Since you posted your questions in the "Equipped to Survive" forum and not a firearms specific forum, I assume you're wanting a rifle for surviving during hard times - not competition or target shooting. You might want to consider an AK rather than an AR for pure survival (where you can't clean your gun properly, might drop it in the mud or sand, etc.) I'm not knocking AR's. But if I had to drag one rifle of this type into a completely unknown situation of unknown duration, it would be an AK not an AR.