[crosshairs]

Can anyone tell me if there are any publications or web pages that rank firearms in different categories? I have looked and been unsuccessful.

For example, I tend to buy products that I can find reviews on. When I read American Rifleman, I can't find any bad reviews ( I haven't read them all) and so they are suspect. Also, for the review to carry any weight with me, the product must be tested by a professional.

Case-in-point, I am looking to buy an M-4 clone and there are a lot out there. Being able to look at rankings for this weapon will help me decide on the one for me.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[Jeff_850]

M4 Carbine?
i have a Bushmaster, they are reliable and accurate and close in look to a real M4
http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/weap ... 14m4my.asp
why i think you find no bad reviews is cause they probably make sure they give thier best gun to the testers so they woudlnt get a lemon
and besides that a professional who gets paid to test firearms as a full time job is testing it... remember how much good marksmanship can help make a gun look better than it is
also they might get paid to write a good review.. im not accusing them of that cause i dont know heh
all i know is that i havnt gotten a gun i didnt like yet
heres my Bushmaster M4A3, if this is the M4 type your looking for id get this model, id get A3 if you are willing to spend the extra money for the removalbe carrying handle and rail for sights should you ever want to scope it

 

[Jeffvn]

If there were such a thing I would be interested in reading it, but there is no such ranking as far as I know.

That is why people read Mel's work and some other "objective" reviewers. Many magazines have a huge conflict with receiving ads from rifle manufactueres, then rating the products. Mel has no such conflict (as far as we know - Mel if you can get them to give you $$$ for a good review go for it!!!!).

 

[FLEA]

!

Crosshairs:

If you are not in a hurry, wait for the new HK m4 to come out. I guess they redirect the gas forward into the handguard rather then back into the reciever whitch can cause problems with feeding and reliability unless you keep really good care of your gun all the time.

As far as all the other m4 clones out thier they are pretty much the same thing are far as the reciver is concerned....the biggest difference will be in the barrels. Bushmaster, knights, rock rivers, colt....ect they will all get the job done.

Like said above magazines wont get other weapons to test if they rip on a manufacturer. Word of mouth is the easiest way. When you pick what you think you want just ask around and you will hear good or bad stories. Just take everything with a grain of salt cause some people are just dumb.

Case in point.....day at a open range

Guy "How do you keep your M4 from not jamming
Me "How often do you clean it?"
Guy "When I can"
Me "What cleaners do you use?"
Guy "huh????"
Me "What type of ammo are you using?"
Guy ".223"
Me "What brand?"
Guy "huh?????"
Me "Nevermind buddy...better take it to a gun smith...sounds bad."

That might be the guy telling you not to buy one cause his sucks!

 

[mele]

Well, no money from the gun makers for reviews. I try my best to objectively review them and I try to use off the shelf rifles...

but, as obvious because of my page, I gererally only do sniper rifles, or rifles that can be used for sniping.

Now, it would be nice to get some advertising money for some well placed banners from those in the industry. It would sure be more worth while to you (my readers), instead of the "you won an hourly prize" banners.

MEL

 

[Jeff_850]

well it would make a nice weapon for the spotter on the sniper team but its not by any means a sniper rifle heh

 

[Madison]

youd be surprised how accurate they are at 100-200 If im not mistaken they make you use a m4 to the the t-zone in srt/mo training in the military.

 

[CM2k]

Holy s**t I won a prize!

A nice catalog combining various specs of rifles and then listing them in some way from best to worst would be nice indeed. I imagine that Assault rifles would be graded on a combination of reliability, accuracy, and weight, opposed to sniper rifles, which would compare off of MOA, barrel weight, and some form of realiability test.

But, that's beyond alot of work. First, other testing standards have to be developed to test them, then it would be possible to make such a catalog.

 

[Jeff_850]

youd be surprised how accurate they are at 100-200 If im not mistaken they make you use a m4 to the the t-zone in srt/mo training in the military.

wouldnt suprise me that my M4 Carbine shoots about as well as some tactical rifles out there even Remington or Savage, companies known for out of the box accuracy generally shoot 1-2 - 3/4 moa out of the box while my M4 is shooting about 3/4 moa now with iron sights not bad for an out of the box carbine made to be an expensive plinker

 

[Dan]

Crosshairs,

It's too bad that such an objective ranking site is not readily accessible.

