Greg,
Thank you for this thread. It has already influenced a few purchases of mine. Great advice and great reading.
Greg,
Thank you for this thread. It has already influenced a few purchases of mine. Great advice and great reading.
No problem. I wish I would have read something like this back in the 80s. Of course, at that time my advice would have been a 16 inch pencil barreled Colt with A1 sights and a carbine forend. Ahh, the simple days. Just think of all the crap that has come out since then? Crazy rails, goofy, expensive, heavy optics. A million different bipods, tripods VFGs, absurdly heavy and elaborate flashlights, etc. Pretty much all of which has just been a fun way to set your money on fire.
And again, this is just my opinion. My advice assumes that you are a regular civillian who needs a rifle for (1) home defense, (2) disaster preparedness and (3) fun. Obviously, if you are a mercenary in Africa or a sniper in the mountains of Afganistan your needs are different than mine.
You probably would not have listened to much of it. It is only after buying all of the different guns and accessories did you come to believe this, and after satisfying the desire for all of these things.
The only exception would be things that you learned sucked, or did not work. If the Greg of today spoke to the Gregg of 20+ years ago and told him not to buy XYZ rail/optic/accessory because it sucked or did not work well, I think the Greg of 20+ years ago would have listened.
But if the Greg of today told the Greg of 20+ years ago to just buy a Colt 6920 and an Aimpoint and forego the other guns the Greg of 20+ years ago would have probably said, "What, and miss all the fun of shooting/messing around with all of the other guns."
Probably to keep the list simple. The list wasn't meant to detail ALL the brands that are good to buy. A Colt 6920 is a good starter gun for someone just getting into the lifestyle. That's pretty much what the list was made for.
+1 to this, I was just thinking about this today.
This site definitely points me in the right direction in regards to buying quality guns and parts that serve a purpose or fulfill a role, but it no matter how many times some one tells me not to bother, it's not going to make me not want to try x setup, it will just be the best x setup I can get.
Great thread...
I just bought my first AR this past weekend (Colt 6920), after years collecting Ak's, and my mind was already running to all the "stuff" I now"need" for my Colt...
Sound advice - keep it simple...
The Colt 6920 is basically "the standard." It is the reference gun that all the others are variations of. I know they are good, so I am just going to stick to that recommendation and keep it simple.Quote:
Is there any reason that you did not include the Daniel Defense as a second choice in your revised "After 20 years" post?
And just so folks know, I have two AR pattern rifles, neither of which is a 6920. One is a Colt lower with a DD pencil barrel upper and the other is an M16 with a 10 inch Noveske upper. So I am not just recommending exactly what I happen to have. If I could go back I would have just bought the 6920 or the Clyde Armory pencil barrel variant and been done with it.