Thread: AR's - the usual suspects??

Originally Posted by Banana

American made doesn't mean anything. Most of the American made ARs you find in NZ stores are the lowest end 'budget' models from their respective manufacturers (Ruger AR556, Bushmaster/Windham Carbon, DPMS Oracle, Colt Expanse, etc). A CJA would be just as good or better.

I would say the upper and lower castings in US AR15s are all the same until you get into real fancy models. The cheap US bolts are finished a lot better than the CJA ones and who knows about the springs etc. Never shot a CJA but at a $200 difference I wouldn't bother. Chinese ARs are a $600 rifle in Canada (I assume made the same) so should be a $700 rifle here. Since only Gun City brings them in they charge a premium and market them as an equivalent to a low end US rifle. IE charge a fortune for something quite cheap.