M&P Versions Differences or Adams Arms?

I'm a big fan of the S&W pistols and have been looking at an AR for a while. I hate not knowing anything about a product, so I've been trying to do research before any purchase. Is there anything on the other models that you can't add to the Sport? There's over a $300 price delta from the Sport to the next model and being my first AR purchase, that's a lot of cash. My thoughts are to get the Sport as an intro and see from there what else I'd want or need. However, if there is something the Sport can't do or upgrade, I'd hate to spend the $600 and then find out.

Also, Bud's has an Adams Arms blemished rifle for a little more than the Sport at $629 AA 16 Carbine. I can't find any information on these, but the reviews on Buds are all great.

Should I stick with the Sport, go with the Adams Arms, or save more cash for another M&P?

There is nothing that can't be added to the Sport as easily as any other rifle, with the exception of a forward assist, an ejection port cover, and a different trigger guard. Furniture and accessories can be changed about just like any other AR.

As far as the Adam's, piston guns are all proprietary. I would stick with a direct impingement for a first AR.

All pieces are proprietary, or just those that relate to the area of the upper around the piston? I assume the lower is all still standard and it still has a rail for sights, etc. Are all upper pieces proprietary? I don't know which mods I'd do to the piston area, so it may not be a big deal?

For gas piston rifles, the biggest area of concern would be when you start changing hand guards. You would have to insure anything you buy will fit over or around the piston and gas block area. The Adams may be alright, but I'd take a look at their warranty before I dropped my cash. A one year warranty and a lifetime service warranty trumps a one year "maybe we'll cover that" warranty every time. Going with a S&W in any configuration means you can use just about any aftermarket part on the planet, with few if any proprietary parts to deal with. Aside from the forward assist and dust cover, the Sport has everything you need, nothing you don't.

Good Luck and good shooting.

The sport is a good deal and the dust cover and forward assist are rarely used. The only issue I have with them is they have a pretty loud bark without a muzzle brake or flash suppressor. I was shooting at the range and the guy next to me had one, was uncomfortable to be next to it. But once you buy the sport, you can buy another upper in another configuration and have a couple of choices.

Warranty was the first thing I checked. AA is lifetime as well. From what I've read, they have excellent CS.

Normally, I'd go S&W and not look back. Other than not having to clean it as much, I'm not sure what other benefits or drawbacks the piston systems have. From what I can tell, this rifle is normally at least $1000. I'd still need to get sights, so I'd have to add that to the price. All told, it sounds like the AA is the better "deal", but the S&W is a known company to me for a cheaper initial cost.

tfreeman said:

Warranty was the first thing I checked. AA is lifetime as well. From what I've read, they have excellent CS.

Normally, I'd go S&W and not look back. Other than not having to clean it as much, I'm not sure what other benefits or drawbacks the piston systems have. From what I can tell, this rifle is normally at least $1000. I'd still need to get sights, so I'd have to add that to the price. All told, it sounds like the AA is the better "deal", but the S&W is a known company to me for a cheaper initial cost.

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That deal is for a "blemished" rifle... I'm picky, so no way I would buy a blem rifle sight unseen for my first AR. Like I posted earlier, the piston is proprietary. If something in my AR breaks, I can run down to my local shop and get the parts to fix it, same day. That may not be the case with a piston AR. With that said, this doesn't look to be a bad deal as long as you can live with any cosmetic blem you may receive.

Buds is one of my local stores but I believe with any FFL, you have the chance to inspect the items before accepting the transfer. If there are any issues, you can decline it. From the reviews there have been little to nothing wrong with them.

That is a good point about ease of replacement parts though. If something major breaks, I assume it'd go back to AA anyway for repair.

cyphertext said:

That deal is for a "blemished" rifle... I'm picky, so no way I would buy a blem rifle sight unseen for my first AR. Like I posted earlier, the piston is proprietary. If something in my AR breaks, I can run down to my local shop and get the parts to fix it, same day. That may not be the case with a piston AR. With that said, this doesn't look to be a bad deal as long as you can live with any cosmetic blem you may receive.

