College kid budget build
Hey all, thanks for havin me on the site.Currently in school so trying to do this on budget this summer when my grades wont drop from spending too much time looking at this stuff. I've built up long guns(bolt, muzzleload, etc) before so I have some experience but never with an AR. Been looking to build for a long time. After looking around the site for a few days, there are specific criteria I'm trying to hit. First off is budget, I wanna be under 800 easily so I can have little extra to help spend on a good optic. Second, I want a collapsible stock, Spikes or Mag(if I can find a good price) seem to strike my fancy. Decent lower and Upper, flat top only though. Now it comes to the barrel. I want no front sight with quad rails or doubles and free floating as well. Def want a threaded barrel 16, Slick side is an option if you guys think it is a good idea, i've heard both sides of that story. If you could point this young fella in the right direction that would be great. Whole kits are nice, if not does someone have a checklist for every part, both upper and lower possibly? Thank ya
Just bought my complete basic Flattop A4 for right at $640 after the FFL fee for my lower.
M&A for my kit, comes w/ everything minus the stripper lower. $520 shipped
Bought a Del-Ton lower off a friend, $120 after FFL transfer.
M&A,
J&T and
PSA all appear to have some kits in-stock.
This point may be moot but I hope that you are 21+. You can't purchase the lower if you are under 21 from/through a FFL.
Other than that point you can build quite a decent AR for under $800 with no optics. Glass is what adds $$$ to your build anyway. PSA has some good stuff.
I would buy the upper complete and separate.
Idk where you are from but stripped lowers can be had for $100 or less, especially if you find local manufacturers.
I wasn't real impressed with my PSA lower parts kit, the DPMS kit I have has been good. Stag seems to always have good comments as well.
Order your stock kit from PSA.
Above will have all the build instructions which can be done with a few pliers, some electric and masking tape.
Ask to borrow a local's castle nut wrench.
You might be over your $800 budget wanting an free float and no front sight post.
ya I'm 22 actually, ha good point shoulda said that. I have an ffl 2 miles down a twp road from my house so real easy to get stuff, PSA seems like a heck of a place to get everythin seem pretty good price and has all the parts in their kits
I have had great success with kits from J&T Distributing and Del-Ton. Only ordered small parts from PSA so far, but they seem to have a solid rep around here.
cheap part thread looks outdated as you know what, ok if i dont do free floating to free up some cash, can i still get a decent rail system on the fore end?
First thing you need to do is get yourself an 03 FFL. It costs $30 and will save you way more than that in just your first build. Then send your 03 to Midway, Brownells, RRA, and anyone else you can think that you might buy parts from, get your discount and start spending money. Midway has a complete Del-Ton kit (upper, bolt, lpk, stock...everything but the stripped lower) for under $460 shipped. If you want a budget AR that's a sub $600 gun with the lower and sights if you do it right.
Good luck and have fun! BTW, there is no vaccene for the bug you are about to get.
you can do that? hs, wow what are the qualifications for applyin for that? I live in Ohio if that helps, got a CCW right now. Whats a rep. site to visit to do that
also I'm left handed, since this is budget I'm stayin with normal right side ejection. Question is if I get an ambidextrous safety, will that work on any safety or does it have to be a specific one for ambi safety or does it just tap in
As a lefty myself you DO NOT want a slick slide if you are LH. I wouldn't get one anyway just because if you do shoot and have to do so weak hand. I have one Stag LH eject and that will probably be the only LH eject AR I have. Even my 3gun AR is RH eject.
Any ambi safety will do and is drop in.
you can easily get everything you want and even get the "ambi" features you need way under the $800.00 budget...
i would definantly go with a PSA kit with some a Magpul stock, grip, triger guard upgrade and a get a budget freefloat rail off of Ebay or some good venders like Cheaper than dirt, or the like...
UTG pro... has a really good lite weight rail that is kiccking all kind of ass, U.S.A. made and has a good anti-rotation system... i recomend it.. it runs about $80-$90 and you can get the maid bad lever for bout $30, Ambi-Safty for $20-30 and Ambi-Magazine release for about $60.00 you can even pick up a Ambi Charging handle latch for about $20 too...
you will still have the brass deflecting in front of your face but you can get used to that...!!!
I would definantly go with PSA... for your kit..!!!
hope this helps...
In my opinion, the cheapest way to get a budget AR is to assemble the lower and buy a complete upper. There aren't any specialty tools needed for building a lower, but you do need a few tools to assemble the upper (vice block, barrel nut wrench, etc). Those alone will add at least $50-60 before shipping. So if you want to pinch your pennies buy a complete upper. You can always completely assemble the next one from the ground up when your out of school and not poor as dirt.
You also want a few things that are going to drive your price up a bit.
First, the free float rails without the front sight post means you are going to need a low profile gas block. I cant think of any budget companies that sell complete upper with a low profile gas block and a free float rail. You could get yourself an upper from psa or delton with the FSB and buy the gas block separately. I know there was a thread a while back where a guy bought the $80 free float rail from ebay and liked it. But then you still need the tools to do it.
Also, the flat top upper with the full length rail means you need both front and rear sights. A set of those will set you back, I'm guessing, $150+ if you want something other than the plastic magpul sights.
What I did on a budget was go with a rifle kit from delton. I ordered one with an A2 upper so i didnt have to worry about sights. I think it was an extra $10 or so, but still much cheaper than buying a rear sight.
I built my first AR in about a year ago and I graduate in may so I know where you are coming from shop around and you can find some good deals. I would suggest you find some friends who already have ARs so you know what you want before you start your build, and know the EE is your friend.
+1, bucksaw - With what I know today and if I set out to build a budget build that I could wait to build and didn't want to shoot immediately. I would go to the EE and sift through everything in there often. You can get some good deals on there if you can wait til they pop up.
I have purchased from Del-Ton and PSA and was very happy with both. PSA seems to have more in stock right now and more options when ordering.
You might want to look at Stag as well.
http://www.stagarms.com/product_info.php?cPath=14_23&products_id=222
this is why i came here for questions, def gonna get the psa kit, prob get their lower if i cant find a cheap spike somewhere. I think I'm just gonna make it easy and get their classic kit that has the collapse stock with it, magp. will come along with od green and other goodies as time comes. I'll find a nice upper wherever and just chalk it up to a first time build. I seem to already have this itch, apparently this gun creates a bug of some sort and there is no cure