However, I wanted to tell you about a rifle I've seen over the past few months. My father is in charge of carbon fiber molding for Bushmaster Firearms, and I got to see the Carbon Fiber M4 months ago. The R&D on the gun has recently finished, and the gun can be found in the newest catalog or on their website. If you are looking for a light M4, consider this one. It weighs in at 5.9 lbs, about the same as a Bushmaster A3 Superlight Carbine. Accuracy will be also about equal, but the Carbon 15 M4 is somewhat more rugged. You may know that carbon fiber is a very strong material, and it's more suited to hostile enviroments. When very fine sand or dust is trapped between the carrier assembly and the receiver, it actually has a "lubricant" effect, rather than the abrasive action to be found with standard M4s. This unique quality has several government's Special Forces teams looking into this rifle. Hopefully the R&D will pay off for Bushmaster.

Here's the link to the gun on their webiste if you're (or anybody's) interested.

http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/carb ... 5m4pst.asp

 

[APK]

crosshairs:

what is most important to you in buying this M-4 clone? If its weight and reliability then the carbon-15 is definately the way to go!!! I went to the shot show in Vegas and have seen it. I watched the guy from Bushmaster put the gun on the ground and jump on it. He aslo said you could run it over with your truck, and not have to worry about it warping like a standard M-4. So if your lookin for the toughest M-4 out there I'd say that's a great choice. Plus it weighs almost nothing! But it all depends on what your looking for.

 

[Jeff_850]

FLEA:
didnt know the H&K M4 Carbine available in the US???
they have a post ban version or becoming available after September assuming it sunsets?
if they are available do you know what it would cost???
im due to get a new lower (w/ a real tele stock) and an upper w/ a flash hider er fine a complete new M4

 

[FLEA]

!

Jeff:

The H&K M4 will prolly come out after the ban lifts.....WestPointRanger made a mention about it a couple weeks ago and I havn't been able to find out too much info....but for someone who wants to buy a M4 I think I would definatly recommend they wait and see how it turns out.

 

[Jeff_850]

well i wonder how it costs
if its considerably more expensive than Bushmater or Colt then i probably wont bother but if its reasonably priced (i know its a H&K) then it might warrant a slightly higher bit of cash
also think id have to get another aimpoint for it or maybe even a Leupold Mk4 CQ/T damn that would be expensive heh

 

[Kamatz]

I would suspect it's pretty darn expensive. That's what I've come to expect from HK, anyway...

I must admit it's very tempting to have one, though. But I'm not convinced it's worth the extra dough.

 

[Jeff_850]

neither am i but my M4 is gonna be 'obsolete' or atleast the stock and barrel will be
the barrel in my opinion is a better barrel than the Govt profile one... doubt it wll be able to hold 3/4 moa, so i might not change that but the stock is going for a real tele style one

 

[crosshairs]

Thank you all for your input.

Of course I want an M4 that is going to shoot in any environment (hot, cold, dry, wet, dirty, oily, ad nauseam) and can tolerate physical abuse (not being clean, being kicked, dropped, used to batter down doors, ad nauseam).

It sounds like Bushmaster has what I am looking for at the moment. I will post a pic when I get it. I should be getting my DPMS Panther Long Range any day now as well. Perhaps when I pick up the Panther, I will buy a Bushmaster the same day. How cool would that be? :wink:

 

[Jeff_850]

that would be pritty cool
DPMS Panther Long Range (im assuming you mean the .308) is a fine rifle and those who have them always like them
ive never herd any feedback on the Long Range Ultra Mag (.300 RSAUM) but id assume thats a sweet rifle too
i hear mixed results about accuracy ranging from 1/2 to 3/4 moa out of the box which is outstanding for a semi-auto priced $800 less than the Armalite AR-10T and about $2000 less than the Stoner SR-25 but still preforms about as well from what i hear