So, I respect Daniel Defense as a very solid AR that has great consistency. They build one of the most out of the box consistent guns that you'll find, and that's why you pay a premium for them. There absolutely are AR15s that will perform at the same level (and better in some regards like accuracy) at lower price points. And, once they are broken in, probably will have the same level of reliability, but out of the box, the DD is less likely to have a problem.
With our AR15s, we have about 1 in 20 come back to us. That's mainly because I am not able to be consistent in the exact parts that we use with our base guns and because each one is built with a much more human touch to it so there's just more room for things that need to be tweaked. But, as it is, I am always having to look at different gas blocks, bcg, etc and those introduce variables to the builds that we may not see immediately. That being said, spend 1600 with us vs 2k with DD and you'll get a gun that is going to be a fair amount more accurate and possibly softer shooting plus you get to pick what you want on the gun. The flip side is that it is a bit more likely to not want to run perfectly well off the shelf that a DD does. If you're going to get out and practice with it, end game should be pretty damned close as far as reliability but right out of the gate, DD is pretty much the gold standard for reliability of the standard AR15 configuration (not including those with pistons or anything like that.)
Owner of Texian Firearms:
Dealer in Firearms, Optics, Night Vision and other shooting accessories.
US importer/distributor of Rudolph Optics
Supporting bad financial decisions since 2015
