Inexpensive AR Kit

[pbwalker]

+1 on CMMG Bargain Bin rifles.
Mine was like new, could not find a defect on it.

Did you go with a 'Hand Selected' model?

[Rex B]

Nope, just the $599.95 special

[Toadstone]

Stag H2 Rifle Kit (add your own stripped receiver and you can build a rifle): $614, not including shipping
Stripped Stag Arms lower receiver: $99, not including shipping or FFL

With shipping, this should put you in the $750 ballpark for a complete Stag Arms M-4 clone AR. Then you just need a heap of mags and a heap of ammo.
Actually, I think every good man in the U.S. should go out and buy all this stuff right now, (if you haven't already).

[jlangton]

The cheapest kits I've found yet come from Blackthorne Products. They ship a completely assembled, headspaced, and tested upper. Lower parts kit is DIY. I'm not sure about shipping costs, but they claim to be on the spot with shipping if they have the stuff in stock.

I had been looking at model 1 sales, but I've seen such horrible reviews about their customer service and they are saying it is 4-6 weeks before they ship. Their prices are about $100 more across the board on all their kits. Same with AR15-kits.com, mapartsinc.com, rangersales.com, but I'd suggest looking at these websites also for inexpensive builds.


As an aside, I'm looking at this kit in particular: 16" dissipator. Basically a carbine with rifle length handguards and longer site radius. They (most of the cheaper kits) call them dissipators, but the gas tube is still carbine length, just modified to fit under the handguards.

I have to agree..Blackthorne products sells some good stuff. Quick to ship,updated as to instock on the website(if it's not listed,they're out of stock-it's that simple) You can't beat their prices either. I'm looking at the $459 20" SS varmit kit to build one of the AR lowers I picked up recently. I've got friends that have ordered from them. Quick to ship-tracking numbers emailed when they ship,and the products are good quality.
JL

[jeeperbryan]

The cheapest kits I've found yet come from Blackthorne Products. They ship a completely assembled, headspaced, and tested upper. Lower parts kit is DIY. I'm not sure about shipping costs, but they claim to be on the spot with shipping if they have the stuff in stock.

I had been looking at model 1 sales, but I've seen such horrible reviews about their customer service and they are saying it is 4-6 weeks before they ship. Their prices are about $100 more across the board on all their kits. Same with AR15-kits.com, mapartsinc.com, rangersales.com, but I'd suggest looking at these websites also for inexpensive builds.


As an aside, I'm looking at this kit in particular: 16" dissipator. Basically a carbine with rifle length handguards and longer site radius. They (most of the cheaper kits) call them dissipators, but the gas tube is still carbine length, just modified to fit under the handguards.

I have to agree..Blackthorne products sells some good stuff. Quick to ship,updated as to instock on the website(if it's not listed,they're out of stock-it's that simple) You can't beat their prices either. I'm looking at the $459 20" SS varmit kit to build one of the AR lowers I picked up recently. I've got friends that have ordered from them. Quick to ship-tracking numbers emailed when they ship,and the products are good quality.
JL

Before you jump at Blackthorne, you might want to research them a bit. They have a very, very bad reputation and many people swear against them. I don't have any experience withthem but I'm considering building a dedicated .22lr and the price of their upper is pretty good. Might be worth trying them out.

[jlangton]

Before you jump at Blackthorne, you might want to research them a bit. They have a very, very bad reputation and many people swear against them. I don't have any experience withthem but I'm considering building a dedicated .22lr and the price of their upper is pretty good. Might be worth trying them out.

I've found that most of the problems I've seen with them are from the typical AR snobs. They're like Glock and HK snobs-incapable of seeing past a brand or "blingy" model name, and to them everything else is crap. If I go looking for problems when I get a product, I can certainly find problems. I judge a product by it's performance, and so far all I've seen from them is a great value for a good quality product.
JL

[Drewthetexan]

The cheapest kits I've found yet come from Blackthorne Products. They ship a completely assembled, headspaced, and tested upper. Lower parts kit is DIY. I'm not sure about shipping costs, but they claim to be on the spot with shipping if they have the stuff in stock.

I had been looking at model 1 sales, but I've seen such horrible reviews about their customer service and they are saying it is 4-6 weeks before they ship. Their prices are about $100 more across the board on all their kits. Same with AR15-kits.com, mapartsinc.com, rangersales.com, but I'd suggest looking at these websites also for inexpensive builds.


As an aside, I'm looking at this kit in particular: 16" dissipator. Basically a carbine with rifle length handguards and longer site radius. They (most of the cheaper kits) call them dissipators, but the gas tube is still carbine length, just modified to fit under the handguards.

I have to agree..Blackthorne products sells some good stuff. Quick to ship,updated as to instock on the website(if it's not listed,they're out of stock-it's that simple) You can't beat their prices either. I'm looking at the $459 20" SS varmit kit to build one of the AR lowers I picked up recently. I've got friends that have ordered from them. Quick to ship-tracking numbers emailed when they ship,and the products are good quality.
JL

Before you jump at Blackthorne, you might want to research them a bit. They have a very, very bad reputation and many people swear against them. I don't have any experience withthem but I'm considering building a dedicated .22lr and the price of their upper is pretty good. Might be worth trying them out.

