Is this a good deal on a braced AR?

[GyroF-16]

Asking for a friend...
Attachment 46870

And if it IS a decent deal, is a Ruger AR a smart buy?
My experience with Rutgers is influenced by experience with the P-85... Functional, tough, overbuilt, a bit inelegant, and not too expensive. Kind of like Soviet-era weapons.
I’m just wondering if it’s enough of a good deal that if braced ARs turn out not to be to my taste, could I flip it without a big loss?
If I’d take a bath on a resale, maybe I’d better think about just buying high quality from the beginning...

Thoughts?

[Nephrology]

That's an OK deal. I don't think it's the buy of a lifetime. Ruger's ARs are probably fine. My gut tells me I'd rather buy the M&P in that price range for a complete rifle. I think Aero makes some complete guns too and they are pretty decent, though CS/QC less of a known value.

[Darth_Uno]

It's a decent price. Haven't handled one myself, but I'd trust Ruger a lot more than some no-name build. Worst case scenario, if you don't like it you can sell the upper and sell the brace, then build a carbine/rifle out of what's left.

[kwb377]

Decent deal.

I paid $629 for mine (w/o the no-name optic) at an LGS a few weeks ago. Cheapest I saw on GB was a dealer several hours south of here for $599. I've only got @ 500 rounds or so through mine, no function issues so far.

Compared to my other AR's ('98 vintage 6920, a newish BCM, my former issued S&W M&P, and my two sons' new M&P Sport II's), it has a few minor issues...there's some rough edges/flashing on the receiver that weren't removed completely before finishing (rear of magwell at the triggerguard pin), the gas key is lazily staked, and the castle nut isn't staked at all. Also, the ejection port radius on mine isn't symmetrical and the detent catch is too shallow, causing the dust cover to not stay closed.

None of these issues have really bothered me as I bought it as a beater/truck gun anyway, and they're easily remedied...I smoothed the edges on the receiver with a couple of swiped of 0000 steel wool, staked everything, and installed an SI enhanced dust cover with adjustable detent (or could just remove it altogether and go w/o one).

It's printing better groups than my other rifles.

Barfcom is full of people that will point out you can build an AR pistol $100 - $200 cheaper...then post multiple "What's wrong with my gun?" threads and spent double what they saved swapping buffers, installing adjustable GB's, etc. in order to get it to function like the Ruger does out of the box.

[GyroF-16]

Thanks @kwb377 and others - that’s the kind of information I was looking for.
Still contemplating...

[GyroF-16]

For any others following along at home, I found the same gun for $580 + free shipping at Sportsman’s Outdoors.

https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsuperst....cfm/ID/217519

No generic RDS, but still a better deal, I think.

[MVS]

Its an ok deal on an ok pistol. A coworker got one a few months back from Rural King for $549. I consider it about typical for a Ruger.

[SeriousStudent]

If you want a braced pistol I have a bunch of parts for ya. Let me know if you know how to do a build. If you don't, I'll build it for you when you come down for Tac-Con in March.

Not hard, we can knock the whole thing out in an hour.

[Casual Friday]

The Ruger AR556 uses a bunch of proprietary parts and a lot of them are poorly assembled. I'd pass on it.

[Gadfly]

I have dealt with a couple of Ruger ARs... a solid "meh" for the rating. I would take it over an Omni/Del Ton/Anderson.

One of them I dealt with, the owner brought it to me because he could not get the upper an lower to line up for the pins to go in. The factory sent it out when the only way to get it to close was to put your full body weight on the two half's, then the pins would insert. The upper was not machined properly. I told him to send it back... he got a file and went to work himself (WHY????)....

see attached photos. The upper needed another pass on the milling machine. But the problem is, the factory KNeW this was out of spec, and the forced it shut and sent it out....

They run OK, but the finish is rough, and the proprietary parts bug me. Its ok, but you can do better.