Originally Posted by Bluedreaux
A castle nut that wasn’t staked came loose, trigger springs were installed incorrectly, and one of those stupid exposed gas blocks that hold on a fore end came loose (they always do).

It all happened within about 500 rounds with us, but I don’t know what the round count was before that. I suspect not many.
I thought you were a proponent of the M&P series of AR's from S&W...to be specific, within the OP's parameters of both defense and price.