Believe me, I've spent an inordinate amount of time pouring through every website I can find on the subject. The whole AR15 market is really muddled up with so much stuff that I feel like a Soviet in an American grocery store. It can really be overwhelming, especially for first timers.

Sadly, after hours and hours of research, I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do, I just know what I want and what my budget looks like.

[Rex B]

Well, if it's any consolation, there just isn't much bad stuff out there.
For the low end, Delton and Model 1 sell good, standard items with good service.
Buy Model 1 at a local gun show and they waive the sales tax.
You can buy a lower, lower parts kit, stock from anyone and it will work fine.
IMHO the difference between the cheap stuff and the high-end premium products is a very thin line indeed, and not nearly worth the double or triple price difference the big brands bring.
So get what you can afford. You can always sell a complete rifle for $700 and put it towards the next one, when you will know better what is important to you.
I've done that, and wound up with:

Delton 16" bull upper on a Bushmaster lower with A2 buttstock, flip-up sights, DPMS floated handguard.
Delton 16" M4 on a Sharps lower, 6-pos buttstock, straight military configuration
Model 1 24" varmint upper SS Bull on a CMMG lower, A2 stock, 6-24x40 scope

I have no more than $725 in any of them.

[cajunautoxer]

As far as varmit rifle I just picked up a DPMS 24" bull barrel. I don't know if 16" would be enough IMO.

The main value of the longer barrel is higher velocity, and possibly another 50-100 yards of range. The 16" bull barrel from DPMS will be just as accurate as a 20" or 24" bull barrel from DPMS, given the same twist rate — maybe more accurate since the shorter barrel is actually stiffer than the longer barrel. The whole point of bull barrels is stiffness, and stiffness is the result of thickness to length ratio. Even a really fat barrel becomes less stiff the longer it gets, so it does not follow that a longer barrel is more accurate than a shorter barrel. And indeed, the only reason a longer barrel is preferable in 1,000 yard competitions is because it gives more time for powder to burn and develop the velocity which will carry a bullet at extremely long ranges. This is why many tactical bolt rifles designed for urban sniping only have a 20" heavy barrel. They don't need the range, but they do need the accuracy.

We have a 16" DPMS bull barreled "low-pro" upper laying on a shelf. My son bought it for a carbine he was building, and set it aside for an HBAR barreled upper he purchased later because he was unhappy with the forward weight bias of the carbine with the bull barrel on it. That said, it was extraordinarily accurate, even when mated to a standard DPMS lower using the standard DPMS parts kit with a standard trigger.

My son and I also own 24" barreled varmint rifles, and they both shoot well. My son's is a RRA 24" Stainless varminter, and he has shot 5 rounds into .25" at 100 yards with it before. He's let total strangers at the range try it out, and on their first attempts, they've shot the best group of their lives with it. The thing is truly magical, and it is the most accurate rifle in our safe. However, it also weighs more than any of our other rifles, including a couple of heavy barreled .308 bolt rifles, one of which has a 26" barrel. In short, it is not "handy," and it would make a terrible "truck gun." If an all around use truck gun is what you're looking for, compromising for a 16"-18" HBAR will make a much better all around use rifle, particularly if it is important to you to be able to mount any kind of flash suppressor. You'll still get pretty good accuracy, and the rifle will be much more fun to carry in the field, quicker to the shoulder (and sight picture), and just a lot easier to live with.

I was just trying to say IMO a varmit rifle and a trunk gun can't be the same rifle. I mean it could be used for both but it's not convient. But what do I know I used a slab sided Yugo UF for my trunk gun

[Paju514]

Spikes Tactical M4LE Complete Upper W/coupon code M4LEUP - $475
http://www.spikestactical.com/z/index.p ... cts_id=384" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dsarms complete Lower - $200
http://www.dsarms.com/Model-ZM4-Complet ... o/DSZM4R2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rear Buis or optic is all you would need. Magpul has a rear BUIS for ~55. So, you could possibly have a good 2 go Chrome lined 1/7 twist w/ST-T2 buffer etc.. AR for ~ $730. Not too shabby IMO.

[pbwalker]

Can someone explain to me how the front sight post does not interfere with the optics? Most of the flat top upper assemblies I see are like this and I'm not seeing how the front sight post *wouldn't* be in the way...

Do you need elevated scope mounts?

[gigag04]

http://stores.homestead.com/Laruetactic ... tic+Mounts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are a few mounts of different hieghts there. The short answer is yes - you have to get a raised optics mount, but the question is how much?

Some mounts will give you a "direct cowitness" where the dot on the optic is in the same line of sight as the back up iron sights. I prefer a taller mount giving me a bottom 1/3rd co-witness - where the iron sights are visible and useable in the bottom third of the optic like this:

[gigag04]

IMHO the difference between the cheap stuff and the high-end premium products is a very thin line indeed, and not nearly worth the double or triple price difference the big brands bring.

Couldn't disagree more, respectfully of course.

[Rifleman55]

I just bought a 16 in. middie carbine kit from M&A I ordered it online a week ago and it arrieved last wednesday. this is my second from them, since it has a carbine stock I also ordered a wrench for the castle nut. Since it has no rear sights and I have not decided which optic to put on it It has only had 3 rounds down the tube.