The way you get to a reasonable priced gun is buy the important parts from known sources.
Things like non staked carrier keys are easy to stake or loctite and I've never had 640 loctite come loose... or the AMU that I'm aware of.
You get a good bolt. Blemished upper and lower. Keeping factory trigger which is junk to me but reliable keeps cost down., Then the rest of the parts are pretty much a non issue. Other than the barrel. And at one point you could get a Wilson barrel from White Oak or CLE reasonably enough. I"m sure its still the case. But with lowers at 30 bucks and blem uppers not that much more...
What else in there is really important ? I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
BUT this is if you know what you are doing, and do it well while having fun putting it together.
I have seen issues, usually not hard to correct, from assembled parts kit type guns.
I have not seen a gun fall apart at 100 or 1000 or more rounds, but falling apart and a minor issue like needing a new extractor are different subjects in my book.
That said, one can usually not go wrong with top names.
