LGS has the following, been on the SW website but can't figure this all out and would like to hear others who have the various models opinions.

Useage: plinking. and of course zombies on 12/21/12;-)

SW Sport $639
SW ORC $899
SW 15T $999

also Stag 1 $899
Stag model 3 $789

I will put a scope on whatever I purchase, and maybe a red dot.

I know the sport doesn't have the dust cover, but I don't think i need that. I know sport has melonite barrel, again, not sure that means anything to me. Will any of these be more accurate than the others? Money saved goes to ammo, so if I am not getting anything more in the rifle, for my useage, better spent on other things.

thanks for any input.

Any of them will work for what you want. You will need to decide if the extra cost for extra features is worth it to you or not. In theory, the melonite barrel should be more accurate, but this is in theory only and will depend upon each individual barrel. Real world you may not see much difference. The other difference will be the twist rate in the barrels. The faster the twist rate, the longer the bullet can be (and by default, heavier). Again, this is theory and individual barrels may display different characteristics.

For straight up plinking and home defense on a budget, I love the Sport. If you want a free float rail and magpul sights, the 15T is great. The OR is a good choice if you have optics or back up sights already, or plan to purchase separately.

If you have some specific questions about the models, maybe we could help more.

I started with a sport, and found out the melonite barrel is pretty well indestructible and wont wear out near as fast as a chrome lined barrel. If you look under the sticky threads for barrel specs for sport you can read that for yourself. Also it is unbelievable accurate, to the point where S&W are putting it on the other rifles in the series. I put a 4-16 scope on it, you don't have to worry about the front sight because your focal plane is downrange you wont see it. I quickly found out it wasn't enough scope, so I put an 8-32 on it...it wasn't too much scope but it was a 40 objective so limited my field of view for prairie dog hunting. Oh by the way I already had the scopes so that's why I tried them. So I bought a 6-24x50 Bushnell and love it. I then made a lot of changes that weren't really necessary but I had caught the Evil Black Rifle Disease that makes you modify your AR to your hearts content. If I had it to do all over again. I would buy the Sport, by the way after I modified the fool out of my Sport, I used the leftover parts to build another Sport. I find that I can shoot accurately out to 300 yards and am enjoying this rifle more than any other I have in my collection. So figure out what you want and enjoy the fool out of it. Before you start making major changes shoot it, shoot it a lot and then figure out what you want. I free floated my barrel to make it even more accurate at long distances but where I live in Kansas I can shoot long distances. Good Luck!!

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Grover Oathkeeper

I have a ar22 which is great.

on the sport, can you take off the sights so you can put on optics?

You can add optics to the Sport. The rear sight is removable, and on the Sports available as new today, they rear sight is a folding Magpul BUS. The front sight is a fixed sight. It can not be removed without replacing the gas block.

The front post does not bother me when using a red dot. I see it, but I am not focusing on it. If you use an optic with magnification, you won't see the front post in the optic if it is 4x magnification or more, due to how the optic focuses.

Agree with this. When I first got into the platform, I didn't want that A2 sight post. Now that I don't have it, I wish I would have gone that way. Adding the "right" folding front sight for me is proving to be expensive and the decision difficult. I originally got the MBUS from Magpul and found that it's not what you want on a gas block as the polymer will melt. I now have a spare fixed front sight on there and it doesn't get in the way of my red dot at all.

BillyJack...now you need a matech rear sight to go with your folding front LOL

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Grover Oathkeeper

You dont have to take off the sights to put on optics. But you can buy the OR which is the first M&P15 I ever shot. It lead me to the sport. and eventually I did take off the front sight and put a low profile gas block and a rifle length handguard on.

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Grover Oathkeeper