What tiers would you assign AR-15 builds to?

[Cubiclerevolt]

I always wonder and try to balance out where different manufacturers fall on pricing, reliability, accuracy etc.

Who would be top tier builds?

What are middle of the road builds?

What are pretty much the "jennings" and "lorcins" of AR builds?

I have mine lines but others would be probably more bougie than myself.

For me as an example I would say:

Top Tier:

BCM
Noveske
Daniel Defense
YH
LaRue
POF

Mid Tier:

Aero Precision
Ruger
Sig
S&W MP
Spikes
Springfield Saint Series

Poors Tier:
This is a hard one because for me and it's funny I actually have a DPMS (Who no longer exist) which was my first AR that I bought over a decade ago does a great job on being accurate and is pretty damn reliable. Only had the bolt seized from the lacquer on a steel casing caused it get gummed up after shooting all day in the AZ heat while shooting prone at an Appleseed shoot.

A lot of these companies seem to fade out or you never hear from them.

Let me know your thoughts.

[Suck My Glock]

The manufacturers have learned from each other and standards have,...uh,...standardized,...a bit more over the years.

But in the early days of home builds, like the mid 80's and 90's, there were some badly made parts out there. Barrels with gas ports drilled too big, trigger group pieces made from cheapo castings and other such horror stories. I experienced several of those. And they are still in the pipeline!!

For me, I get wary whenever I see a parts gun made with a receiver from that era. It may well be a perfectly fine weapon assembled from quality parts,...but the likelihood of substandard components goes up the further back we go in the timeline.

So for instance, anything with a receiver by SGW or Olympic Arms,...I'm gonna check that puppy out a lot more closely for signs of being constructed on the cheap.

And the absolutely worst indicator,...anything with a receiver by Nesard! These were the first mass-marketed lowers sold in Shotgun News back in the 80's, and their early ones were occasionally not within spec themselves.

[Suck My Glock]

Mid Tier:


Ruger


Let me know your thoughts.

I like Ruger products in many regards,...but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth over their piston-driven AR upper.

I'm a fan of piston AR systems, so it ain't that. But for whatever reason,...and I was never able to discern why,...my Ruger piston AR upper that I used to own liked to slam-fire on a frequent basis. I verified that my ammo was not too sensitive or out of spec, nor was the trigger group somehow malfunctioning. But I could hardly get through a magazine without a double or triple!

[Cubiclerevolt]

Mid Tier:


Ruger


Let me know your thoughts.

I like Ruger products in many regards,...but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth over their piston-driven AR upper.

I'm a fan of piston AR systems, so it ain't that. But for whatever reason,...and I was never able to discern why,...my Ruger piston AR upper that I used to own liked to slam-fire on a frequent basis. I verified that my ammo was not too sensitive or out of spec, nor was the trigger group somehow malfunctioning. But I could hardly get through a magazine without a double or triple!

Whoa. Did not know that. Yeah the Rugers I had ran like sewing machines and I was really impressed. Never had an issue.

[Cubiclerevolt]

I always wonder and try to balance out where different manufacturers fall on pricing, reliability, accuracy etc.

Honestly, just my opinion again here, but everyone makes something that is nice, some more than others, but not everything they make is going to be gold nor even the gold standard.

So true.

I just wanted to pool experience and knowledge from everyone here to help instruct people on what works the best for them. There's so many variables.

As for me...I need it to not be too picky with ammo, no FTF or FTE issues after shooting 500 plus rounds in the heat and be able to go a bit with being cleaned and have an MOA shot groups around 3" at 100 yards. My tolerances are a lot lighter than say someone doing 3 gun or something like that.

Like any of the lower tier ones you listed (some I listed as mid tier) will do those things I suppose.

[Cubiclerevolt]

Trash:

Troy

BIG FACTS.

[semperfisurveyor]

How about Primary Weapon Systems?

I’ve ran a mk112 and mk118 the last couple years and I’ve been quite impressed. Eat whatever you feed ‘em and the 18” is quite accurate with quality ammo.

[Vyadmirer]

Remember the old spreadsheet with the parts listed for the tiers?

Once it was figured out that most places are sourcing the same materials outside the couple top groups I think it’s a wash. And I think a lot of the top groups are just guaranteeing a solid gun and have the best quality control.

