Quote Originally Posted by jmoore View Post
I'm in your camp as well, imarangeaster. I like a LW rifle. I just vacillate between the LW 20" and the 16".

If it just HAD to be one, I reckon the 20" would win out, though. However, that one also sports a LW bolt carrier and an early no fwd. assist M16icon upper receiver. Iron night sights on both.

Still, the balance of the 16" w/ the short handguards is MUCH better, although the weight change is small.

I actually struggled between building a slick side using an Air Force M16 upper and this XM. The XM is handier, and also I built it with a 1/9 barrel so it should handle most weight bullets up to 75 grains. A 1/12 would only do 55s and some 62s! In addition, people were asking stupid high prices for retro upper halves! Three years ago you could not give away a retro AR, and upper halves were $250 to $275 from CDNN. Now people are getting $400 without bolt groups.