I just saw a post on one of the internet forums about "all these failures we're seeing". I replied to the post so I'm going to use my reply as a jumping off point here to develop a few more ideas.
Just remember, nobody posts and says "my gun is running 100% for thousands of rounds!" Mechanics start to think all cars are always broken, cops start to think everyone is a scumbag. We are all victims of our frame of reference and just because every wheel you see goes "squeek" doesn't mean that every wheel in the world needs grease.
Even with the various failure posts, I haven't seen any about a factory Colt. As Pat Rogers says "this is what we call a clue". I get a ration of shit from some people for replying to all "I want a new AR" thread with "get a Colt 6920 or 6720". But you know what? We just don't see those guns fail. And part of the reason for that is because Colt knows how to make an AR and how to make an AR that will run. The "critique my 'build'" types of homemade guns could be a collection of the "best", most expensive parts available on the internet, but if they aren't designed to work together they aren't going to work together. and if they do it's often nothing more than luck at best. Will a Corvette motor just drop into the engine bay of a Dodge Magnum, and if it does will it work with the transmission from your buddy's F350 Diesel? They all may be decent vehicles, but it doesn't mean they'll all work together. If you want to KNOW a gun will run, buy yourself a factory Colt. I like the 6720 but if you have to have the M203 notch, get yourself a 6920.
That said, I've noticed an uptick in "my shit don't work" threads. Almost without fail it's somebody fiddle-fucking, using sub-par or the wrong parts, ridiculous ammo choices, or plain stupid magazine choices. Even if you buy that Colt, GO SHOOT THE GUN before you start fiddle-fucking. Pretty please with a cherry on top. Why would you change parts on a factory gun with a warranty if you don't even know if the gun works on it's own to start with? and I don't mean just going to the range and sighting it in, I mean SHOOTING. Go take a class. Run some drills. Shoot a couple of matches. Get out and USE the gun. Along the way you may just surprise yourself and find out that all that new-hotness you thought you needed to pour into it isn't really necessary. Or that the kind of shooting you thought you were going to do isn't what you actually like or want to do, and so all those fancy parts aren't applicable to you anymore.
Even if you insist on "building", stick with basic, quality, known parts. Why someone would buy a BCM upper and assemble it with some kind of silly whale-jizz BCG, fairy-dust buffer, and the craptastic lower they've had laying around since the ban is beyond me. Then to feed it bizarre import surplus ammo fed from whatever magazine they could find at the gunshow or their dad's storage bin, and there you go. Ironically, it is the quality guns that are typically the most forgiving of other sub-par parts. Other than the bad batches of Wolf that were out there a couple of years ago I've never had a feed issue with steel-cased ammo in my Colts. Never had a magazine that wouldn't feed, outside of broken ones, and even then I have several Pmags with chipped feedlips that feed fine. Which doesn't mean these things CAN'T happen in an assembly of parts, it just means a quality factory gun from a company that knows what they are doing is MORE likely to make up for other sub-par accessories. But even a Colt isn't going to work if you drop in weird bleeding-edge parts. Especially if you don't know what the part was meant or designed for to begin with.
It is GREAT that the younger people are getting into guns, and any new (legal) gun owner is a good thing, but there is a cost of ownership to everything. If you can't afford to assemble your upper into an assembly of like-quality parts, feed it at least passable ammo from quality magazines, and get some good instruction on how to use it, it's probably not for you. I would LOVE to have a Ferrari or Maserati, but even if someone gave me one for free I couldn't afford the maintenance or the insurance. If you have budgetary constraints, you may want to choose something else. For the cost of a barreled upper and BCG you could have a Glock 19. For the cost of the Aimpoint or Eotech most people will inevitably mount to said upper you could pay for a class. Ancillary support is a wash, as is load carriage, and ammo is definitely less expensive when comparing like-quality 9mm to 5.56 or .223 brass-cased.
Buy the best quality firearm of the type that you can afford. If you have budgetary issues and want to "build" your gun from parts because you can't scrape all the money together at once to buy a complete gun, be smart about it. Don't get lured down the internet primrose path of buying all the fancy parts you think you know how to assemble. A BCM upper, BCG, complete lower, and some Magpul MOE furniture to round it out and fed from NHMTG GI magazines or Pmags with XM193 in them is way more likely to run (provided you lube it up well, I like Slip 2000 products over some of the more recent whale-jizz) than some assembly of chrome this, special weight that, "enhanced" other thing, and fairy dust springs. And don't even get me started on triggers and muzzle devices you don't need.
Colt 6920 or 6720, Aimpoint, 11 Pmags, 2k rounds of XM193, Blue Force Gear VCAS sling, and a class. If you haven't done all of this first with a Glock 19, 5 magazines, 2k rounds of American Eagle 9mm, Raven Concealment holster and mag pouch, and Wilderness Instructor belt, you're doing it wrong.
There are BETTER choices to all of these individual items. You could buy a Noveske, a 1.x-Y optic, ASYM ammo, etc. but until you know what you're doing they are ALL a waste of time and money for you. If you're not going to get a gun you can have with you and training on how to use it, jumping into the more expensive, more complicated, and more fraught with danger (in the form of total garbage infecting the market) AR family of weapons is probably premature.
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