In a market filled with custom and high-performance AR-15 rifles, the M&P15 line offers shooters a quality and classic AR that’s range ready for almost all your shooting needs without the hype or expense of extra high-end features. 

Sure, they are pretty much as basic as you can make an AR-15, but sometimes basic is better. That might explain why Smith & Wesson’s M&P15 is a dominating seller every single month here at Guns.com. If you’re not looking for a bunch of marketing bells and whistles filled with high-speed, low-drag extras that few shooters ever really use, then the M&P15 should be a welcome breath of fresh air. 

In a way that’s hard to explain, this made me even more excited to test these guns than many of the custom and tactical shooters I’ve had lately. So we pulled two M&P15 Sport II rifles from the Guns.com Vault to take them out for a spin, which included a little abuse during some barrier shooting drills. Here’s my honest opinion of these guns after several months of testing.
 

Specs & Features Overview

Starting with the specs, I’m tempted to just say, “Nothing to see here, just another AR,” and that just about sums it up. Don’t get me wrong, both these rifles have been fun to shoot, performed better than hoped, and the nuts and bolts seemed to be of sound quality. I’m just not going to try and church it up.

The standard Sport II boasts an F-marked A2 front post and a Magpul MBUS folding rear peep. The M&P Sport II OR is the “optics-ready” version that forgoes the front post for a gas block and adds a Picatinny rail. Both have uppers and lowers made with 7075 aluminum and host 16-inch barrels made from 4140 steel that offer a 1:9 twist. As a nice perk, they also both come with a 30-round Magpul Pmag.

Additional shared external features include a dust cover, forged trigger guard, forward assist, and a standard T-shaped charging handle. I, personally, was also pleased to see the classic A2 pistol grip, which I enjoy. Again, there’s nothing particularly special there, and the guns basically just scream standard AR. Though, the stock triggers were actually quite nice and felt a little better than some mil-spec ones I’ve tested, coming in right around 6 pounds. I’ve listed a few additional specs below:

Overall Length: 35-32 inches
Stock: Six-position, M4-style 
Barrel Coating: Armornite
Flash Hider: A2 Birdcage
Firing Pin: Chromed
Caliber: 5.56 NATO

The guns do differ slightly in weight, with the Sport II coming in at 6.45 pounds compared to 6.4 pounds for the Sport II OR. However, the Sport II OR lacks a front sling swivel and a bayonet lug, which are both featured on the standard Sport II. Don’t get too excited about the bayonet lug. The barrel is longer than the standard M4-pattern rifles, and a stock bayonet would fit but wobbles below the flash hider. It can still be used for accessories like bipods.
 

Facing the Competition
 

Are their better duty guns and competition rifles? Absolutely. The M&P15’s function follows its form. It is a modern-sporting rifle through and through. While they are pitched by Smith & Wesson as engineered for “recreational, sport shooting and professional applications,” I would lean on the first two more than professional uses. 

The guns can certainly get most jobs done and are very wieldy if you wanted them for something like home defense. But I wouldn’t pick it for my service rifle or as my next match gun. There are more custom – and expensive – options that are built specifically for those purposes. To be fair, however, from a recreation perspective, I liked shooting these quite a bit more than some high-end race guns I’ve played with. 

You can also get a tank of a gun ready for all sorts of tactical extras like a LAR-15, Noveske, or a nice FN rifle. If it’s your job to carry it, that is probably a good investment. Still, that doesn’t make those guns inherently more enjoyable sporting or plinking rifles, and they can be more cost prohibitive. Also, to be clear, there are some more decked-out M&P15s out there if that is what you want.

These guns are a great buy if you want something that’s affordable and still has the quintessential feel of an AR-15. They can also take some beating, which we did against freshly painted barricades. Despite the abuse, they cleaned up just fine and experienced no malfunctions. 

Both guns have somewhere north of 250  rounds through them, and they did have a break-in period. They worked fine from round one to 250, but the action smoothed out after a few mags. From my experience, I see no reason why they wouldn’t make fine working ranch guns and great range buddies that are pleasant and easy to handle. That is where I think these guns shine. 

It would be fair to criticize the lack of rail space for extras, should you want that, but the M&P15 line offers ones with more mounting options at similar price points, too. That’s another place where I think the M&P15 line shines among other budget-friendly ARs. I had the chance to test the relatively affordable ZRO Delta Base rifle, and I really liked that gun. But it was still several bills more than the M&P15s I pulled for this review. 

Optics Or No Optics?

Calling the M&P15 Sport II OR the “optics-ready” rifle is a bit misleading. Both guns can absolutely host a dot or scope. The optics-ready version really just trims down the profile and adds a small amount of Picatinny rail up front if you want to run backup sights. 

You will sometimes notice the A2 front post on the Sport II when shooting with a dot or scope, but more so with a non-magnified red dot. That said, you also have the option of co-witnessing that non-magnified dot with your front and rear sight. When using a magnified optic, the front most more or less vanishes from view, leaving just a ghost behind. If you tried to run something that was very low profile, that could change the story.

Both shot about the same for me and were quick to zero with just 10 rounds at 50 yards for testing purposes. It was certainly easier to zero the scope-mounted Sport II OR, given that I could better see the target, but it was actually more fun to just shoot off plain peep sights. Regardless, at 50 yards in high winds and a very rough zero, we were ringing steel just fine on 3, 5, and 10-inch targets.

Which should you get? Well, both of these actually come off about the same to me. It would be easier to host a very low-profile optic on the Sport II OR, but I think a lot of it comes down to personal taste. I would favor the F-market A2-post variant because it makes adding backup sights easier and creates those more classic AR-style lines.
 

Final Thoughts
 

A budget-friendly, quality-made AR-15 in the hand is worth more than racks of expensive, custom guns locked away an armory. If that’s not how you feel, then there’s nothing to see here but some more AR-15s you don’t want. 

I get the appeal. These scratch the AR-15 itch, look and feel the part, and can pull double duty as defensive firearms. If you are looking for a workhorse that will make you shine in match competitions, I would upgrade. If you are looking for something to hand to SEAL Team Six, tell Uncle Sam to dig deeper into his pocketbook. 

However, if you made it this far, then these might be the classic ARs built by an American company with a solid reputation that you’ve always wanted…and at an affordable price point.