I have a buddy who did gun repairs, he fucking hates AR-15s. If you want a gun that ticks all the boxes, get a 12 gauge shotgun. It’s a cheap, widely available platform that has cheap and widely available ammo, it just fucking works, it’s easy to care for, easy to use, pretty standard maintenance, and will kill what you need it to. They’re lethal much further out than video games imply, because otherwise they’d completely wreck the balance of the game.
Edit: I asked him for his specific beef with ARs, this was his response.
They’re a bitch to clean. There’s lots of places that need to be cleaned that can’t be reached easily, tons of little pockets and grooves you can’t get into; requires a dental pick, star shaped cleaning patches, and a shit load of cotton swabs to get through.
If it’s locked up, you can’t knock on the charging handle or emergency kick the charging handle to clear it. You will not be able to field strip this rifle if it’s jammed out of battery.
Aluminum gas blocks are apparently very popular, and they will corrode to failure at the gas tube port.
The extractor pin will often shatter in place, which causes intermittent failure while not looking wrong unless you know what you’re looking for.
Thanks for the context. I was never interested in owning an AR myself, not to mention that it seems to me like they’re way overpriced due to a lot of them being glam guns. He did it for a living for years, so I took him at his word.
Your buddy may have an unfounded bias against them, as AR-15’s are in general extremely reliable, and don’t require much maintainence or cleaning for the most part, especially since most people don’t practice all that much.
A shotgun is a great choice for defense though, and often is a better choice than an AR.
I have a buddy who did gun repairs, he fucking hates AR-15s. If you want a gun that ticks all the boxes, get a 12 gauge shotgun. It’s a cheap, widely available platform that has cheap and widely available ammo, it just fucking works, it’s easy to care for, easy to use, pretty standard maintenance, and will kill what you need it to. They’re lethal much further out than video games imply, because otherwise they’d completely wreck the balance of the game.
Edit: I asked him for his specific beef with ARs, this was his response.
They’re a bitch to clean. There’s lots of places that need to be cleaned that can’t be reached easily, tons of little pockets and grooves you can’t get into; requires a dental pick, star shaped cleaning patches, and a shit load of cotton swabs to get through.
If it’s locked up, you can’t knock on the charging handle or emergency kick the charging handle to clear it. You will not be able to field strip this rifle if it’s jammed out of battery.
Aluminum gas blocks are apparently very popular, and they will corrode to failure at the gas tube port.
The extractor pin will often shatter in place, which causes intermittent failure while not looking wrong unless you know what you’re looking for.
No they’re not. They tear down easily without tools. I can’t think of a part that can’t be cleaned easily. Maybe the gas tube?
There’s a button called a forward assist for that specific purpose.
Milspec blocks are not aluminum, he’s complaining about after-market, non-standard mods.
I’ve seen this on cheap BCGs. It’s annoying, but it’s easily fixable and won’t render the gun useless. You’ll just have to manually clear it.
Thanks for the context. I was never interested in owning an AR myself, not to mention that it seems to me like they’re way overpriced due to a lot of them being glam guns. He did it for a living for years, so I took him at his word.
No problem. As an owner of a fully-custom glam gun, I recommend building a shitty one first to learn what breaks and what doesn’t.
Your buddy may have an unfounded bias against them, as AR-15’s are in general extremely reliable, and don’t require much maintainence or cleaning for the most part, especially since most people don’t practice all that much.
A shotgun is a great choice for defense though, and often is a better choice than an AR.