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Pre-made vs building an AR
I'm looking all over and I just cannot figure the benefits of building your own rifle vs buying a premade. I have built muzzleloaders before and it was to save money. I just ain't seein' it here. I saw, what I thought, were pretty good deals at the last gun show...
build, build, build. you can do it cheaper, you just have to be patient and smart, shop around. its fun. you learn lots of ins and outs about not only ar15's but about your particular rifle. you can customize it from day one to exactly what you want. ive always built mine from the very first one, and ive never regretted it. to make it easier you could buy a completed upper, say from bravocompanyusa, and then build everything else. anyone can do that with no special tools or knowledge. all you need is typical tools, youtube.com, and some common sense.
the upper would require tools and is a bit more of a pain
DO NOT Allow the lack of tools or equipment keep you from building one if that is what you want.
we have too many Gunsmiths and shops here to keep you from that.
benefits of building.
I want this lower with this upper and a hard-chrome BCG with all Magpul furniture and a Number # charging handle. Buy once, build it.
Benefits of a pre-built
Buy, Shoot
Granted with a prebuilt you are shooting what someone else put together, So if you change ANYTHING you are essentially buying that part twice.
even if its Furniture. you bought the cheap furniture, now you are buying the Nice stuff.
Honestly there are pros and cons on both sides that only you can decide about.
What do you want? A plain jane A2 rifle? You can do it for under $600- maybe significantly less if you buy used parts. Hard to find a new complete rifle for that. Ohterwise, as all the other posters stated, you can build a rifle exactly the way you want it configured.
plus if you build you have a much better understanding of the workings of the AR and its super easy
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I built my first AR and have built all my lowers and don't regret it at all. I have bought a couple of uppers finished, just due to them being more work to finish.
I think the big difference cost wise comes in between upper and lower, put together. If a lower is in spec, its a relatively unimportant part, so you can save some pennies there. A full Colt/Noveske/etc. rifle costs a lot, but all the advantages are in the upper half, but the lower half still costs a premium. Put that upper on a lower you built for less than half their cost and you can shave a few bucks on your build, without much, if any lose is quality.
Build an AR = Frankingun. Buy a factory AR = at least some sort of warranty.
And with me being easily frustrated, I would very quickly end up taking a 5# single jack to it.
Besides, BP Tactical would go belly up if I started building and repairing my own ARs.
This is almost exactly what I was going to type. Great advise here.Originally Posted by tmckay2
I built my last one for about $600 and she runs like a top!
Good luck and have fun!
Certified NRA Instructor, ask me about CCW classes
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It does require a lot of patience building your own, both looking for good deals on parts and coming up with the proper tools to build it. I built mine for $1300, but had I bought it retail it would have cost more than twice what I paid overall.
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If you can find a company that sells my dream AR with all the Spike Tactical, VLTOR, Magpul, Daniel Defnese, etc. parts I want, and sells it for just the cost of the parts without any markups for profit or to cover labor, then I'll buy my AR. Otherwise, I'll build my AR.
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