Ran into some money...

**00gt1** · December 14th, 2006, 10:06 AM

Ok so by luck of the draw, i seem to have run into a little bit of money (around 1800 dollars). I would like to invest this into an early christmas present but i'm stuck on what to buy. I want a carbine, i want it to be a .223. I was looking at the BushM M4, but then again, i don't know much about carbine. If this was your money and you wanted a carbine, how would you spend it?

**SGTUSArmy** · December 14th, 2006, 04:46 PM

Personally, if I wanted a carbine, it would be an M4. I like the collapsible stock, and 5.56 ammo is fairly cheap and bullets are cheap for reloading. It is a versatile caliber, and kind of fun to shoot, at least when you don't have to take all commands from the tower. Just my 2 cents.

**avizpls** · December 14th, 2006, 04:48 PM

If I had $1800 (how did you run into this, if you dont mind sharing) I would get an M4 marked as chambered in 5.56mm, a holo-sight, and as much 5.56mm ammo as I could afford with whats left over.

**aubie515** · December 14th, 2006, 04:54 PM

Go with RRA, Bushmaster, DPMS, Stag...in no particular order...the adjust stock is a personal preference. I prefer the Magpul PRS stock over the 6 pos if you are looking for a heavy duty stock on a bench AR. The rest of the money should be spent on ammo and mags...both are going to go up in price come the beginning of next year. I would say ammo and mags are both equally important...mags because politics will affect it's supply and demand. Ammo because the materials used in ammo production are increasing with the increased demand for metals.

If you want an accurate rifle...get optics...Nikon or SS.

If it's a plinker...get A2 front sight and rear BUIS...and get a red dot.

**LittleRedToyota** · December 14th, 2006, 04:54 PM

assuming you're not talking about a real M4...and, rather, a 16" AR15...check out stag.

stag is the retail outlet for CMT...CMT makes parts for many other manufacturers and is very high quality. but, since the stag name is relatively new (even though CMT has been around a long time), they are still pretty cheap.

you'll only spend a little over half your $1,800 and have a chrome-lined, 16" M4 profile barrel, flat-top (with ARMS BUIS rear sight), f-marked front sight (proper size for flat-top), 6 position collapsible stock, high-quality AR15 carbine.

then you can spend the rest on an optic or other accessories and ammo.

i got mine from kiser munitions (jkiser on AR15.com equipment exchange) as a "complete rifle kit" (which is a complete upper and a lower parts kit) plus a stripped stag lower. i also got an add-on magpul grip and the whole deal cost me just a little over $700. put it all together in about an hour.

(jkiser is a great guy to deal with.)

(ETA: by endorsing stag, i am not ragging on any other manufacturers...there are several good ones, as Aubie pointed out.)

**00gt1** · December 14th, 2006, 08:13 PM

very cool, i ran into this money through a loan I had all but forgotten about. During my college years i loaned out 1800 dollars to a buddy of mine for school, who then dropped out and went into the army. Back in the states now, he looked me up and paid back every cent. I was very suprised.

P.S. Stupid question, as far as profiles go, ar15 vs. M4... whcih do you like better, i have looked at BushM before at a GM and loved the look. Are the advantages/disadvantages?

**MiniDevil** · December 14th, 2006, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by aubie515

Go with RRA, Bushmaster, DPMS, Stag...in no particular order...the adjust stock is a personal preference. I prefer the Magpul PRS stock over the 6 pos if you are looking for a heavy duty stock on a bench AR. The rest of the money should be spent on ammo and mags...both are going to go up in price come the beginning of next year. I would say ammo and mags are both equally important...mags because politics will affect it's supply and demand. Ammo because the materials used in ammo production are increasing with the increased demand for metals.

If you want an accurate rifle...get optics...Nikon or SS.

If it's a plinker...get A2 front sight and rear BUIS...and get a red dot.

^^^^^^^^^^

**LittleRedToyota** · December 14th, 2006, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by 00gt1

P.S. Stupid question, as far as profiles go, ar15 vs. M4... whcih do you like better, i have looked at BushM before at a GM and loved the look. Are the advantages/disadvantages?

there are no stupid questions...only people who are too stupid to ask questions when they don't understand something.

i think you are a little confused on the concept of barrel profiles and ar15 vs. m4.

a real M4 is a select fire (meaning it has the ability to select between semi-auto and either three round burst or fully auto) weapon with a barrel that is actually shorter than 16". it is an NFA weapon. you most likely are not looking at getting an M4.

(many manufacturers label 16" AR15 as "M4" or "M4gery", but they aren't really M4s. though, they might have the 14.5" barrel with a permanently attached long flash hider that brings the overall length to 16", but that is pretty pointless, imho. might as well take advantage of the extra real barrel length if it is going to be that long anyway.)

now, for barrel profiles, there is what is called an M4 profile barrel. this a barrel that heavy (thicker) on the part that sticks out past the handguards (except the notch gut for the bayonet) but skinnier under the handguards. this is in contrast to a standard barrel...which is skinny the whole way and a heavy barrel (HBAR) which is thicker the whole way.

in a nutsehll, the AR15 is the semi-auto only version of the M16 (actually, the AR15 designation existed before the M16 designation which is simply what the military decided to call their fully auto version of the AR15)...the M4 is a short version of the M16.

the bushy you were looking at was almost definitely an AR15...if not, you will have to jump through a bunch of hoops to buy it and it will cost wayyyyy more than $1,800.

most likely a it was a 16" AR15 with an M4 profile barrel. i own a stag and a dpms version of the same gun...they look the same as the bushy (er, well, actually my dpms does not have an M4 profile barrel, though it is a 16" carbine).

btw, "carbine" just means short rifle. i'm not sure exactly what length demarks a "carbine" from a "rifle"...or if that is even set in stone, but most people call a 16" rifle a "carbine".

hope this helps.

**Suburban** · December 14th, 2006, 11:06 PM

The advise already given seems good, so I'll just add one thing.

Be careful about picking barrel lengths. If you get an upper with a 14.5" barrel with a permanently attached flash hider, then you won't easily be able to remove the front sight tower/gas block if you decide to change to a flip front sight or float tube.