Help with my new AR

[BMPregler]

I just picked up my new AR. It is a 16" M4 Bargain Barrel from CMMG with a DPMS Lower and I have a few questions since I have never owned an AR.

1. How good is the DPMS lower? Should it be pretty reliable.
2. How do I tell who made the upper?
3. Does anyone have experience with the bargain barrel ARs from CMMG?
4. How do I get this weapon ready to shoot? The bolt seems to be coated in cosmoline and I would guess the barrel is in the same shape.
5. I bought a cheap BSA red dot from Midway, at what distance would you sight it in for just plinking and 3 gun competion.
6. What do I need to keep an eye on to make sure this weapon functions as reliably as possible.
7. Is there any ammo I should stay away from? It is chambered for .223/5.56.

Thanks

[rwrjr]

I love Glock Talk but if you want an education on the AR platform I highly suggest you spend some time over on ARFCOM (http://ar15.com).

There's a couple of threads over there regarding the bargin basement ARs and how to tell which upper you have. And IIRC people were generally pleased with them.

As for getting it ready to shoot, there's a whole maintenance section on ARFCOM. From my personal experience I would suggest keeping it simple. Get some Breakfree CLP, an AR-15/M-16 chamber brush, and a .22 cal bore snake. If you have other guns you probably already have patches and other cleaning supplies. Breakfree CLP does it all: (C)leans (L)ubricates (P)rotects. Get the bore snake, make sure it is for rifles not pistols, you'll thank me later. The chamber brush is a must for the AR-15 platform. Get the metal brush, not the nylon brush here. When buying CLP, I like the 16oz bottle with the trigger sprayer over the aerosol cans. I transfer the CLP to smaller bottles that make it easier to apply. The 16oz bottle lasts a long time. FWIW, I've switched to using CLP on my Glocks and I also have a 9mm bore snake for my Glocks.

Regarding your chamber type, you definitely should try and determine which kind of chamber you have before you shoot some types of ammo. There are three chamber types: (1) 5.56 nato, (2) .223, and (3) Wylde.

If you have a 5.56 Nato chamber you can shoot anything you want. Ditto for the Wylde chamber. If you have a .223 chamber you can shoot all the .223 you want but you're not supposed to shoot military surplus 5.56 Nato rounds, or any rounds loaded to the 5.56 Nato specifications. Check the Ammo Oracle over on ARFCOM for way more information that you probably ever wanted to know on this topic.

For plinking I really like Wolf Military Classic. It is relatively inexpensive and it groups about as good as Federal AE for me. Wolf Black Box is cheap too but out of my guns it doesn't group as well as the Military Classic. The Federal AE stuff is pretty good and I get excellent accuracy out of it, but it is a little expensive. Federal XM193 is good too, if you can find it cheaply, but this is 5.56 Nato stuff so make sure your chambered properly before you buy this.