Money saving AR15 accessory options.

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Mr_Irritating

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The AR15 is awesome. The platform has been around for decades and is incredibly popular, for good reason. This also means aftermarket accessories are almost infinite in options.

There is a million choices for each accessory type, be it rails, optics, grips, stocks etc. Along with these seemingly infinite choices are a million different price levels within each accessory type.

I'm looking for opinions on accessories, giving an example of a high quality, top of the line accessory or replacement part and an example of an inexpensive, acceptable alternative.

For example; "X" red dot is awesome because blank... costs...etc

An inexpensive, acceptable alternative is... costs...

I'm looking forward to your input.

If you think this thread is pointless, that's ok, let it die. I'm sure I'll figure all this out on my own, I just don't like wasting money something too cheap or needlessly expensive.
 
Learn to shoot with irons as everyone says, until you get bored and upgrade to a red dot or w/e optics you like. Its easier on the eyes and allows for faster acquisition. Dont be that guy who puts a million lasers of every color on it to look cool. Slings are always a great option.
 
I agree learning to shoot is the best thing to learn first.


There are thousands of accessories to name. Go on Midway or another site, and go through as many pages of AR15 accessories you can until you can't take anymore. Try Youtube to see other setups.
 
Depends what you are using it for. Ill fork out the extra money for optics on a home defense rifle.

Mike

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
 
Go for this



[laugh2] No, what they said. Learn to shoot it with Irons first. As far as cheap goes, it will cost you more in the long run when you replace it with a reliable part.
 
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I think he just looking for some guidance on accessories. Not trying to be sniper out the gate. The myriad of bolt on crap can be intimidating. But like most are implying, most if that crap is marketing bullshit. Learn to shoot with a production stock rifle then learn what you prefer.

As far as accessories go, you tend to get what you pay for. That said, some manufacturers pay a premium for their name or roll mark.

Put it thus way, if you are talking about a functional part of the gun: the BCG, trigger group, barrel, optics etc. I'd open the purse strings a bit and buy something if higher quality. But if you are talking about rails, hand guards, stocks, grips etc is there really a huge difference between one guys extruded aluminum or molded plastic versus another guys?
 
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One part I love is the b.a.d. lever. Makes it faster for mag exchanges on fully empty mags when not doing tactiical reloads.
 
Tater said:
One part I love is the b.a.d. lever. Makes it faster for mag exchanges on fully empty mags when not doing tactiical reloads.
Click to expand...

+1 - great add on for the AR and cheap.

If you are going with a free float, I have used a few Yankee Hill hand guards. They are top quality and pretty easy to install, oh and they are 1/3 the cost of a LaRue.
 
I'll chime in with the above comments - keep it simple and learn to shoot

I have upgraded my grips to a Magpul Moe+ and the stock to a magpul fixed stock (love both and better than what I had) - threw some XTM rail covers on the handguard
That's about it. $24 for the grip, $69 for the stock (another $30 or so for rifle buffer, spring and extension tube), $20 or so for the XTM covers

Put a Tac-30 scope on one - I think was $279 or so - works great. Waiting for the cash to put a scope on the other.

Probably will put a Gieselle trigger in one this summer to try it out.

IMG_3430_zps18977c92.jpg
 
I know where the op is coming from, I'm a single dad with 50/50 custody and still have to pay child support which means for me an eotech and other expensive sights are out of the question right now.

One I found that had more good reviews then bad was this: Amazon.com: Sightmark Ultra Shot Sight QD Digital Switch: Sports & Outdoors

It's about $100 and I've had mine for a couple years and don't have this exact model with the digital on/off, mine is a knob to turn. So far it's never lost it's zero and am still using the original batteries. I did a shoot with it this winter and consistantly hit the 100 yard hanging steel going 16 for 17 the second round and only missed one since the board I was resting the rifle on was wobbling too much from recoil. During that shoot while having to use the charging handle to load a round into the chamber I kept busting my knuckle on the buis so at home I took both the reflex and buis off to try and move it forward but I didn't like it so reinstalled them both to original position (I installed the gunfighter mod 4 charging handle from bcm last week should solve that problem now). Anyways last weekend I went to the range to sight the rifle back in and was pleased to learn the sightmark kept its zero even after being taken off the rifle and put back on. After some shots on paper I easily hit the 100 yard steel plate 20 for 20 while standing.
 
Number 1, as stated above, learn to shoot.
2. Define your need for accessories on what type of shooting that you want to do. Precision shooting requires different accessories than defensive shooting.
3. Determine how valuable the accessory is to your goal. Ex. If your life depends on the accessory, don't cheap out in any way. Buy the best. If the accessory doesn't mean much, neither does its quality. If you are just plinking, a Primary Arms red dot will do. If its a defensive gun, Aimpoint or Eotech wold be a better choice.

