I have a brand-new friend...
 

...and now I need to name her.

DPMS Panther AP4. I can officially call myself an AR owner now. I'll get some pics in a little while.

Alright, here we go. Right now, it looks kind of plain, but eventually, it'll have a new sight, and RIS, and the works. It's my first AR, so I'm pretty excited!

http://www.imfdb.org/images/d/d4/MyAP4-1.jpg

http://www.imfdb.org/images/e/e2/MyAP4-2.jpg

Name her Vera

HEY FO! dont tell da man what to name his gun!
its his gun. the owners should name it.


but. nice! welcome to the ''in'' group. you now have an AR
she's a beauty

can't say i name guns.....

So you went with the Panther. Cool man. It's got the LE stock on it too. How much did it run you? I saw a Bushmaster with the A1 Brass deflector upper at a gun show for 850 and I considered buying it, but I'm holding out for an AK.

I have names for some of my guns, but I don't use them. I think it's a bit silly.

Names? I dunno man.
It has a name already. The mfgr gives it a name.

I second naming her Vera. But you need to add more stuff you dont need.

Well he asked for a name, and I gave one up as a joke really.

Anyway, I was at Cabela's the other day and saw a customized Colt Ar-15. Somebody who is selling it did a lot of work on it. a larger flap on the charging handle, different pistol grip, PTS stock, flip up iron sights and even comes with a sling and all for about 800

Very nice.

OK, you guys are taking the naming thing a little too seriously. I really don't name my guns, either (otherwise, I would've asked for name suggestions when I bought my SIG and my Mossberg).

The Panther was $925 NIB, with the case, sling, mags, and everything. My preference was an Olympic K3B, but there weren't any there. But once we saw the Panther, we decided it was worth it, especially considering how overpriced almost everything else was at the show.

The only problem I have is that the mags it came with are pretty flimsy, so I'll need new ones eventually (before I ever actually fire the rifle, preferably). Also, I had no idea that the spring on the forearm mount is so stiff; we spent almost half an hour trying to pry off the forearm so that we could look at the gas tube.

As for Bushmaster, we inspected quite a few of those at various dealers' tables, because Bushy was another option that we considered. Almost all of the ones we saw had fairly poor-quality bolt carriers. It seems to me that they've actually deteriorated in quality in the last few years. I've handled older-model XM15s that used far better parts.

The Forearm mount can be stiff sometimes. You'll have to pry it a few times to loosen it. Magazines shouldn't be that expensive to buy

Yeah, I'm already looking for new mags on Midway and Cabela's. I also need to find a good RIS forearm.

As for the forearm, it looks to me like you have to squeeze it a little or something. But I expect that the spring will loosen up after extended usage and then it won't be as big a problem.

A good KA RIS system is always a good thing. Any plans for what kind of mags? Maybe P-Mags?

CDNN is another good place to get mags. That's where most of my spares came from.

Selection seems a bit limited, though. But thanks for the recommendation.

Holy crap, you got a gun!

And you didn't get it? Are you daft, man?

Ya'll want to hear something funny? A few years ago my father gave me a STAG Arms AR like this one: http://dynamicarmament.com/images/st...2t%20rifle.jpg (only left handed) as a gift. See all those rails? I had previously mentioned to him many, many times that I don't like rails very much and that I think they're ugly. I'm not saying that I'm not extremely grateful, but c'mon, what good is a rail system if you can't afford accessories?

Ever heard of CheaperThanDirt? They have highly rated AR-15 mags for 10 bucks here:

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MAG065-36.html

If I had an AR that's probably what I would buy. Brownells boasts a lot out of their mags but I don't know much about them. Still, they too have fairly good ratings. Brownells have steel ones but they are more expensive and more or less unnecessary. Link to Brownells mags:

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=2...OUND_MAGAZINES

I'd trade my AR for one like MT2008's in a heartbeat. I love the way those AR's look and feel. Also, the sights kick ass

Yeah, a big one, how about you? :D

Yeah, a Colt for $800 is a really good deal. It's rare I see them for under a Grande, and the ones I see are always pretty well used.

