Had a similar conversation this morning. Buddy of mine works with a few guys that are quite sure their "custom" builds are just as good as anything else out there. Never mind that they never shoot these sub $400 creations.
It all depends on what you want or need to do.
I can build a reliable gun for 500 or less. Might not be Krieger accurate but would be reliable. Will take a bit of elbow grease obviously.
That said I've never shot a 400 buck one in a match. But we do have a couple of them around 500 parted together for vehicle guns and I'd stake my life on either one any day.
Well after reading all the Bear Creek bashing,once again it's been reinforced to me,that alot of you self-proclaimed experts on here don't know as much as you think.I bought a BCA 7.62x39 carbine 2 weeks ago for $390 including ffl fees.Maybe I lucked-up and got a good one.If so,so did about half dozen of my buddies,but it easily shoots 1moa.It's not rocket science or luck building a rifle that will shoot.Just like bolt guns,there's alot of cheap ar's out there that will shoot.And I have some cash left-over for ammo...
What are your reloads? I'm always keeping x39 reload data thats good for moa or less. Ball ammo sure won't do that.
OTOH having had bad barrels from even top names, that were getting close to opening up to 3/4 plus MOA, when the normal ones would hover at .5 moa, less for fewer shots in the group... LOL, there are bad barrels and they often come in batches.
To say bear creek is always good is nuts. To say always bad about the same...
Then there are accuracy parameters. I sent a TC barrel back once, they shot it and said it gave 4-5 inch groups at 100, I said yes, exactly. They said thats acceptable. So I junked the TC tube and put a green mountain tube on and was shooting around 1.5 inches with honking slugs at 100 with iron sights.
