and pointing, they don't do as well
i am a nostalgia buff and enthusiast about lever guns, single action revolvers,etc. etc. but when it comes to defending my self and others, i want no nonsense, no nostalgia,etc: whatever works best and most reliably is for me. an M4, a glock or sig or HK, and i know i am set. they will do the job.....every time.

since the late 70's. They are very handy, useful, and I never found them to be overly finicky. Most of mine through the years have been A1 style 20" guns. I never warmed to the heavy barrels - too nose heavy for my taste, plus if it weighs 10-12lbs I'd rather carry a M1A or Garand. Somewhere in the safe there is an old HBAR 1-7. Never shot or carried it much.

As a teenager, the SP-1s were my favorite for hunting stock-killing feral dogs and they were very effective even with standard 55gr FMJ ammo. A good 14-16" gun with a good ACOG would be even better!

and an M1A when they became available. They served me well and I still have them. About 20 years ago I bought an old SP1 and discovered I liked it. Since, several AR's have occupied safe space and I would rely on the platform for emergency use.
I'm even thinking about a 308 version. None, however, will replace my liking for the lever actions, SA's and such. I appreciate the insight and comments on the AR's that come up here because they seem to come from first hand experience.

At a recent CSA I was watching someone shoot an M1 carbine, and I remember shooting one long ago. Then I realized that the current 16" AR is the "M1 carbine" of our current time. It is short, light, easy to shoot, it does everything that the M1 carbine did and does it better.

The few 16" AR's that I've shot were easy to shoot and very accurate. And what people do in highpower rifle competition with the stock-looking 20" AR's is very amazing, out to 600 yards or farther. And also amazing is that you don't have to do much to a stock AR to make it work very well in highpower competition.

Every time there's a simple problem that I could clear by sticking my finger in the action and flicking out the round…. only I can't because the port is too small to bet my finger in. Would it have killed them to make the port a tiny bit bigger?

I just sold two complete lowers yesterday, but not because I couldn't get my finger in the port.

I've got two currently, one 18" heavy barreled .223 version that I normally have a 1.5-5x scope on, but swap out a 4.5-14x for coyote season.

The other is a 16" in .300 blackout. It's fun to play with, either shooting hot 125gr TNT's or 220+gr subsonics through my suppressor. It wears the same 1.5-5x scope.

As money comes available, I plan on building another 16" gun, but this one will be a .223 with a midlength gas system. Figure another low powered variable and ill be happy.

I do like the red dot for quick shooting and I can shoote irons fairly decently but have trouble with a red dot at distance; even cranked down real low I'm becoming a very big fan of lower powered variable scopes these days.

And trying to learn to use one in the same manner that one uses a handgun. Have a 16" midlength Bravo upper on a Legion lower with an Eotech on top that gets swapped with a Zeiss 3-9x36 in QD mounts. Runs 100%. Also another carbine that I use with a 22 kit. Ethan shoots a CMMG 22LR dedicated upper on a RRA lower, fitted with a bipod and an Eotech - not bad for a 7 year old. He is quite good with it - also shoots a Contender carbine in 22LR and 223, so no lectures ...

Pretty fun, going into the hog woods with one of these. I am going to try a new close range optic pretty soon.