Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Sum of parts = the whole?

Hi, Ahoyza here, i'm a relative newbie here.
Im a mauser man but am considering my first AR.
I enjoy putting things together, so ...

What is more affordable: building an AR or buying one?
Seems like prices are back down: $400 generic $800 American name brand $1600 good ones.
I want a regular one with interchangeable parts, not an oddball AR wanabee thingy.


Any comments appreciated. Happy Thanksgiving!
PS, What is a McSwirly?

Whadda Ya want?


Our questions are both triggering to many.

You want an AR to hunt coyote to a couple hundred yards, shoot for fun?
Go to PSA and pick the upper and lower that you like. There are possibilities for a $450 gun there right now.



You will get a gun that works and probably shoots better than needed for
those uses.
You won't get one built from the most awesome indestructible parts
made by man or God.



If you need or want a gun that you brag about to the "Operators", one
built out of top tier parts, you can save money building it yourself.
Especially if you buy it over time, carefully shopping the parts.
(Don't own one of these, would if I was buying one to use as a LEO or such)


Mid to lower level, you won't save money on a single build after buying the tools to do it.




Think of them as a M-700. Honestly evaluating it.

Millions made. Lotta BS thrown around about extractors, bolt handles....
Things that happened, but way over reported.

The Marines address those issues building their sniper rifle from a 700.
To make it as reliable as possible. Makes sense.

Personally, I know of more people using that rifle than any other bolt action.
None have broken an extractor or bolt, that I'm aware of.
Taking one of mine into battle, probably get the handle welded and an M-16 extractor installed.

I'd buy one with Black Friday discounts. Unless you want something not offered, you're not going to save any money by the time you pay $15 shipping seven times to get everything here and there.

Average guy gun? Right now it's pretty easy. Go buy one of these.

And in the same order, one of these.

Put it together and shoot the piss out of it. Much bang for the buck. If you don't like the trigger after shooting it, plenty of good replacements out there for around a hundred bucks, more or less.

My two cents.

I have the PSA upper that you linked. Excellent shooting upper for the money. I’m a fan of the rifle length gas system and 18” barrels for non tactical use. Even PSA or similar Boron coated FCG’s for around $30 on sale are a big step up from a standard milspec trigger.

There's your answer but I'm sure most will walk on by.

LOL

One heck of a deal in my opinion.

^^^^This^^^^

You question really has no hard answer.

Visit "Anderson Rifles" in Hebron, KY. I've built several AR's with their uppers and lowers. Lowers can be as cheap as $50 or less. Bought 3 years ago for $39.95/ea.
For me, a DIY build runs +/- $700. Academy, WalMart, Atwood's, etc, sell equivalent AR's for less.
You can spend a couple grand buying high grade pieces/parts and still not have a shooter....or pay peanuts and get a real tack driver. You never know until you bench it the first time.

If there is any one "piece/part" that's worth spending extra for, I'd say it's your "fire group" (trigger assembly).
Best I can tell, money spent on a Giselle trigger group is worth the cost.
CMMG, UTG and cut rate trigger groups work just fine, but a "sweet" trigger seems to make everything else come together a little better.
The "best" shooting AR I possess has a $58.95, heavy, spiral fluted, .223 Wylde barrel I found on sale......but I'm a cheap skate! LOL!

I've worked around and with gunsmiths for a long time. I would love to have picked up the trade "way back when"! 😖 ....but I didn't!
What I "DID" learn in a gun shop was when to back off and say. "I can't do that!"

Building (assembling?) AR's scratches my "wannabe gunsmith" itch! 😉👍

Garbage parts = the sum of a POS. And no, you don't have to invest in a high dollar Geiselle trigger to have a good trigger. The "FCG" is NOT as critical as you think. Where you need to invest your dollar is in the BCG and the barrel. There are many $80 triggers out there that are very useable. Trust me, or not. Things like handguards are not as critical these days either. That means you don't have to spend upwards of $300 for a good one. Back in the day, in order to get a really good lightweight trim handguard you'd have to pay for a Noveske or the like, but not these days. You can get by with a $60 handguard and be very well prepared. This subject comes up very often here, but if you want to buy a dirt cheap BCG and barrel, don't expect much performance out of it, or durability. You take your chances when going cheap on the more critical parts. Learn what is "critical" and what is not so much and you'll be doing well.

Generally, it would be that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts if they are all good quality & work together well.

A mixture of cheap & good parts, can sometimes, make the sum fall to the level of the cheapest part.

JMHO, YMMV

MM

After my little $200 adventure, I have a few things to add. One is, I wish I had time to buy it as a kit and put it together. That would have been more revealing. For instance, I would have seen how tight the upper is on the barrel.

Anyway, the upper seems fairly straight, maybe not BCM- straight, but pretty good. It was very windy the day I sighted it in, so I lost some of my feel for that. The dust cover doesn't fit great, the pin holes are enough out of tolerance that I have to use a hammer every time I mate it to a lower. The barrel is phosphate coated, not nitrided or stainless. While the rifling quality looks good, it's just old school bare steel, not chrome lined. It does seem to shoot pretty good after I cleaned up the muzzle and crowned it.
The float tube is OK, I had to shop carefully to find and acceptable one that included at least one sling point on the muzzle end. It includes the clamping screws on the chamber end. I am not a big fan of that, it's right where I place my hand for static Standing shots. I much prefer the HM Defense tube I put on my 7.62x40, even thought it lacks integral sling points. HM Defense is a great company to deal with, they would have put them there if I had been smart enough to ask.
The chamber seems kind of tight. If it was any other cartridge I'd say it's a BR tight chamber, not an auto loading chamber. A .355" bullet will barely seat by hand in a fired case. A fired case will actually hold it. I think this is an artifact of the weird cartridge, the 350L, which I suspect is actually headspacing off the case body, not the mouth.

I wasn't about to fool with a cheap BCG. I had a PSA premium on hand anyway.

Had a buddy asking for same advice…

Watched the sales and sent him links to the best priced Aeroprecision complet upper, complete lower, bcg and charging handle… voila, best bang for the buck in my opinion (~$800 total)! You can go cheaper or more expensive, but I personally like Aero stuff for good quality and moderate price.

Yes, they are & their bolts with blind cam pin hole design is as good as it gets, strength wise.

MM


I agree, Aero stuff is all pretty good, serviceable stuff at mid-range prices............I've used a lot of their parts & lowers.

They own Ballistic Advantage barrels too.

MM

Answer to your question "What is a McSwirly?" that is slang for a McMillan rifle stock with the color combos they offer (i.e. 50% black, 50% white, etc.) They mix the colors and it makes a swirl pattern when the stock is cured.