philip964 wrote:If I buy Ruger will it be inter changeable with other parts that are "Milspec" ? Milspec means its inter changeable.
I need to buy two as they must break a lot?
I'm very late getting back to this party, but most questions have been answered I think.
The vast majority (and "vast" might need to be capitalized) of AR-15s on the market are manufactured based on identical fundamental patterns and specifications, and operate the same way. That's one of the most important reasons for their popularity. If you shop around and come across one that has something proprietary about it--gas piston versus direct impingement, for example--the info will tell you. For a new AR owner-to-be, I'd steer away from any proprietary operating features.
And, no, they don't break a lot.
But the dominance of the rifle in the marketplace and that standardized interchangeability means that, for very little money, you can buy some spare parts and have just about anything you'd ever need to keep the rifle running for many years...even if a new Clinton "assault weapon" ban comes down the pike and restricts your ability to buy another rifle.
And that same marketplace dominance and standardization makes an AR, IMHO, one of the easiest firearms to work on yourself, even with almost zero gunsmithing background. I think that's partly why they become addictive. Several umpteen videos are available on YouTube to guide you through just about anything you'd ever want to do; minimal tools are needed for any operation, all but maybe a roll-pin punch and an inexpensive combo armorer's wrench you'll already have in your tool drawer; and cheap and plentiful parts for anything but the lower receiver (the part that's the actual serial-numbered "gun") can be delivered to your doorstep by your friendly UPS driver. A great article opening from
http://www.reloaderaddict.com:
Building an AR-15 is as American as watching baseball while eating apple pie at your mother’s house as bald eagles cavort in the backyard. A surprisingly simple firearm to assemble from parts, you only really need one specialized tool, and the ability to handle a few small fiddly bits, or at least an extensive vocabulary for when a tiny spring goes flying off into the air.
philip964 wrote:I've never hunted. But I always like larger. What is the next size cartridge for a rifle that works for hunting and works with a carbine that is available at stores? And what rifle would that be?
You'll get different opinions here. One thing that's particularly attractive about the AR-15 platform is that you can change it from shooting 5.56 ammo to other calibers without having to get a brand new gun; one of the most popular is the .300 AAC Blackout. All you need to do is buy a complete upper chambered for .300 AAC (technically, you only need to change out the barrel, but just plugging on a separate, complete upper is far easier and quicker). No mystery: the "upper" is not the serial-numbered gun, so you don't have to buy it through an FFL. It contains the barrel, the bolt carrier group, the gas system, and the charging handle.
The upper attaches to the lower receiver with two, sturdy pins that simply slide out. You push out the takedown and pivot pins; you lay your 5.56 upper on the table; you match the pivot pin holes on your .300 AAC upper to your lower; you push that pin in; you pivot the back of the upper into place and push in the takedown pin. Voila! In 60 seconds and with zero tools you now have a rifle chambered in the larger .300 AAC Blackout caliber. And any sights or optics you have attach to the upper, so when you switch out uppers you're already sighted in and good to go.
One of the reasons the .300 AAC is so popular is that it provides performance similar to a 7.62x39 round (a la, an AK-47), but you can use the very same AR magazines you already bought for your 5.56 ammo.
But you aren't limited to 5.56 and .300 AAC with your new AR-15 rifle. It's easiest to switch back and forth with the .300 AAC because you're using the same magazines, but other conversion kits are available. Without changing the firearm itself--the lower receiver that has the fire controls and trigger you've come to be familiar with--you can get conversion kits that shoot .22 LR, 6.5 Grendel, .50 Beowulf, .450 Bushmaster, and .458 SOCOM; the latter gives you several bullet styles and weights to choose from, all the way up to a hefty 600 grains.
All that said, I fall back to my recommendation of staying with NATO specification ammo...until and if you decide to branch out and go with other calibers. In essence, for me that means 9mm, 5.56x45, 7.62x51, and 12-gauge shells. So I chose to go with the .308 as my larger caliber, and even though things like the 6.5 Creedmoor will outperform it at distance, it's important to me to have as (relatively) few chamberings as possible so that the ammo I buy can be used in multiple guns. If I were rich and had an extra 600 or 800 square feet in my home to turn into a walk-in vault, I'd be less concerned about caliber standardization.
Still on my to-buy list is a Ruger Precision Rifle; the best performance choice would be the Creedmoor, but I'll stay with the .308.
The 5.56x45 was adopted by the U.S. military and NATO in part because it was accurate and flat-shooting to a reasonable distance, had virtually no recoil and could be easily controlled by most any shooter, even in three-round bursts, and because an infantryman could carry a whole lot more of it than he could the then-standard 7.62x51 battle rifle cartridge. The American .308 was modified slightly and adopted in the '50s as the 7.62x51 NATO standard. It remains a marvelous all-around utility cartridge: it packs a punch, has good ballistics for long-distance shooting, can bring down any animal in North America, and is readily available in different forms, from precision match and hunting rounds to milsurp bulk buys.
(BTW, not to get geeky again, but you want your AR-15 chambered to handle 5.56x45 NATO because that round is SAAMI-spec loaded to a higher pressure than the .223, but that barrel can shoot the .223 all day long. A little different with the 7.62x51 NATO. That round specs with slightly thicker brass and at a maximum chamber pressure of 50K psi; the .308 is loaded to a maximum pressure of 60K. Most modern rifles will be happy with either, but if buying one it's better to go with the higher-rated .308 chambering.)
There are no conversion kits to make an AR-15 into an AR-10, the design and manual-at-arms equivalent of (and predecessor to) the AR-15. The important parts aren't interchangeable, so if you want an AR-style carbine or rifle in .308, it means a new rifle and new magazines. That being the case, there's also nothing to say that--if you already have your handy AR-15 and want something that packs more wallop at distance--you necessarily need a semi-auto in .308. I'd personally prefer at least something with an external, detachable magazine, but there are some great and relatively inexpensive bolt-action rifles out there that would augment the AR-15.
I can get on jags where I type so much it's almost as if I'm possessed by The Annoyed Man. I know nobody got past the third paragraph here, and I'm no expert. I'm just voicing personal opinion and, so long as I'm not entirely incorrect about
everything, the info gets lodged into the internet and someone searching the subject a year from now might find it at least minimally useful.
And now all of this reminds me that I need to go search around for current deals on .308 ammo...
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