Defensive AR-15 Setup for Regular People 

It’s the same QC

@@totenfurwotan4478they’ve gotten way better. No company goes w/o having any qc issues throughout their standing. Ask sig, glock, S&W

Love psa!

Or maybe everyone remembers they make their Freedom Line lol!

I know lots of people who own psa ARs and they run well. In recent years they seem to be pretty decent

If you want to do deer hunting you can also get a 6.5 Grendel upper receiver and just snap it on to that lower whenever you go hunting. Another good round for that is the 300 BLK which might actually even be a better option if you're not shooting long range.

That's actually a fantastic rifle to have and it definitely should be shot. Your friend would want you to shoot it. Get an ACOG TA31 RCO or an Elcan Spectre 1-4x if you want a clone correct optic(though those block 2 M4s have been seen with a TON of different optics, I think the Elcan was probably the most popular however they are very expensive, Vortex Razer 1-6x scopes are also pretty commonly seen on them despite not being official issue). OR you could just get something like an Eotech or some sort of red dot which really are good optics. Either way, great optic and sorry to hear about your friend. Did he die in combat?

@@beardly0121 Thank you, that's much appreciated. No, he had a lot of close calls but made it out more or less in one piece. Unfortunately, the injuries he sustained from that tour and a subsequent night jump during an FTX added up in terms of wear & tear until he was medically discharged when he couldn't make it through SURT (the 75th's version of Pre-Ranger for Ranger School). He ended up passing away in a car accident here at home several months later. Where optics are concerned, my buddy's was set up with an Elcan SpecterDR 1-4x. He actually wanted an EOTech or -- failing that -- an Aimpoint Micro, but being a junior enlisted guy with no Tab serving as an Assistant Gunner on a machine gun team, he didn't get to be picky. He learned to appreciate some of the merits of the Elcan where they lie, though. That being said, when he did purchase his own rifle back home, the first thing he did was get a nice shiny EOTech XPS2 to mount on it, along with a Magpul Angled Foregrip. Can't say I blame him. I've always liked EOTechs both for their aesthetics and their shootability, so I kept it on there (plus the foregrip, matches the way I shoot and handle the gun). I've added a Holosun 3x magnifier and some Magpul flip-up BUIS for the versatility and redundancy. Since I may or may not shift it into a home defense role at some point in the future, I also threw an OLIGHT Baldr Pro light/laser. Since you seem to have an interest in the kit used by the 75th, I do have a few tidbits I can share. My friend knew full well I was a gear fanatic and would "talk shop" with me whenever he spent time in the arms room or what have you. In the time he was in, the ACOG was not particularly prevalent at least in his Battalion and was more of a Marines/Big Army thing though I believe a few guys had it. They did indeed tend to prefer the Elcan by a large margin when it came to magnified optics. By that same token, true LPVOs had not yet taken off in a big way (at least not amongst the Regiment, I'm sure JSOC was already toying with them a lot more). EOTechs (with or without magnifiers) and Elcans dominated, with several of the assaulters and Tabbed NCOs opting for Aimpoint Micros over the EOTech depending on personal preference, seniority, and availability. There were also a couple of IR optics in the mix. If you're curious, my friend actually gave me a small library of photos from inside the arms room showing the kit he and his platoon used just prior to deployment. I don't mind sharing the link given that OPSEC concerns are less of an issue given the age and the fact that I went through and removed anything that I deemed even remotely "sensitive".

@@actionjksn I don't have any plans for caliber conversions at the moment, though given that many consider .223/5.56 marginal for whitetail and the like I'd be certain to choose a proper load. I have my eye set on the Barnes 70-grain TSX, which I've heard nothing but good things about. Anything I shoot would be at fairly close ranges until I develop more confidence in myself and my load in regards to humane kills.

@@beardly0121 AimPoint CompM4s are also a great choice.