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I bought one of these so called 'blems'. There wasn't a mark on the rifle. I subscribe to hickok45 on youtube and he had a 3 part review of lower end AR's, the AA blem from Buds, the Sport and the Ruger AR556. After some research on the AA I decided to buy one. It is one hell of a rifle. Smooth shooting, some neat features with the piston driven gun and it doesn't puke all over it's own plate. After initial cleaning, I've put ~500 rounds through it and have yet to notice any dirt or grime in the chamber or on the BCG since the exhaust gases don't reach the chamber.

The neat features are to do with the piston system. There is the standard setting, a suppressor setting and a New Jersey setting (as Hickok45 calls it). The suppressor setting restricts a little more gas from pushing the piston since there's a little more gas build up in the barrel using a Suppressor. The New Jersey setting makes it a single shot.

If I could only have one rifle, it would be the AA blem from Buds, hands down the best buy in that price, if you don't own one, you have no grounds to base any comments from other than pure speculation.

I went in to the purchase assuming Bud's cherry picked a rifle for Hickok45 to review, in his review he couldn't find a 'blemmish'. When mine arrived, my gunsmith/ffl says is this supposed to be a blem? As I walked in his shop since it arrives in a plain white box. I said yes, why? Is it all beat up? He says he really looked it over and couldn't find so much as a scuff on it. I've bought a few AR's, all new, all of them being factory rifles, not blems, and aside from a couple of them, all have had some sort of blemish on them in the form of a scratch, knick or rub mark. I don't worry about any of these things as I'm not holding these things with velvet gloves or laying them down on pillows.

I'm just offering this post to the OP as he asked specifically about the Bud's AA blem rifle, and this is my two cents worth on that particular subject.

As mentioned in their ad, you might get a government profile or an M4 profile barrel. Mine was an M4 profile barrel. It also included an MSAR 30 round magazine. I saw they bought another batch that doesn't include a magazine for a bit cheaper price. I like that the front railed gas block is upper rail height, although I scoped my rifle, love the way it shoots.

tfreeman said:

All pieces are proprietary, or just those that relate to the area of the upper around the piston? I assume the lower is all still standard and it still has a rail for sights, etc. Are all upper pieces proprietary? I don't know which mods I'd do to the piston area, so it may not be a big deal?

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The proprietary parts are the same parts that come in any Adams Arms piston conversion hit to convert any DI rifle to a piston rifle.

The BCG that will come in the Blem rifle will be voodoo arms 'lifecoat' processed coating (very smooth, no milling marks what so ever). The barrel is a Voodoo 1:7 barrel. I originally though that perhaps this was the 'blem', as the barrel had no markings of any kind as far as rifling or chamber, but I was mistaken. I removed the standard hand guard to install my preferred MagPul Moe hand guard, which fit perfectly, and under the hand guard is where the barrel is laser etched with the Voodoo 1:7 5.56 information. I have since built 2 other AR's using the Voodoo barrels and all are labeled in this fashion between the upper and the gas block. The Voodoo Barrel has this same 'lifecoat' process inside and out, lifecoat is AA/Voodoo's name for melonite.

And yes, you could use a DI upper on the AA lower should you choose to have multiple uppers. Just keep in mind that a piston BCG and a DI BCG are not to be interchanged since the piston BCG has a solid 'gas' key that the piston pushes against as opposed to a gas tube that slide in the gas key of the standard DI BCG. I might add that the trigger in the AA was the second best mil spec trigger I had amongst my various AR's, second to my Colt LE6920, far better than the ~9lb pull of my M&P 15A. The AA and Colt were both in the ~6-6.5lb range with a crisp clean break.

I didn't notice the second batch. Is the MSAR Mag really worth the $40 difference in price? Looks like there are a couple Magpul and a ProMag for less than $12 each. You can buy 3 for the price difference.

Had the mag free version been available when I purchased mine, I would have bought without a magazine, I have plenty magazines, I don't believe I've even tried the MSAR mag yet. Looks like a decent magazine, but no, not worth 40 bucks.

I have a few Adams rifles and they run.

I have a few Adams rifles and they run.

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You do know this thread hasn't had a new post in a year and a half or so, right? I would suspect the OP has long ago made his decision. Still that's good info to know for the next person looking at those Adams rifles. Someone may check out this thread again.

Who says there's no such thing as zombies.