Why you should already own an AR-15

Freedom Park Press ^ | 8 Jul, 2025 | D Parker

[tumblindice]

And pencil barrels. The prototypes had some kind of funky squeeze cocking mechanism on the carry handle/front sight.
And “Mattel” stamped on the furniture, which both horrified and angered Sgt. Hartmann.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I had a worse accident! While in the hospital for a tonsillectomy I also ended up with a vasectomy and the now former wife had a pawn shop come by and load everything that went “BANG”! She then took off with the proceeds.
And I was dunned for the hospital bills!

[Mean Daddy]

Because Democrats don’t want me to have one.

[RitchieAprile]

LWRC IC-A5 has the twisty flute barrel. Very distinctive. Also it a piston gun.

[Cobra64]

I opted for a Ruger Mini 14 with furniture since it is less scary at cocktail parties. 😁

[Colorado Doug]

For anyone who owns an AR15, I highly recommend a 6.5 Grendel upper for it. They are fairly inexpensive, easy to swap, as it only takes a minute or so to do it, and they add a whole new level of accuracy (especially at long distance) and they make a perfect deer round since the 123 grain bullets pack a lot more wallop than any .223 can deliver. It’s almost as good as owning two rifle for a small fraction of the cost. Who would have guessed that you could add 1 MOA accuracy at 500 yards or more to an AR for a couple hundred bucks?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Could not fine a Ruger Mini-14 in the late 1970s and early 1980s because they were being sold to the French Police Department. In watching on TV a riot in Paris I noticed the police were armed with Ruger Mini-14s.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Back in the 1970s, the democrat were after only handguns! “Rifles will not be affected!” they said.
I was watching some crime show in which a man was handed a “sniper rifle” to a sniper, which was an original AR-15 with scope. It looked so “E-e-v-il” I felt thee news media would soon be after them. They were.

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

Good article, but Eugene Stoner got it right the first time with the AR-10.

When the need arises for America’s Rifle, you are really going to wish yours was shooting .30 cal (7.62 x 51 mm) rounds, not .223 cal (5.56 x 45 mm) rounds.

[MtnClimber]

I am with you on the 30 cal. I would go with the AR-10 variant that has the DPMS style lower and upper receiver design. There is a weak point in the Stoner AR-10 lower design that he corrected with the AR-15/M-16 design. DPMS took that same change and were the first to incorporate the AR-15 receiver upgrades into the AR-10 variant design. Today most "AR-10s" use the DPMS variation of the lower receiver design. The Uppers are redesigned too for mechanical footprint compatibility.

This is what the two lower receivers look like:

The upper photo is the Stoner AR-10 design and the lower photo is the DPMS design. The weakness in the Stoner design was in the transition from the area near the trigger group to the top part which is where the buffer tube attaches. The stoner design has two 45 degree corners in the transition from the horizontal surface above the trigger group area and the vertical part in the buffer tube attachment area. The 45 degree corners, especially the one closest to the trigger group area, are where all stress is focused (from the butt stock hitting something hard or from the buffer hitting the back of the buffer tube). The corners were prone to developing cracks. The AR-15 used a rounded transition from the horizontal surface to where the surface is vertical. The lower photo shows the AR-10 sized lower that was modified to have the rounded transitions like the AR-15. The rounded transition spreads stress evenly over the curved transition and eliminates the focusing of stress that the corner causes. I know you may know this, but many people do not. If readers are thinking about building an AR-10 from parts they need to know that the two design types are not interchangeable. The upper and lower need to be the same type and the DPMS is the stronger design.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Not really America’s Rifle. We are the United States of America. There are 3 America’s. North, Central, and South America. USAR would be proper! lol