These posts are great! It's a very informative thread!
My focus is on accuracy, reliability and durability. Snob appeal means nothing to me.
Larue. I saw one recently and had a chance to look it over. NICE stuff! They have all kinds of extra stuff to secure the pins, etc and it looked like durability would improve but none of that seemed like it improved accuracy. Still, it was a terrific rifle and probably worth the money. Even so, good marksmanship practices will overcome technology. Throwing money into the rifle will not improve your marksmanship. Practice does that.
The scores are already in the rifle. It is your job to bring them out.
The AR-15 is a pretty unique beast! The bolt locks directly into the rear of the chamber, it's all in line and sights are integral into that "upper" package. It's inherently an accurate design. Unfortunately, it does poop where it eats.
I tried like Hell to beat the black rifles with classic and customized rifles and match ammo. Sorry, it can't be done without massive amounts of cash shoveled into the rifle. That includes M1 Garand, M1A1, 1903A3 and a host of others. I spent a friggin' fortune to dispute that and finally gave up and joined the black rifle shooters.
I posted this before but will bore you again with it. I spent tons of money trying to beat the black rifles. I had custom built M1's and an M1A that had every option except the rear receiver lug. None of that worked. The friggin' black rifles right out of the box would beat the crap out of those custom rifles.
I had many very fine AR's but never took them seriously. Finally, I bought an old dog AR off of a gun show table. The rifle is a 20" heavy, 1:9 twist no name barrel on an Olympic lower. It was not full floated and there is absolutely nothing upscale or fancy, custom or aftermarket about that rifle!
It was cheap and ugly as sin but it shot great. The black painted barrel and fake "ban" style suppressor got a few laughs until the firing began. That ugly thing is a veteran of many 200 yard matches and never failed once. That rifle became my main competition rifle for years! If I sold everything, that old dog of an AR will still be here.
Lesson learned? Get a decent, well made rifle that you have confidence in. Learn to use a sling. Use decent ammo and shoot the living crap out of that rifle! Spend your money on ammo and stop throwing money away on trinkets and do-dads to dress up the rifle!
It cost me many thousands of Dollars to learn that. You just learned it for free!
Flash
Agree totally with your post above. I think what sets companies apart in this space are things like warranty and customer service when/if you do have a problem. For the ordinary shooter, most guns are sufficient. For guys like me, there are things that are more important. For instance, in a normal year I will shoot over 10,000 rounds of .223. I like to know that if I shoot out a barrel, it has a lifetime guarantee and the manufacturer will replace it. That kind of shooting also puts a lot of wear and tear on other parts; like bolts, firing pins, etc. I like to know that those are also warranties for life. That is why I shoot the rifles I shoot.