I'd assemble a lower with a roll mark that you like and get a BCM upper for it. You'll pay a little more, but QC is worth it to me.

I have most of the tools you'd need to assemble your own upper, and I don't mind loaning them out if you want to try to build your own.


Get an Aero stripped lower, a stag lpk, a BCM stripped upper, barrel, and BCG, along with ALG Defense lightweight rail, and you'll have a very affordable rifle that will likely outlast you. Throw on an aimpoint patrol, and you've golden.

I admit, I'm an AR snob. The only thing remaining from my Rock River ARs is the lowers, and an upper that was stripped and converted to .22LR..--everything else is DD. The RRAs ran okay, but there were a lot of little details I didn't like. As was mentioned earlier, the higher cost is usually due to higher QC costs.

If its out of your budget, I understand, I'm not gonna put down anyone else's blaster. The great thing is that its pretty trivial to upgrade them if you decide you want something a little different. The hardest things to overcome I found so far are overtorqued flash hiders and barrel nuts.