Well, you can always replace the rail forearm for cheap. Standard forearms are plentiful and inexpensive. I actually want to buy a rail forearm for my Panther eventually (not immediately, as dropping $1K on a new gun means I won't have the capital for a while).

Speaking of which, until this weekend, I had no idea that STAG made left-hand ARs. When did this start? The first time I saw one on a dealer's table, I did a double-take.

I've bought AK ammo from them before (actually, my Dad did, but it was with my encouragement). A lot of their stuff really is a "take it or leave it" affair, and I think I can afford to be a little less frugal on getting good mags.

Their whole marketing deal is that they are the only ones that make leftie AR's

Thanks, but...what's special about the sights? (remember I say this having had very little range time with ARs)

Ah, I see. Somehow, I missed out completely. Even though I'd heard of STAG, I basically knew nothing about them.

They're OK, I just don't like rails. As for the sights, I love the standard carry handle sight. My AR came with really crappy flip ups.

Remember that it isn't "Operator-worthy" until it has a foregrip and a C mag.

But you can buy the carry handle and stick it on.

Well, guess I'll never be an operator then. I don't need/want a C-mag. A vertical grip might be good, though...

Or an M203 and 2 kinds of optics

I don't have a foregrip, but I have a Beta Mag:D

I finally took the Panther out for a spin yesterday evening; my friend and I put about 200 rounds through the gun. It shoots quite well. One of the things that surprised me is how easy it is to shoot consistent groups with ARs. The last time I shot my uncle's Colt AR-15 A2 (years ago now), I remember thinking it was decently consistent, but now that I'm grown up, it feels lots easier with my Panther. I actually managed to get 2" groups pretty quickly. Although my eye sight has deteriorated a bit, too (my contact lens prescription has increased in the last 5 years), so I remember squinting a little more to focus before shooting.

I still don't have new magazines yet, but maybe I was a little hard on the factory mags. I guess I was just hard on them because they look/feel too much like the mags on my airsoft M16A2. I didn't have any problems with them, though the green followers sure do get dirty pretty easily (and look it). I've never seen the followers on my synthetic AK mags get that dirty.

BTW, the ammo we bought was Brown Bear. Can anyone tell me if it's any good? My Dad and I buy Wolf for the AK and were going to do the same for the AR, but Brown Bear was what they had at the range.

I shoot Wolf out of mine and it works O.K. By the way, I found a flaw in my STAG- you have to slam the mags in for them to stay put

Wolf is at lower power levels than most brands, but, if your gun cycles it, go for it. I believe brown bear and wolf are related, just made at different plants by the same company. If one works, the other should too. Ive run wolf and brown bear 762x29 through an sks no problems.

Just don't try to shoot Wolf brand .223 out of one of those cheapo single shot youth rifles- the firing pin hits the primer, but not hard enough to fire the round

Huh, interesting, I had no clue...this is what I get for not doing my research.

Anyway, Wolf 7.62x39mm works just fine in my AK. I just didn't know how their .223 holds up in comparison. But I guess I do now. :D

It's alright. Haven't experienced any jams using it...yet

I"ve shot a bunch of different kinds of ammo through my Bushy AR and everything runs fine. One time I was shooting a lot of rounds of wolf pretty rapidly and I had a casing expand and it wouldn't extract. Aside from that I've never even had another malfunction in my AR. I prefer PMC .223 because it's not steel and it's a bit cleaner then wolf but is still reasonably priced.

As for mags I have nothing bad to say about P-Mags. The aluminum GI mags work fine but the pmags feel much stronger and work flawlessly everytime.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...n/DSC00190.jpg

Is PMC pistol ammo any good? I only have like 2 1/2 boxes of .45 left and one of 'em is PMC Brass (the other box is Blazer and 1/2 a box of Cor-Bon SUPA HP:p)

Whhops! I meant PMC Bronze.

I've only shot PMC through a pistol once that I can think of and now I'm having trouble remembering which one of my pistols I shot it through. It worked fine though for me.

I'm probably going to shoot it out of my 4506, so it most likely won't cause any malfunctions