recommendations

[ditchdr]

Hey guys I am starting my first ar build. I would like anyones suggestions on what to look for when doing this. Such as, when buying a barrel then this _____ makes one good or bad. BCG should have this or that? What are your recommendations. Definately not rich so I would rather learn from yalls mistakes than mine hahaha.
Thanks
Matt

 

[meastt]

First Recommendation:

Wait 6 months for part prices to come back to earth..... Then build 3 ARs for the price of one today.

 

[ditchdr]

HAHA ya I am just kind of going with the flow on this build so no rush but I do want to go ahead and get a stripped lower just in case. Those all seem pretty similar between manufacturers to me but this is also my first build so anything I need to know?

 

[CSA]

Get a quality lower parts kit don't go cheap, barrel should be chrome lined and in my opinion 1:7 twist, bcg should be magnetic particle tested. Other than that its what you can find. These are just how I would do it and opinions will vary.

 

[jcountry]

Hey guys I am starting my first ar build. I would like anyones suggestions on what to look for when doing this. Such as, when buying a barrel then this _____ makes one good or bad. BCG should have this or that? What are your recommendations. Definately not rich so I would rather learn from yalls mistakes than mine hahaha.
Thanks
Matt

I like the PSA MOE lower parts kit. The stock is kickass!

I also like to get a complete upper and a separate nickel-boron bolt carrier group. (They are about $50 more-and well worth it.) That nickel-boron crap makes it easy to just wipe all the powder fouling right off. It is much harder to get off of the regular parkerized BCG.

-Personally, I don't mess with building the upper from scratch. It is a bit of a hassle-and you need to put the right kind of grease on the fitting which joins the upper to the barrel. Torque wrench, etc. I am not sure you would even save a penny if you built the upper from scratch. ( I have done it, but definitely not worth the hassle.) Building the lower is pretty fun, though.

 

[user 71]

I love the psa kits even if they sometimes leave parts out (customer service is usually slow but good otherwise). Their magpul kits usually have parts that I'm gonna add anyway so I don't end up paying for items I'm not gonna use.

I prefer buying the upper complete but sometimes that's not an option. Plus putting an upper together adds insight into how these things work and were designed.

Advice I would give: think about your personality type before buying. If you're the type of guy who is not gonna be happy until you have the best - then save yourself some time and money and buy top-tier from the start. For my purposes, a mid-tier rifle is all I'll ever need. But if you start cheap and then work your way up, well you'll get to that colt and find out that you couldn't just bought two of them from the start and saved money you lost buying or building at every step.

Of course this is all perspective from two months ago. I've tried to stay out of the ar-15 market because of the craziness.