Truth. But what some may not think is having to surrender said tool to law enforcement in a self defense scenario. Varies by state Easier to replace the ATI mil sport than the Sig Rattler. 😅😊

All very good points. I will just note that some of the higher end LPVOs (or even some of the mid-priced but lower magnification models) mitigate a lot of these disadvantages greatly (ie, bigger eye box, daylight-bright illumination). But none of them are as good as a red dot at close range.

I'm a big fan of red dots, but I think whichever one you pick, the important part is stick with it and practice with it. Being able to use your weapon effectively is way more important than having the most optimal or newest and most popular setup.

@@hoorayimhelping3978 I agree 100%

@@hoorayimhelping3978 True. Nothing improves your effectiveness better than putting rounds downrange. I've seen tons of guys slay with LPVO's. But you have to recognize the pros and cons of any piece of equipment you choose. Training can help a lot, but an LPVO will never be as easy to use from awkward positions as a red dot. It's not even about having the best or newest red dot or LPVO, eyeboxes are just a fact of life with any magnified or prism optic.

A red dot mounted 45° should help remedy some of those issues.

I put together my 3rd AR recently and I used a RF Complete lower ($200) and a PSA Upper that I found on sale last Presidents Day for $300 😎👌🏼

Same. First AR15 was a Radical I got from Brownell's last year. Been very happy with it.

A underrated company for sure. It’s not many companies that offer a mid length gas gun that’s lightweight with good furniture and acceptable accuracy for $4-$500.

Good to know. 👍

That is what they call an "influencer". In this case, I'm probably buying what he is selling. ha ha

I agree they are the best hand held budget light for the all around

I’ve had a old school G2 on my AK for around 12 years. Over 100k rounds through the AK and the light still works perfectly.

Yeah, they are excellent lights. I have one that's 12 years old that still gets regular use. I do wish they still made the even more affordable G2 lights, though.

@@LuckyGunner The days of the $30 Surefire are long gone

Love them

Sling should never leave the rifle

If you want the lightest possible rifle check out the "what would stoner do" or W.W.S.D. rifle!

I’m building one out that I’m getting a good lightweight barrel that won’t whip when hot. I have a nice lightweight red dot and I’m setting up my light (pistol wml) to be thumb push.

I went through that phase too. You live and learn. I built my first one and ordered what I considered the best of each part and it turned out very heavy, very expensive, and some of the parts were not compatible. The beefed up lower was not compatible with all pmags and the beefed up upper is not compatible with the daniel defense handguard i got. Now I keep it lightweight and simple. If anybody were to ask me what to get now I’d say get a BCM mid 16 and put a geissele trigger in it (ssa or ssa-e) if you can afford it. However those triggers are almost as much as a scout light so i’d get the scout light first if it’s home defense gun. I also bought some aero precision lowers that have the tensioning screw so I’ll see what I think. The normally present mild wobble between upper and lower receivers bugs me so I'll use that and a bunch of BCM parts.

@@benjamin3290 I say if your house is small enough, and you use it for home defense, you should never have it on in the house. I just don't see where you would have enough time to wake up, asses the situation, then worry about a sling before you start to aim. Again, just my thoughts. I am always open to new ideas, or new ways to think about things. You would give more than my 2 brain cells to rub together.

I HATE exposed barrel. Always burning a person or melting something. I MUST have a full rail. Always. The problem with Ruger is they spend ZERO money on weight reduction. That MPR is nearly SEVEN freaking pounds with no optic or magazine. Its a brick during a one or two day carbine course. I build or look for guns in the 5.8 to 6.3lb range. There are a lot in this area. The FAXON pencil barrel does just fine. It sis NOT your fathers or grand fathers pencil barrel. For home I recommend a 11.5" barrel with a GOOD brace. The Strike Industries PDW 2-Position Stabilizer Brace.

Love my olights!

First AR was a ruger 556 as well. An man I can say it has not let me down. Nowadays when I tell people I got mine for $600 a few years back, they are baffled. Most people think I spent almost $1k due to quality of it. I want an olight for it. I have the baldr mini on my glock 19 and it's fantastic! What olight do you have on your AR?

