Back just weeks before the Clinton ban, I decided I needed an AR, just because the President of the United States said I couldn't have one. I purchased a Colt A2 HBAR. NIB. It was junk. You could see daylight between the upper and lower, you could flex the rifle in your hands, and the sights were at best crude. I was so disgusted with the whole thing, that it sat in the safe until I sold it. At the time there were just a handful of AR makers, and Colt was King.
Springfield came out with a sawed off M1A called the Socom, and I bought one of the first ones. It was heavy, and the concussion of the muzzle break was beyond description. I tried to put an Aimpoint on it, only to find the Pictanny rails-weren't. Not only were they not in spec, there weren't even close. I ended up putting a fixed mount on it and kept that mankiller till last year. With ball it was at best a 3 MOA rifle. My thoughts on it were much like an AK-47. Great for chopping a car in half that happens to be in your driveway, but not much else.
When Ruger came out with this rifle, everyone said it was a answer to an unasked question. Pistons guns were nose heavy, and they all had carrier tilt. Pulling the handguards off the DI guns, and scraping the inside of the receiver just wasn't that big a deal, and by the way, you could spend the same amount of money and build yourself a nice gun. No way should you be stuck with a weapon with parts you can only get from Ruger. Or, you should be able to disassemble it down to the last molcule.
When I decided to stick my toe back into the AR world, I knew I wanted a Piston gun. I don't like cleaning rifles, and I never liked cleaning a DI gun. (This was before handguard tools were common) The idea of a rifle that shot dirty, and could be adjusted to cheap ammo appealed to me. The ideal of a an AR that came with just about all the stuff I wanted, rails, removable sights, adjustable stock, was an added bonus. I didn't want to have to purchase a rifle, and then spend 500 dollars just to get to somewhere in the neighborhood of where I wanted the rifle to be. Now all I have to purchase is a weapon light that will peel the paint off a car, a vertical grip, and a different stock. I will still spend that 500 dollars or more, but I'll have a finished, instead of a half finshed rifle. POF looked like a something out of a Star Trek show to me, LMT, LWRC, Ruger were the only contenders. I fell into this SR 556, and the fit and finish are light years ahead of the HBAR of the last century. Its not a five pound rifle, but neither was my Socom. I love the idea of everything thats important has been hard chromed. Its a well thought out platform. Everyone who has invested their time and money into a DI gun isn't going to be swayed. For someone who doesn't want to mess around, and walk into a rifle that's ready to go right now, and has easy, minimal maintence, this rifle is a dream.
