re: Official AR-15 thread

Alright so I plan on joining the AR cool club. I need something that will be mainly a hobby shooter. Looking to spend under 800 for the rifle and under 1k for the entire build (optics, ffl, slings, mags)

Looking at these options

- Spikes ST-15 (799.99) (Best gun but most expensive/on paper, competes against Colt LE6920/includes rear iron sights)
- Spikes ST-15 upper/PSA lower (~720) (Same upper as above/not as good buffer on lower/no rear iron sights)
- PSA prem upper/PSA lower (~650) (quality upper/no rear iron sights)
- S&W M&P 15 Sport (~575) (Good solid reviews/least amount of gun/no CL/1:9 twist/includes BUIS)
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- The spikes full ST-15 comes with the spikes lower which has a heavy buffer.

- Spikes upper comes with CL barrel, MPI/HPT tested barrel and bolt, 1:7 twist, B-11595E steel barrel. No rear iron sights

- PSA upper comes with CL barrel, MPI/HPT tested barrel and bolt, 1:7 twist, FN barrel. No rear iron sights

- The PSA lower comes with the standard carbine buffer

- The S&W doesn't have most of this, It's just cheap and has good components. More room for accessories.

- The PSA upper can be had for 350 on a blemished version. Any luck on these?
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Looking to replace black to FDE. PSA lower already has FDE would need to replace all other options.

Hopefully I have all the lingo down and am open for suggestions.

Read Windham is part of Bushmaster or something like that and that Bushmaster's rep/reliability has been shot. (pun intended)

Heard DPMS QC is shotty. (on fire )

Stag components don't have the value of Spikes or PSA.

S&W 15 OR doesn't have the same level of components as the Spikes ST-15 and is same price

Heard some horror stories on PSA CS. Could just be high traffic times (around christmas)

Should I go 5.56, 300 AAC, 7.62, or 6.8?

That's all I got out of 2 days of researching.