@@aceking7100 my dad just gave me his duty AR. It was a ruger 5.56, he added a Blackhawk quad rail hand guard, vortex strike Eagle II Red dot and magnifier, and a stream light tlr1 laser/light combo with pressure pad. He added hogue furniture for the grip and stock. That thing weighs a good 2lbs over the rifle I built (Mlok aero precision, with B5 systems furniture). Despite its weight, the thing is a work horse. It was duty carbine in his time as a police officer and shoots great. Pretty reliable too. He got it for like $550 like 10 years ago. He put almost $700 of upgrades/accessories. I moved the red dot over to my AR and might add a carry handle to his because the quad rail gives it a mean standard issue look lol.

@@aceking7100 Bought my MPR this week for $649. The AR-556 can be had for less.

I have an astigmatism but that won't be a liability unless you're trying to shoot for groups.A man size target can be engaged out to 200 meters easily.Chances are you wont be shooting that far.

Prism optics man, swampfox Blade 1x25 is a great option

Same here. I got two on layaway and wasn’t sure what to get for them. I want it simple and functional, although I kinda do want a vertical grip for mine

Are you allowed to use rifles for self defense in France? I'm unfamiliar with your gun laws! SBR laws are so dumb. Clearly just abuse of power for the sake of abusing power.

Please do a run down of your gun laws!

​ @KiriUzu Yes and no, you are allowed to defend yourself with a firearm if your life or someone else's is in immediate danger (in your house only, concealed carry is prohibited for civilians). But nothing is precisly said about the kind of firearm, so it depend a lot of the judge and how you handled the situation. For exemple it will be impossible to justify 5 rounds of .308 in one guy who break into your house with just a knife.

@@antazur3983 Ah I see what you mean. Having a camera to prove if someone wouldn't go down after a single shot would be useful there! Most people are surprised bad guys in real life aren't like the ones in the movies (who go down after one hit and instantly go limp)

@@AzayBae Yep, I've heard not long time ago a guy took 5 rounds of 9mm in the chest and survived with no handicap

Maybe a pdw would be a good option, but I’m sticking with rifle

@@stevef4930 I got the Sig Rattler (.300 blackout) for home defense. It, to me, has the best of both the rifle and pistol worlds. I added a $30 reflex sight off Amazon, and it is an absolute a blast to shoot with friends and family. Waiting to see what happens with the court challenges for cans and braces before I customize it too much though.

@@mikecamden I agree with that rifle decision but at least put a romeo5 or a holosun on it. Home defense weapon should not ever have a $30 optic, it’s gonna fail you when you need it most

@@stevef4930 I thought hard about doing exactly that. My big problem is that I want the biggest picture window I can get if I am waving it around at night in my house. All the dot and holos I've seen require you to look down some scope or tunnel to use. The single lens reflex sight doesn't require you to hold it too properly to see where bad things happen. A laser is my second choice if the current optic ever fails/breaks. I want my wife to be able to point and click with minimal fuss, more than anything else really.

@@mikecamden you could go with an eotech since that eliminates the tunnel issue. I’m just saying literally iron sights with tritium are going to be better then that $30 optic, it’s literally irresponsible to run the optic bro. Also you shoot both eyes open so the tunnel is a non-factor anyways

The romeo5 is a good budget sight.Theres a reason its a budget sight,the threads on the body are very fragile and easily stripped.My Aimpoint t2 has been on several mounts without a problem but the romeo not so good.

@@7LuckyGunnerAmmo42 Not today ISIS

Bought my MPR this week for $649.

Romeo 5 is a Holosun optic in disguise.

I agree. I own several upper tier rifles (BCM, DD and Colt) but Aero Precision makes some good stuff. I did the same but went with all Aero parts (upper, lower, lower parts kit and BCG). I've got about $750 in the rifle and it is one of my favorites.