I have a $50 Tasco red dot on a 22, but would never put it on a defensive rifle. Inexpensive sights will work, high quality sights will take more use and abuse and keep working.
 
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First of all, very few of the quality components are going to be money saving. And a weapon you intend to potentially use to protect yourself should only have quality parts. There are so many places to research components and read reviews etc, so I'm just going to put down general essentials to a fighting carbine:
1) Sling (QD helps)
2) Light (Quality light preferably, not a pistol light)

Those are the two that are pretty much required. These below are nice to haves:
3) Optic (<200m red dot sight aimpoint or eotech. >200m red dot sight or quality small magnification optic)
4) Free float barrel with the sling attached to the rails is ideal but far from necessary

That's it. After a while you can learn what you like for ergonomics and test out different buttstocks or grips. Also, this post is for fighting carbines. If you just want to go to the range, then for money saving I would just keep it stock. Irons are more challenging and thus more fun at the range. And you don't need to worry about weapon retention or target illumination/ID.
 
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Also, I disagree with the people who say learn to shoot with irons first - especially if your primary sight is going to be a red dot. I'd learn your primary sight first and learn the secondary sights second. As Pat Rogers once said:

"We need to get over the romance of aligning sights and get to the business of shooting smelly bearded men in the face more efficiently."
 
oilspill said:
Also, I disagree with the people who say learn to shoot with irons first - especially if your primary sight is going to be a red dot. I'd learn your primary sight first and learn the secondary sights second. As Pat Rogers once said:

"We need to get over the romance of aligning sights and get to the business of shooting smelly bearded men in the face more efficiently."
Click to expand...

I agree mostly, with the caveat of it depending on the purpose of the rifle. Also, one should definitely familiarize themselves with the irons and know how they work. But one should focus mostly on their optics if they have them.
 
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I'd follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Shithead) methodology. I picked up a set of MagPul flip-up BUIS for my flat-top AR15. I also have a compact 3-9x scope on it. I set the BUIS on a 45 degree cant off the top so that I could position the scope better. It's actually a very easy transition for more close-in shooting. Since the scope has an illuminated reticle, but also has a black one for when you don't use the light, it won't matter if I lose power to it (unlike with a dot type sight). I also put a MagPul AFG2 on the handguard (a drop-in aluminum quad rail). The front sight is mounted to that, as well as a flashlight mount (working on selecting a good light for that, or will use my older SureFire when I get a new one to carry). All the other rail sections are covered, so that they won't bite into my hand if I grab that instead of the AFG.

I will be building up more uppers as I can. I intend to outfit them more mission specific. Free float handguards will be standard issue on them.

BTW, with the AR platform as it stands, you can easily have one (or two) lower receivers and many upper assemblies. Simply place the upper you want to use on the lower and go shooting.
 
oilspill said:
Also, I disagree with the people who say learn to shoot with irons first - especially if your primary sight is going to be a red dot. I'd learn your primary sight first and learn the secondary sights second. As Pat Rogers once said:

"We need to get over the romance of aligning sights and get to the business of shooting smelly bearded men in the face more efficiently."
Click to expand...

what happens when the optic doesn't function? your irons ARE your primary sights, anything on top of that is just gravy.
 
atilla said:
what happens when the optic doesn't function? your irons ARE your primary sights, anything on top of that is just gravy.
Click to expand...

With proper preventative checks and maintenance including batteries, quality modern optics rarely fail. Whereas most BUISs are fairly flimsy and often have wide apertures.

But regardless, yes one should know how to shoot with irons. They should know the concept and have a basic shooting familiarization with them. But one shouldn't focus most of their time on the irons. The problem is that many people say that someone should only get a red dot sight when they've mastered the iron sights. That's just silly and counterproductive.
 
Don't waste your money not even a penny on cheap accessories/parts. Meaning that you will always want to be improving your AR every time you look at it, and will spend more money by adding more expensive cheaper parts replacing the cheaper parts you already have on. By the time you done constantly upgrading your AR you will have spend the same amount of money or more than just buying quality parts/accessories to begin with.

My advice, buy one part at the time while taking your time and saving for other parts. You don't have to add everything at once, one part at the time. I would recommend having a quality platform if you want to add quality parts, you can't make a CHevy Cavalier a Lexus GS by swapping tires and adding a nice stereo.

So instead of adding a red dot, get a nice trigger (Giesselle) and use iron sights...
 
atilla said:
what happens when the optic doesn't function? your irons ARE your primary sights, anything on top of that is just gravy.
Click to expand...

Sure, of course you should become proficient with your backup sight system. I just disagree that you have to learn with irons first.
 

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