[Sylvester McMonkey McBean]

It's hard to get a crappy off the shelf AR. Century and Olympic seem to have the largest "hate clubs." That bit of information is worth exactly what you paid for it.

You could build a nice one for that kind of scratch.

Buy a quality lower, and a complete parts kit from any one of maybe a dozen manufacturers. You might even be able to get a parts kit AND an additional upper. (Think .22LR upper for dirt cheap practice/training on the same platform.)

Like another said above, ar15.com is a great place to start. Look for the "stickies" in the tech section.

[El Gato]

You might even be able to get a parts kit AND an additional upper. (Think .22LR upper for dirt cheap practice/training on the same platform.)

A spare .22 upper is a better way to go than an adapter. Much more expensive, but more accurate and you don't have to worry about the .22 LR fowling up the gas system.

[gundog]

Century and Olympic seem to have the largest "hate clubs."

Probably because Olympic has been around so long. They used to make some pretty sloppy cast receivers. The current ones are Lewis Machine and Tool forgings.