Bushmaster has been a long standing force in the AR market Michael. For the money, they are as good as they come. Colt has until recently started lowering prices in the face of high quality relative newcomers in the AR market. Colt used to be the shiz nik back in the day and people did not mind paying for the "Name" Many have learned including myself that many AR manufacturers put out as good a quality product at much lower prices. This has been the trend in AR's recently.

The bushmaster is just as good as the colt. (unless you just got to have the colt prancing pony on the side) I can highly recommend the S&W 15 sport II as that is the one I bought after looking at Colt Ruger Bushmaster and S&W