@@deakdeagen938 I built 2 Aero's from M4E1 upper shells, and enhanced lower shells. I also use their enhanced 15 inch, 1.72 diameter rails. Then I built another from their XL upper shell, same lower shell and rail as the other two. I got a .450 Bushmaster barrel form GLFA and a Tromix bolt. There are many great rifles out there, but I only want to buy Aero parts if I can. I find no need for the others.

Romeo 5..... Meh... Rather get shake awake/solar panel.

@@Rob_Nasty it has shake awake

I did want to mention Aero, but they don't offer a whole lot of complete rifles and I didn't want to bog down the video with explaining the idea of mix and matching uppers and lowers. It's not hard, but for someone who wants a straightforward turnkey solution, that's not ideal. The Romeo 5, I'm not especially familiar with, but I've heard enough negative reports of Sig optics from people I trust that I've been skeptical about them in general.

​@@LuckyGunner Interesting. I put a Romeo5 on my first AR-15 last year and haven't had any problems. After a few hundreds rounds, it's still holding zero. The only negative I've heard (I did a lot of research before buying) is that the glass fogs up in cold temps. I do understand that I might have just gotten a good one while many other people didn't.

@@Rob_Nasty Romeo 5 is shake awake.

That's what I'm thinking for my first AR...

Swampfox also makes awesome 1x prism optic. I'm very pleased with mine.

Except for two aspects. 1. There's ways to deal with it. 2. In a fight even with bad eyes the dot is superior.

@@snek9353 your comment had zero substance. Can you elaborate on either of your points to substantiate your claims?

I fell out of love with prisms because of the short eye relief, and the necessity of putting it all the way at the rear of the upper's rail which interferes with my ability to use the charging handle when the lens covers are down.

@@RiflemanReveiws 1. if I assume you're referring to an astigmatism, which I have, there's some good ways to get a red dot to look sharp with an astigmatism. - A. Choose an optic with a chevron instead of a dot. - B. Choose an optic with good/automatic brightness control. - C. Use polarized and/or prescription glasses - D. And my favorite, look at it through a rear peep sight. All of these things will make it sharper. 2. In a fight a sharp dot is unlikely to be important. What will be important is very fast accusation and shooting from odd positions. Both of which a good red dot is far better at than any other type. My setup is a Holosun ACSS with a LMT BUIS behind it.

There is one for $475.00, blemish kind.

PSA is gold.

Why????.16 inch barrels with the carbine gas system are very good.As long as they have .063 to .070 gas ports.I have three carbines with 14.5 barrels and .063 gas ports and they as pleasant to shoot as my 14.5 mid length.

That's great if it helps you, but definitely not necessary. I find them to be distracting and prefer to use the momentary switch for my light instead

Yes. Fear+adrenaline+someone trying to kill you= point shooting 99% of the time. A laser allows you to shoot from awkward positions and doesn't require you to get the entire gun up to eye level. Smart idea for defensive pistols as well.

before you buy all the accessories?

@@LeinaVance Yes. And then every accessory you add, you see if it actually works with your gun. Make sure slings are good quality. The lights actually work and not cheap china brands. Is a vertical grip good for you

@@Excalibur01 Thanks. I've had my AR for like 2 months. it's my first one. I haven't shot it yet but I've been slowly getting sights and magazines and whatnot, till I finally get some ammo to shoot.

@@LeinaVance You should be ok with the cheapest of cheap ammo for the range. You only need high end if you plan to actually use it on things or for zeroing because different ammo are slightly different on your zero. Don't buy cheap mags like promag or Hex mag. Stick to pmags, metal mags ONLY if they have anti-tilt followers or Lancer if you are gucci. Don't buy the cheapest of the cheap red dots. But budget brands like the Romeo 5, primary arms and holosuns are good without breaking the bank. You need to learn to zero them. Make sure when installing optics, you should apply a little bit of BLUE loctite.

@@Excalibur01 Definitely! I got 3 pmags on the way. I installed irons sights too.