[Elk34]

Well here is a small list.
1 2 Vets Arms Company, LLC
2 Adams Arms
3 ADCOR Defence
4 Addax
5 ADEQ Firearms Company
6 Advanced Defense Sysems (ADS)
7 Aeroprecision
8 AGP Arms
9 Alberta Tactical Rifle Supply
10 Alexander Arms
11 All Weapons One
12 Allstar Tactical LLC
13 Alpha Shooting Sports
14 Ambush Firearms
15 Ameetech*
16 American Precision Arms
17 American Spirit Arms
18 American Tacitcal Imports (ATI)
19 American Weapon Systems
20 Anderson Manufacturing
21 Anvil Arms*
22 AR 15 Plus
23 AR Permformance
24 AR15 Depot
25 AR15.com Armament Rifle
26 AR57 Center
27 Ardel Engineering (AE)
28 Ares Arms LLC.
29 Ares Defense
30 Arizona Armory (AZ)
31 Armalite
32 Armitage International LTD
33 ARMS LLC
34 Arm's Tech LTD
35 Astra Arms
36 ATT Tactical
37 AXTS Weapons
38 Balimoy
39 Barnes Precision
40 Barret Firearms Manufacturing
41 Bartlett Enterprises
42 Battle Born Rifles
43 Battle Rifle Company
44 Bazooka Brothers Manufacturing
45 Black Dawn
46 Black Diamond SOCOM Mfg.
47 Black Gold cusom Arms
48 Black Heart International
49 Black Hole Weaponry
50 Black Rain
51 Black Scorpion Firearms
52 Black Weapons Armory
53 Blackthorne
54 BMG Inc
55 Bohica Arms
56 Bradley Arms
57 Branch Custom Weaponry
58 Bravo Company Manufacturing (BCM)
59 Bushmaster Firearms International
60 C3 Defense
61 Cavalry Arms*
62 Centurion Arms
63 Centurion Tactical
64 Century
65 Century Arms
66 Charles Daly
67 Chattahoochee Gun Works LLC
68 Chengdu Hongguag Machinery Manufacturing Co Ltd
69 Chiappa Firearms
70 Christensen Arms
71 Christian Armory Works (CAW)
72 CIV Tactical
73 CMMG
74 CMS*
75 Cobra Tactical
76 Colt's
77 Compass Lake Engineering (CLE)
78 Conquest Arms
79 Controlled Chaos Arms
80 Core15
81 Crusader Weaponry
82 D.S. Arms
83 Dalphon Firearms*
84 Daniel Defense
85 Dedicated Technology
86 Delaware Machinery
87 Delta Arms Company
88 Del-Ton
89 Denny's Guns
90 Detroit Gun Works
91 Diemaco*
92 Dlask Arms
93 Double Diamond Law Enforcement Supply
94 Double Star
95 DPMS / Panther Arms
96 Dreadnaught Industries
97 Duty Precision Machinery Shops (DPM Shops)
98 Eagle Arms
99 East Coast Gun Sales
100 Echigoya
101 Edward Arms
102 Elite Arms
103 Essential Arms
104 Fabrique Nationale
105 Firebird Precision
106 Frankford Arsenal
107 Franklin Armory
108 Frozen North Firearms*
109 Fulton Armory
110 GA Precision (GAP)
111 Galati International
112 GAR Arms
113 Global Tactical
114 GM Corp.*
115 Good Time Outdoors Inc
116 Grenadier Precision*
117 Group Industries*
118 GT Vertical Concepts (GTVC)
119 Gun Smoke Enterprises
120 H&H Enterprises
121 Harrington and Richarson (H&R)*
122 Hatcher Gun Company
123 Head Down Products
124 Hecklor and Koch
125 Henderson Defense
126 Hera Arms
127 Hera Arms, Germany
128 Hesse
129 High Mountain Hunting Supply
130 High Standard Manufacturing Company
131 Hogan guns
132 Holland Gun Works
133 Houlding Precision
134 Huldra Arms
135 Integrity Arms and Survival
136 Iron Ridge Arms
137 JARD Inc.
138 JD Machine
139 JP Enterprises
140 JSE Surplus
141 Kaiser Defense
142 Kiss Tactical
143 Knights Armament Co. (KAC)
144 Kurt's Kustom Firearms (KKF)
145 L&G weaponry
146 Lancer Systems
147 Land Warfare Research Company (LWRC)
148 Lantac, UK
149 LAR Grizzly
150 LaRue
151 Lauer Custom Weaponry (LCW)
152 LBR Arms
153 Legion Firearms
154 Les Bauer
155 Lewis Machine and Tool (LMT)
156 Liberty Arms
157 Liberty Tactical
158 Loki
159 Lone Wolf Distributing
160 M Weapons
161 Mack Gwinn Industries (?) (MGI)
162 Magpul
163 Mattel Corp.*
164 McKay Enterprises LLC.
165 Mean Metal Inc
166 Medesha Fireamrs
167 Mega Arms
168 Model 1 Sales
169 Mohawk Armory
170 Molot
171 Mossberg
172 National Ordinance Company
173 New Evolution Military Ordinance (NEMO)
174 New Frontier Armory
175 Next Generation Arms
176 Nodak
177 Nordic Components
178 Norinco
179 North East Arms
180 Noveske
181 Oberland Arms, Gemany
182 Olympic Arms
183 Palmetto State Armory
184 Palmetto State Defense
185 Para - USA
186 Patriot Defense Arms
187 Patriot Ordinance (POF)
188 Plum Crazy
189 Precision Firearms
190 Precision Guncraft
191 Predator Custom Shop
192 Predator Tactical
193 PRI Uppers
194 Primary Weapons Systems (PWS)
195 ProArms
196 PWA*
197 Quality Arms
198 Quentin Defence
199 R Guns
200 Rainer Arms
201 Ratworx
202 RCM Gun Parts
203 Red Jacket Firearms
204 Red X Arms
205 Remington
206 RGM inc
207 Rifle Dynamics
208 RifleGear
209 RND
210 Rock Island Arsenal
211 Rock River Arms
212 Rocky Mountain Arms
213 Roggio Arsenal
214 Ruger
215 S I Defense
216 Saber Tactical
217 Sabre Defence*
218 Schmeisser, Germany
219 Scorpion Tactical
220 Seekins Precision
221 Senda Corp*
222 Sendra
223 SGW*
224 Shadow Ops Weaponry
225 Sharps Rifle Company/Sharps rifle
226 Sig Arms
227 Sionics
228 Smith & Wesson
229 SNS Industries*
230 SOCOM Mfg.
231 Sog Arms
232 Sonju Defense
233 Southern Gun Co.
234 Specialized Dynamics
235 Specialized Tacitcal Systems
236 Spike's Tactical
237 Stag Arms
238 State of the Art Arms (SOTA)
239 Sterling Arsenal
240 Stinger Arms
241 Sun Devil
242 Superior Arms
243 Suplus Ammo and Arms
244 Tactial Weapons Solutions
245 Tactical Ammunition
246 Tactical Arms Manufacturing
247 Tactical Innovations
248 Tactical Machining
249 Tactics LLC*
250 Templar Custom
251 Templar Tactical Arms
252 Teppo Jutsu LLC.
253 Thompson Machine
254 Thor Glocal Defense
255 Timberwolf Tactical
256 Titan Ordinance
257 TKS Engineering
258 TNW Firearms
259 Tommy15
260 Top Notch Tacitcal (TNT)
261 Triplett Firearms
262 Tromix
263 U T Arms
264 Umbrella Corporation Weapons Research Group
265 US Fireams Academy
266 USA Tactical Firearms
267 Valkyrie Arms
268 Vidalia Police Supply
269 Vltor
270 Vulcan Armament
271 WFC Proshop
272 White Oaks Armament
273 Wilson Combat
274 Windham Weaponry
275 Xtreme Machinig
276 Yankee Hill Machine (YHM)
277 Z M Weapons
278 Zel Custom Manufacturing
279 Zombie Defense

