Free For All Friday 2-6-2015: AR-15s and stuff
You may remember a couple weeks ago where I mentioned a family emergency. While I don’t want to get into details, I feel that I should let you know that I’m still dealing with the problems at hand and it’s taking up a great deal of my time. I know a lot of people would say to put GN on hiatus for a bit until it’s all taken care of but this site and moreso its readers are very important to me. At the same time, it provides a much needed way to get my mind off things. That being said, I may have a bit of trouble keeping to my usual update schedule for a little bit.
On that note, there were a bunch of questions for FFAF this week. Some of them require a bit more research than I’m able to get done in the time between the question request on Wednesday and the post on Friday. I haven’t ignored you. I just want to make sure I get the best info out as possible. For the questions I AM able to answer today, let’s get going!
I have a few questions I’d like you to answer about building an AR-15. I’ve decided to take the project on, and since i’m still sorta new to guns, i’m not exactly sure what parts to get. I tried finding the part you had used in your project, but I had quite a bit of trouble. What should I do? -Matthew W.
The specific parts kit I used in my series was from Palmetto State Armory. They tend to drop old listings on their site and replace it with new SKUs every time they run out instead of just replenishing the inventory of the existing product. This makes finding the kit I bookmarked near impossible. The bright side is, however, that pretty much all the lower parts kits are the same, regardless of manufacturer. In fact, pretty much every parts kit on the market regardless of the brand on it is made by only a handful of manufacturer. There may be small differences here and there but they all go together the same way or at least close enough that an educated guess will get you the rest of the way.
The Walther PPQ M2 9mm is on my short list (5″ barrel). Any plans to buy it yourself and test it. I really enjoy reading your reviews. Keep up the good work! -John F.
The PPQ is certainly on my list of guns to test out. Being a smaller blog, it’s sometimes hard to get a company’s attention for testing guns. Now that I’ve hit the 100K+ views a month club, I might have an easier time persuading some companies. Hey! I’ve got an idea! Everyone contact Walther’s Twitter and tell them to let Gun Noob test out their guns! I’ll be curious to see if that actually works. In the meantime, I have had a bit of experience with them, just not enough for a full blown review. Even with the small amount of time I’ve had with them, I was impressed. The ergonomics are great for my hands and I really loved how the trigger felt.
I have been thinking about getting an AR. Is there anything I should look for when I start to narrow my selection? Also, what would you use a 7mm for? I see the round available just about everywhere, but I don’t know what application would be best. thanks as always! -Skylar R.
Right now is the absolute best and worst time to buy an AR. It’s the best in that the prices are awesome and there are plenty of options to choose from. It’s the worst in that there are so many option to choose from that it’s near impossible keep track of good and bad brands. The best thing when starting out is to stick with the tried and true builders. The Smith & Wesson M&P line of ARs are great platforms with which to expand on and tweak. If you’re wanting something with a little meat on it right off, then I’m a huge fan of Spike’s Tactical and, considering they’re local Florida dudes, I am inclined to recommend them over some of the other small shops around the country. Florida represent! Outside of that, Rock River Arms, Daniel Defense, and Colt are good ones to look for. They’re in the “can’t really go wrong” category. As far as features, the three schools of thought are
- Get the best package you can get for the best price right off the bat
- Find the gun with the best core parts (lower, barrel, etc) then add and upgrade over time.
- Build the lower yourself (easy) and then purchase an awesome pre-built upper.
I’m a fan of #3, personally. It all really depends on your budget.
For your other question, the 7mm round (depending on the exact flavor) is typically used for similar applications as the .30-06. In many cases, it has far better ballistics than the .30-06 but the .30-06 can be found with heavier bullets. Typically, you’d be looking at it for medium to large game hunting applications.
Thanks for the questions!
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