Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Budget builds

It appears that you can build an AR for $340 currently. here, and here.

I realize that these are probably not high quality parts, but is there any reason not to own 2 ARs for $680?

What is the lowest budget build you all would consider?

I want to put an AR or two in the back of the safe.

Add the cost of a rear sight and a magazine

Don't forget your tranfer fee

But yep....that is cheap but I'm well stoked

I don't understand building a couple of cheap guns to collect dust with vs. building a good one to shoot.

Backroads,

Do yourself a favor, avoid the PTAC stuff and step up to a PSA kit. They will have a better barrel and bolt carrier.

PSA kit and Anderson lower makes it $420, not bad for a truck gun/loaner.


458, what would your budget build look like? I don't mind spending more for quality, within reason.

I recently built what I consider a "good" AR for a little under 5 bills.
At the same time I built a "very good" AR for about 8.

Depends on your purpose.

Note this. It's probably cheaper/better to just have your FFL get you a lower. By the time you pay $20-$30 for a transfer on the Anderson lower, you could have had the FFL get you an Aero precision or better for the same price. Or he can prob get you the Anderson for cheaper in the end.

On the lower, yes check locally first.

I bought a couple of Anderson lowers from a LGS recently for $45 + tax.

it took me $172 dollars total w/tax and $10 background check to put together a complete Anderson lower with a guntech parts kit, guntech 6 position predator stock and buffer assembly complete, mft eg16 pistol grip and a 30rd gen 3 pmag.
lower done
only issues I had with the guntech lower parts kit/Anderson receiver assembly
I had to center punch/peen the hammer and trigger pins to keep them from working out the receiver to the right side while doing numereous repeated functions checks
I only did this to the left side of the pins cause they only seemed to drift out to the right
i will see what happens for movement with those pins when I test fire it
if they work out to the left I will center punch and peen the other sides
had to file a tiny amount of the hole on the lower to allow the detent on the trigger guard to pop in
had to get a washer off slumlord for the pistol grip cause their was not one in the kit for some reason
problems cured.....
see what test firing reveals when I get it all done

im looking at spending 375-400ish tax included to build an upper with a m4 carbine barrel and detach carry handle


building this one for my daughter alexis who graduates rotc in college in may and commissions as a 2lt
wants to fly helicoptors

my other daughter Nicole is an army nurse
she brought home a dpms sportical she way over paid for 2 yrs ago at a lgs almost $700w/tax total
then I had to buy her an optic when she realized it had nothing for aiming at all
cause she just had to have one at the time.... to make her sister jealous
cause her sister out shot her at a range on fort Campbell
(alexis has shot since age 6 with me)
(the sportical is a pencil barreled overheating pos in my opinon)
I told her she should have asked me about buying an ar and I could have helped her out in her search or built one for her


but oh well
she has done enough to tick me off and piss me off a lot recently
so when alexis gets her dad built ar for around $525-550ish total with tax
she can go show her sister what dad made for her for $150 less than what she paid for her pos sportical



plus im also using the ar im building for alexis as my test crash dummy run for building myself one in the 750-800 tax included range in the future

never had an interest in owning a black rifle other than being an a user of one for 24 yrs in the infantry

but I think I can put together a good reliable accurate one
for chits and giggles just to have handy in the future

I have been watching these kits
on a local forum I see lots of no way avoid Ptac
smart people dont own them etc

I asked for someone what owns on to share experinances

But I have yet to have some one say I bought one I have this problem....

I have had a couple say I bought one its seems to function fine

I dont know for a truck beater hard no to think about it

Hank

Each or for two? Brownells is selling them for 42 bucks each and 5 for 200.

That was $45 each + tax.

Good deal!

Cheaper than dirt had them for $38..

W

You probably haven't gotten much feedback because people are smart enough to not buy them, and the people who are buying them aren't shooting them enough to form a useful opinion.

It's hard to imagine buying the bargain version of an AR from the bargain version of an AR company and it turning out good.

What is your budget build Blue? How low are you willing to go?

I'll spend as little as possible.

But I won't buy cheap, poor or questionable parts just to save money. I'd rather have one quality AR for the rest of my life than several "OK" guns.

I'm currently putting together a budget build and expect to have around $350 cash into it when I'm done. But that's because I've been shopping sales, scavenging parts and picking up brass to sale or trade for parts for over a year. Not because the parts will be of poor quality.

I guess I could answer that more specifically. I'll go as low as possible in price, preferably with someone else paying me to take stuff from them. That'd be great.

But I'd consider a "budget build" in terms of how low in quality of parts am I willing to go.

Upper and lower receivers.... Whatever is cheapest, although I prefer to not have some ridiculous logo on the side of my lower.

Stock and grip.... You can get a set of Magpul for about $35 if you shop around and I guess that's cheap enough. I'm a sissy so I do prefer to have the little gap by the trigger guard filled in with the grip or trigger guard itself.

Receiver extension / buffer / spring.... Whatever milspec sized extension is cheapest, I'm not terribly concerned with the actual aluminum used but I would like the milspec size so my stocks are interchangeable. I'll slum a carbine buffer if that's what's available but that's something that I usually get to suit the gun. I much prefer Springco buffer springs as I can get them for less than $20 and they'll never wear out. I hate doing any sort of maintenance on my guns so that might not be as big of an issue for someone else.

Handguard / Rail.... Again, MOE stuff can be had cheap if not free from a buddy, so that's about as cheap as I'll go.

Barrel.... I'm not buying a barrel that I don't know anything about from www.bobsbarrelemporiumandsnowconestand.com. Decent FN barrels can be had from PSA or I'd get a Rainier branded barrel. For a budget build I'd probably try a Faxon barre.

You can get a BCG from a known manufacturer for $140ish and I won't budge on the quality of that. But again, the first thing I'd do is replace the extractor spring with one from Springco.

LPK & Trigger.... $65ish from a known manufacturer of good stuff. Although I'm a huge trigger snob and would just wait until I had an extra $50 for an ALG trigger.

So I'd guess that my budget build would run about...
Lower / Upper $120
Furniture $60
LPK / Trigger $80ish?
Receiver extension / Spring / Buffer $65
Barrel / Gas block / Gas tube $185
BCG $150

So $665 for a gun without sights.

I'm sure it could be done cheaper if you waited for Thanksgiving sales at PSA and bought one of their kits. And if it had one of their FN barrels and I could replace the springs and it didn't have a PTAC LPK I'd do it.

Well, I'd do it if I wanted a budget AR. But I don't have a need for another AR just for the sake of having one around so I really wouldn't do that. I'd rather keep saving and get one that I would really use.

Thanks for taking the time to break that down. How much will that build weigh approximately?

There is a Windham SRC locally for 650, Is that a reliable AR?

I am having a hard time deciding just how cheap to go, it is doubtful that it will get shot or carried all that much. More of an always in the truck/loaner gun.




I am going to stop by the LGS tomorrow too and see what he has/recommends.

I have no idea. I just break down my guns into "too heavy", "fine" and "wow, that's light". I'd guess it would be "fine".

I'm sure a Windham would be fine for what you want to do. Or wait until Thanksgiving and get a really cheap PSA. They'll be fine shooting a magazine here and there.