[Elk34]

Now there is mil spec and above mil spec. I know there are a couple more I think. The tiers are good, better, best.

[redj]

Well here is a small list.

You forgot to copy the explanation for the little asterisk that is after some of those makers.
Let me help you.

* no longer solvent or in the firearms business.

[Elk34]

Yes your right. I counted 18 no longer in business. So as of when this list was made there are only 261 left in business. Great job redj for pointing that out. I completely forgot to explain what the asterisk was.

[Cubiclerevolt]

Trash:

Troy

BIG FACTS.

Maybe I'm missing the sarcasm, but Troy stood behind the hiring of one of their guys that said in court that if his buddy didn't do it, he would have gladly sniped a pregnant woman, unarmed, holding her kid in her arms, under the ROE that that b**** Janet Reno blessed the FBI with during Ruby Ridge.

I don't forget or forgive.

I am agreeing with you. Not to mention that they tried hiring some Chicago PD Daly lackey as well until everyone freaked out and booted them after the there was so much outrage.

See urban dictionary definition:

big facts
A phrase you use when someone says something you agree with.

[Cubiclerevolt]

Maybe it was the emote that threw me off. But thank you for your patience.

Yeah I was laughing that you cut out a special place just for them.

I wholeheartedly agree. I remember reading somewhere that the FBI was telling Weavers kids the morning after they killed his wife that they were making pancakes for breakfast and what was their mom making for them.

That is some straight up morally depraved evil s*** that I had ever saw.

[Elk34]

I believe we are straying off topic a little.