To buy junk, or not to buy junk...

[dewshe]

Here is a question that I have pondered. It came to me as I thought back to my first truck. It was a beautiful, high mileage Chevy K5 that spent a great deal of time breaking down on me.

In hindsight, I learned more about how to fix a car out of necessity than I ever would have otherwise.

Do the readers here think that parallels with the M4/AR rifles? After hours of research (mostly here) I purchased a DDXV (thanks, by the way). I haven't had an issue yet, and I am confident that any problems will be rare. For educational purposes, is it justifiable to purchase one of the more problematic rifles as well? While I don't want to put myself in harms way, I learn much better hands on.

EDIT: I have no intention of getting rid of the DDXV. This would be an additional rifle.

EDIT Part Deux: I apologize for not being clearer. The point of the subpar rifle was to allow myself to be presented with malfunctions more frequently than I would have been with the DDXV. This way, if my GTG ever had a malfunction, there is a higher likelihood that i would be prepared to remedy the issue quickly.

I am putting this response here because my thread was moved, and I don't have enough posts to respond in the forum it was placed in.

[NCPatrolAR]

IMO, you shouldn't buy a "fix 'er up" gun unless you already have something else to protect yourself with

[Trajan]

Wouldn't it be better to have a quality, or "properly built" AR so you know what the platform is capable of, rather than a sub-par version that will have problems that properly built ARs will not have?

Good choice on the DD.

[Business_Casual]

I say buy quality and make malfunction clearance part of your range routine. If you practice clearance correctly and often, it will be automatic when you do eventually encounter one in your high-quality equipment.

B_C

[mr_smiles]

A fixer up car is a little different than a fixer up rifle. And in the end a fixer upper gun will cost you more than a new gun.

[ST911]

Car-gun isn't a good analogy. The difference between a GTG and fixer-upper car is thousands. The difference between a GTG and NG carbine can be as little as $75.00.

[Iraqgunz]

Makes no sense as it has been shown time and again that one can build a good quality carbine for as much as or sometimes less than the garbage peddlers.

[Avenger29]

Makes no sense as it has been shown time and again that one can build a good quality carbine for as much as or sometimes less than the garbage peddlers.


What? What? How DARE you use logic. You're just a fanboy

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5733/skullsedited150ppi.jpg (http://img683.imageshack.us/i/skullsedited150ppi.jpg/)



:D

[sewvacman]

Instead of buying a gun that is not reliable you can just do what TK did to us at the winter group meet. Just put a spent casing randomly in one or a couple full mags. It will cause either a jam or just plain won't fire off and this will allow you to practice clearing drills.

Take the money you would spend on a sub-par gun and invest in a good class. I think you'll get more out of doing it this way.

Just my .02cents fwiw.

[PlatoCATM]

If you buy a sub-par gun on purpose, it most likely won't do what you want it to. It may work just fine for a bit, and then all of a sudden, instead of producing intermittent stoppages it will just shit the bed.

If you want to learn the ins and outs you could put together a lower, or barrel an extra upper and see how well it runs, or just experiment with recoil springs and different buffers.

If you really want to practice clearing stoppages and malfunctions add dummies to your mags, stage double feeds with dummies, or use known-bad magazines--ones with spread feed lips, worn out springs, and/or obsolete black followers.

[skyugo]

Makes no sense as it has been shown time and again that one can build a good quality carbine for as much as or sometimes less than the garbage peddlers.

good point...
i was browsing a local shop the other day... lots of bushmasters for 875... :rolleyes: if you could get a junker AR for like 400 bucks... might be worth it to get your feet wet... but it doesn't seem to work that way.

[MIKE G]

Take a $400 armorers course and a $400 rifle course. You will spend about as much in true, organized training and learn skills, tactics, and mindset gleaned from the mistakes and successes of hundreds (maybe even thousands) instead of trying to teach yourself through the failure of a sample size of 1.

With your intended approach you will be starting down a path of not knowing what you dont know and your learning may be protracted over years. I have guns that I have run well over 20k rounds through in a year that still have not had every part fail or degrade to the point of presenting an obvious symptom. Granted, these are all high end guns but there will be some parts that just simply take time to fail and provide you with the opportunity to 'learn'.

If it was me and I wanted to start learning about the ins and outs of the AR platform, I would sign up for an armorers course and buy quality individual pieces or component groups and assemble them into a working gun during the course. This allows you to learn what you need to know and walk away with a second quality gun that you intimately know.

[Bobert0989]

What? What? How DARE you use logic. You're just a fanboy

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5733/skullsedited150ppi.jpg (http://img683.imageshack.us/i/skullsedited150ppi.jpg/)



:D

That Image belongs on a LinkPimp painted Scope...

:cool:

[John_Wayne777]

The main lesson you learn from buying a gun that doesn't work is that it's a bad idea to buy a gun that doesn't work. To make a broke down gun run will require either minor fixes that you probably are already capable of doing or replacing big expensive parts which turn the gun into a money pit.

All you will learn is frustration.

It would be far better to expend that time and effort on building a gun from the ground up, carefully researching each step and part in the process.