I started out with this as my patrol rifle. I found it to be affordable, and reliable. Drawbacks; 1. i found that it was a little picky with ammo. Some of the higher end ar's are a little more tollerant to cheaper rounds. 2. The barrels on the base panthers are pretty thin and heat up really quick under rapid fire. 3. No flat top option. Adding a reflex sight means it must be put ontop of the carry handle putting the sight too high for my taste. All in all thought it's a great entry level weapon to get you used to the feel and funchtion of the AR rifle.

An excellent tool for the 21st century law officer.

This weapon has been reliable and accurate, added a drop forward mount on the carry handle for the red dot and it works perfect for snap shooting. No feed problems with ammo that I have used. The short barrel works well for exit from patrol veh. and house and building clearing.

Sweet Rifle!!

this rifle kicks ass

Great carbine and at a price that is easy on the checkbook.

omgg i sooo want one of these for my b day.......VERYY NICEE

My First AR. I actually got it through my department for a significant discount. I am waiting on it to come in from DPMS. It is the 16" barrel model with a flat top. I love DPMS because you can customize your rifle when you order it. I chose to swipe out the detatchable carry handle for a monganal rear flip-up sight in preparation for an Eotech 512 Holosight. I got a 4-rail handguard for cheap from Command Arms Accessories. I plan to get a package through them to get a foregrip, and an attatchment for the buttstock to give it an adjustable cheek piece. Plus my wife is getting me a Surefire Millenium Light for my birthday. I can't wait to try it out. My department got one from winning a SWAT Roundup in Florida a couple years back. The Lieutenant who ordered this for me says that its a good rifle.

My carbine is the 14" with 2" Miklek(SP?) compensator, .223 . First time I fired it I remembered how a compensator sounds off !! Collapsable stock, fixed cary handle, with Surfire light. I love it for short range 50-100 yd. and in close work. Small and light w/tactical sling can be worn while driving back county roads looking for bad guys who have run amok. It goes wherever I go. I am fortunate that my agency philosophy is if you can qualify it you can carry it. And as many as you want. Variety is nice

I just purchased this weapon yesterday, I am a big fan of AR-15 and the M-16. I did some upgrades with mounted flashlite and will be looking for a scope or siting system soon. I like the adjustable stock and front pistol grip it makes the weapon feel very balanced.

This is an awesome firearm! It would have been better if the factory sights were on but other than that it is a great weapon.

AWESOME Rifle, fired this last night (Nuclear security tactical firearms trng) with the optilite scope. Dead nuts on the target at 50ft, at night in the rain!!!!!

Great carbine and at a price, I owen one, a great carbine.

excellent shooter, and a lot of fun

I want to buy this was my first firearm purchase on my 18 birthday. I have heard good things. But i figured id ask here. So....good rifle?

its a great rifle! well worth the price.

I shoot this gun often. (Ours is modified, new upper, chrome action.) We have had no ammo problems like the others are reporting. I think this is an awesome weapon, It can go and go w/o cleaning we have run thousands of rounds w/o the need to clean. A great reliable gun!

never shot one of these. but have had several ar-15's (colt in particular) if it is as accurate as the colt, it's got to be good

I have to give this rifle a 4 star and the only reason is that some of the other weapons in our armory have had significant headspace problems. Luckily the one I was assigned was dialed in right and the accuracy is great. This weapon has surpassed my MP-5 as the weapon of choice when I have to get into a situation.

The dept bought Surefire 500 lights and EOTECH 553's which make this rifle the best especially when operating at night. I took it to tactical rifle school and the sight was superb when we were doing our night quals.

I currently carry this as a patrol rifle, in my squad car. I have had this weapon for about 3 years now. I have added a, "Holo-sight", to the rifle, as well as a mounted light under the barrel. It ha 2-30 round magazines mounted side by side with one of them locked in the magazine well. i also added a vertical for grip and pressure switch for the light. (made the switch out of speaker wire and model railroad contacts. Cheaper than the $40.00, "Store bought", ones. The vertical grip came from one of my power drills.)

Love my DPMS AR!! I carry it on-duty as my tactical patrol rifle, and it fills the role perfectly to the point that I've deployed it 10 time more often that our issued old Remington 12-gauge...most tactical field situations we've had have been more geared towards the patrol rifle than the close-quarters-restricted shotgun.

I've fired around 700 rounds through my DPMS (with EOTech sight rear aligned with an iron front, 3-pt tac sling, and a bottom-rail mounted tactical Streamlight with depressor tab set just above the front vertical grip) and never had an issue. Of course, that was using only Federal and Winchester rounds...I've still got to try the new boxes of the Russian-made "extra-dirty" 55-grain and 62-grain Wolf rounds I received awhile back. (Cheap in today's market, but requiring ahelluvalot more cleaning afterwards, from what I've been told.) Super accurate weapon with clean recoil. And the most impressive part: the whole set-up (after the most recent upgrade) has been a reasonable $1475, from a $950 base model upstart.

Although many AR afficianados are die-hard Colt fans, they should try out a DPMS - I'm positive many would be impressed, as I was.