Reagan, What kind of AR did you decide to go with? I bought a S&W M&P 5.56 from Cheaper Than Dirt for well under $1,000 that I really like. Lifetime warranty and full features. But it was too expensive for plinking [punching holes in paper targets] so I also bought its little brother the M&P 15-22 for plinking. Approx. 40-cents a round in .223 versus 3-cents a round in the .22 LR. I figure I paid for the 15-22 after the first 1,500+ rounds of .22 LR's I've put through it instead of using that many .223's.
As for the Red Dot... if you have never used one... you might consider getting yourself a cheap one at Walmart for $40-ish and trying it out before investing a lot of money in a really good one. If you like it and do get yourself a better one... you can always use the cheaper one in a trade for something else... like maybe toward a holster or for ammo. And they do make tip-off mounts so you can tip over the red dot and use your iron sights. Me, I decided I preferred a good scope over the red dot. A scope will look past your front sight so you don't have to take the front sight off. I use the kind of scope with the lighted red & green cross hairs... so it does have some of the benefit of a red dot for quick shot alignment at low magnification..
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