day man, on 03 November 2012 - 12:36 AM, said:
just hopped on this deal too. as an AR virgin, what do I need to know (sights, ammo, mx, etc)?
MX: There's no need to clean it to surgical instrument cleanliness. Run the bolt and BCG fairly wet with a good lube; no lube needed in the barrel, chamber, or gas tube. I like Slip 2000 EWL. Opinions vary widely on lubes; there are even some who use a particular flavor of Mobil 1 motor oil (I think one of the motorcycle varieties). The lube battles on Arfcom and m4c are epic at times...
Ammo: IIRC, a 16" 1:9 barrel will shoot anything up to around 70gr pretty well. Much heavier than that and you could start seeing accuracy issues, depending on the loading. Some people swear by the cheap Russian stuff (Wolf, Silver Bear, Brown Bear, etc.), and some swear at it. Some people's rifles will function and shoot just fine with the cheap stuff, others have jamming, short-stroking, feeding issues, and other problems.
Sights: Personal preference, within your budget. I'm running fixed irons on my BCM and they work fine for me.