Compact ARs: The Bushmaster Patrolman’s Carbine Is Our Pick

The wildly popular AR15 platform is spurring modifications on over-the-counter guns that heretofore were the province of do-it-yourselfers who had a Brownells catalog and a credit card handy. Two modifications of the original design found on more and more ARs are the "tactical" forend, consisting of a four-sided Picatinny rail and flip-up sights that can be raised into position when needed. The tactical forend is especially useful when applied to a flat-topped receiver topped with a matching Picatinny rail. The

Shared features among our compact AR carbines were flat-topped receivers matched to four-sided Picatinny rail forends. Other key features were the adjustable-length stock and detachable flip-up sights. But we chose the Bushmaster Patrolman’s Carbine primarily because of its supe-rior trigger. Other optional features that increased base price from $1230 to $1534 included a matching vertical forend grip, rail covers, and the Izzy flash hider/compensator. Below the Bushmaster is the less expensive $1144 DPMS Patrol Carbine, our second choice only because its trigger was clouded with intermittent creep. The $1554 Smith & Wesson M&P 15T suffered malfunctions such as trigger pins working loose and failures to feed. The $1150 left-side-ejection Stag Arms 15L 2TL was actually ambidextrous, in our view. We didn’t like its rear sight, but its lower rating was related to its poor trigger. But the Stag and the Smith & Wesson carbines each came with a lifetime warranty that we expect would solve these problems.