Do you recommend single-point slings in general?

@@gprang No, my circumstances are unique. A good 2 point sling is what I’d recommend. Tactical Rifleman, Larry Vickers, Warrior Poets Society and other channels are a far better choice for information on slings.

Which stock and pistol grip do you prefer/recommend? I’m looking to buy a new set for my ar

@@Appalachiannative The Magpul SL-S stock is pretty hard to beat. Magpul also has a nice range of grips that you can adjust to your grip angle preference and hand size. I like the MOE SL.

@@BarkyLondon thanks for your reply I’ll look into that

@@Appalachiannative I know this is a year late, but I run a Magpul CTR stock, and 15 degree angle Fab Defense Gradus grip with beaver tail. I have three in FDE, and one in OD green. I will not run anything else.

It's not personal...it is based on market needs. Being southpaw is 10% of the population. I have a few friends and they just work around the obstacles. I can imagine the aggravation

I'm left handed and left eye dominant. I only use right handed guns of any kind. I put an ambi, safety, charging handle, and mag release on them, and am good to go. The bolt catch is on the proper side for us already. Adapt and move forward.

Same

Why would you not want to change out the cheap MIM internals for true mil spec or better? That’s kind of an odd opinion. We’re not talking about Glocks here.

​@@jstud999 Long winded response inbound. Lots of reasons. Price: I don't need flashy stuff in my gun or the same thing that costs more despite being the same material. Or something that runs 'slightly better' than what I have, whatever that maybe . More into a gun means more you lose should you use it. If I don't like it, I'm out of money as well. If you bought a cheap gun with the intention of swapping parts, might as well save up for a better rifle anyway. Time: If it doesn't work, I don't like it, swapping out parts, finding parts, testing them. Possible failures: Spring issues, buffer weight problems, cycling, feeding, ejecting, trigger problems. Triggers especially: You make that to heavy or to light and that is an accident weighting to happen. My gun runs and has for years. I'm proficient with it, I know it, I don't need to do more than hat I already have with it. Unless it is really that bad, I know I can trust my gear to fire every time. The AR-15 is the Glock of the rifle world. But if it's a reputable company, there should be no reason to change internals.

@@chris.3711 do you know what MIM parts are? They are not even close to the same as true mil spec parts. Sig uses MIM parts

@@jstud999 Yep. If you have good quality control there is nothing to worry about. I've seen a few professionals here on RU-vid recommending not touching internals. For the problems and dangers it can cause. Triggers often being the biggest one unless it is really that bad to begin with.

@@chris.3711 quality control is key but at the end of the day MIM parts don’t hold up to true forged mil spec castings. That advice is dumb not to touch internals. If you have one rifle why would you not upgrade it with quality components. Are you really going to tell me that a stock m400 would hold up as long as an m400 that has its lower parts kit changed out with something like a SOLGW or LMT lower parts kit and a quality trigger? I would agree don’t put a competition style trigger in a gun that you plan on using as a duty or self defense gun. That’s not to say don’t change it out with a better trigger like the ones BCM or SOLGW offer. A nickel polished mil spec trigger with the same reliability but a better, more crisp consistent break and pull. I would absolutely change out the internals with ones I know will last a lifetime. I’m not sure who makes the bcg for sig but if it’s not microbest I’d also change that out with a quality bcg. You’ll never have to worry about little things like your bolt catch breaking, saftey selector getting stuck or the various other issues we see with MIM parts in due time. If you don’t shoot the gun a lot you probably don’t have much to worry about but if your someone who shoots often and will eventually get 5k, 10k, 15k rounds an so on down the pipe absolutely I’d change out the internals for better quality ones that are more up to the task of a high volume firing schedule. Personally I’ve changed out the lower parts kit, bcg, trigger, and barrel on every budget AR I own and it was the best decision I’ve made. I know have a fleet of quality guns in my safe.

Keep ear plugs next to your bed or on your carbine.