“Everyone argues who makes the best rifle and how the best rifles are built but there is little argument about what constitutes a good quality AR series firearm. These are the things that I’m convinced make a truly accurate and reliable AR series rifle:
1. A premium-quality barrel
2. A properly head-spaced quality bolt/bolt carrier group
3. A properly installed quality free-float tube
4. A proper combination of buffer weight and spring tension matched to the gas system.
After that it’s all personal preference: sights, lights, lasers, trigger, pistol-grip, sling etc. Don’t get too caught up in the cosmetics. The guts are what make a rifle run accurate and reliable. If you don’t know, find someone that is a proven authority and ask them directly before you invest in a rifle. It’ll be well worth the extra effort.”
-Mike Pannone
Mike Pannone retired from the Army’s premier assault force (1st SFOD-D) after an explosive breaching injury. A year after his retirement America was attacked on 9/11 and he returned to help serve his country as the head marksmanship instructor at the Federal Air Marshals training course and then moved to help stand up the FAMS Seattle field office. In 2003 he left the FAMS to serve as a PSD detail member and then a detail leader for the State Department during 2003 and 2004 in Baghdad and Tikrit.
In 2005 he served as a ground combat advisor of the Joint Counter IED Task Force and participated on combat operations with various units in Al Anbar province. Upon returning he gave IED awareness briefings to departing units and helped stand up a pre-Iraq surge rifle course with the Asymmetric Warfare Group as a lead instructor. With that experience as well as a career of special operations service in Marine Reconnaissance, Army Special Forces and JSOC to draw from he moved to the private sector teaching planning, leadership, marksmanship and tactics as well as authoring and co-authoring several books such as The M4 Handbook, AK Handbook and Tactical Pistol shooting. Mike also consults for several major rifle and accessory manufacturers to help them field the best possible equipment to the warfighter, law enforcement officer and upstanding civilian end user. He is considered a subject matter expert on the AR based Stoner platform in all its derivatives.
Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.
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As usual Mike nailed it.
Absolutely, but he could write another series of posts defining what exactly a premium quality barrel is, for example, because a lot of people now are new to the AR and don’t have any basis for comparison.
Because of the lack of availability of product, we’re seeing a lot of “I’d get something premium if I could get it, but all I can get is commercial so I’ll buy that instead of waiting”. We’ve all seen a lot of customers that are concerned that they won’t be able to buy anything in the near future, so they’re buying whatever is on the shelves, and the gun counter guys lying to them and telling them “it’s just a name, this is just as good” feeds into that.
Please continue to flesh this train of thought out, Mr. Pannone! I like where it’s headed.