OT a little, Whats better to build an AR-15 or Buy one?

I have been thinking of buying new AR-15. A Smith and Wesson, But my son said I should build one. He built his and it is fun to shoot. I was also was thinking of buying a AK-47 or a 308 that Century Arms builds and imports. After finding a comparison of the ammo and accuracy of the AK is more expensive for the 308. the ammo is cheaper with the AR. I was reading to buy a Nato round gun and watching You Tube...there are so many opinions. . I think I will stay with the AR. A friend of mine told me to buy the S&W or other well known brand because it will increase in value compared to a home built one. What do you members think? The prices are around $600.00 and I figured under $1000.00 is what I want to spend. Thanks. Rich

Richard King said:

I have been thinking of buying new AR-15. A Smith and Wesson, But my son said I should build one. He built his and it is fun to shoot. I was also was thinking of buying a AK-47 or a 308 that Century Arms builds and imports. After finding a comparison of the ammo and accuracy of the AK is more expensive for the 308. the ammo is cheaper with the AR. I was reading to buy a Nato round gun and watching You Tube...there are so many opinions. . I think I will stay with the AR. A friend of mine told me to buy the S&W or other well known brand because it will increase in value compared to a home built one. What do you members think? The prices are around $600.00 and I figured under $1000.00 is what I want to spend. Thanks. Rich

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I say buy a Seekins. Forum member owned business. Only issue is your budget. Their "forged" gun is like $1300. Pretty sure that Smith and Wesson stuff is imported .... or atleast imported castings.

Seekins Precision

Even with the low price of mostly decent AR15s, it's still cheaper to buy your own. I haven't built one from commercial prices in a while but last I checked it was cheapest, and easiest, to buy a complete barreled upper and the rest of the parts loose. List:

Complete barreled upper receiver
Handguard (unless it is included with the complete upper)
Bolt Carrier Group (unless it is included with the complete upper)
Lower receiver
Lower Parts Kit (usually comes with Fire Control Group, can get without)
Buttstock (unless it comes with the LPK)
Receiver extension and hardware (unless it comes with the LPK)
Grip
Sights &/or optic


There's a good "AR15 assembly guide" on AR15.com (imagine that) which is easily googled. It's about the only redeeming value that website has. Good guide with good documentation. You don't necessarily NEED all the tools and gadgets they show, but some are handy. For instance, you don't /need/ to buy the 'puck' to set the lower receiver on, but for installing the pins into the trigger guard, it's vitally important that you support the receiver 'ear' lest it snap off. The puck makes that easy, but there are myriad ways to accomplish that with items you have on-hand.

Otherwise the tools required are minimal and basic. Pin punches (ideally a set of roll pin punches, too) and a small hammer. Painters tape to mask areas near pins when installing. A spanner wrench for the receiver extension castle nut. Easy to make, or it's like $9, or maybe your son has one.

I think that's about it, off the top of my head. Once that's done, just magazines and ammo.

I do it to save money and to get exactly what I want, but I'm picky. I buy cheap parts for the components that don't matter terribly much, and buy more premium stuff where it counts, and end up with a great performing rifle for the cost of a cheap off-the-shelf rifle. You could do a lot worse than a S&W M&P15.

Good/cheap sources for parts and stuff:

Brownells
MidwayUSA
Palmetto State Armory
Bravo Company USA

I don't think I've ever really bought from anywhere else unless it was an availability issue or a crazy sale price somewhere else.

dstryr said:

I say buy a Seekins. Forum member owned business. Only issue is your budget. Their "forged" gun is like $1300. Pretty sure that Smith and Wesson stuff is imported .... or atleast imported castings.

Seekins Precision

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There are no castings in a S&W M&P15. They probably use the same forgings from the dozen or so suppliers that every other American AR15 maker uses for their forged receivers. I strongly doubt S&W would import such a thing.

JNieman said:

There are no castings in a S&W M&P15. They probably use the same forgings from the dozen or so suppliers that every other American AR15 maker uses for their forged receivers. I strongly doubt S&W would import such a thing.

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Maybe it was another brand... I know I heard of a popular one using import parts... thats how they can be sold complete for $650....

dstryr said:

Maybe it was another brand... I know I heard of a popular one using import parts... thats how they can be sold complete for $650....

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I wouldn't be surprised if there are imported parts. Receiver forgings, though, would surprise me. Not saying it's impossible though. There's an insane amount of competition in the AR15 market, and easy ways to cut costs would be in the 'furniture' of the gun; grips, handguards, buttstocks, etc. Same with sights and muzzle devices.

Then again S&W does have their uber cheap model... forgot about that. M&P Sport or something. I was thinking of their regular M&P15 which is a 'typical' AR type rifle. The Sport might have cut many corners for all I know. I think they use 6061 forgings rather than 7075, which might be where the 'import' guess came from. Lots of 'cheap' models will use 6061 instead of 7075. For people that shoot very seldomly, I doubt hard-coat anodized 6061 would be a problem. For higher round count folk, though, it would be.

As much as I like to build my own stuff (and I've built a half-dozen or so ARs for myself) it doesn't really make a lot of sense in terms of economy. I think the S&W is a very good choice but I would probably buy the Ruger AR-556 instead as I prefer the hammer forged barrel, it's profile, and I personally think it is a slightly better value. Here's are a couple of discussions on S&W's vs. the Ruger AR-556:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-m-p15-rifles/456804-new-m-p-sport-11-ruger-ar-556-a.html

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=381167

In the long run I don't think you'd go wrong with either.

Hope that helps,

-Ron

Just down the road I can buy from Sportsman Guide in St Paul. They have a huge selection online and they order guns. I bought a 9mm from them. I am a pretty good mechanic so I will probably buy the parts from then. I am not going to be shooting it much, it will be my just incase rifle and occasional fun. My son told me he went shooting with friends and the had exploding targets. When I used to shoot 22's in scouts we only had bulls-eye targets. Times have changed. The Seekens looks like nice stuff, but not in my budget. Thanks. Rich

Now I see Ron's post...may have to change my mind...lol

I can build an LR308 DPMS style rifle and be right at $750.00 and a few hours worth of time invested. Thats a DPMS style AR..chambered in .308 with a 20in barrel and a 15in free float key-mod rail. Just need optics/accessories after that.

I bought a Wyndham Weaponry SRC for about 950 and it came with a dealer (ex co worker) installed quad rail and reflex sight. The rifle is all that I can ask for and it got my feet wet. Now I am thinking of building a .308. Once you have a rifle to play around and take it apart and put it back together you realize its not that complicated. It sure is a great design and I am a sucker for anything machined instead of stamped. If money was no option I would build one. If on a budget I would buy one and if I was on a really tight budget i would also build one. But if thats what your budget allows for how can you afford to use it? As for investment purposes, I am considering buying a few lower receivers before the next election.

If I were to get another AR, I would build it. I've changed half the parts on mine and I think I'm done... maybe.

So far I've changed the handguard to free-float the barrel (which also means changing the gas block to a low-profile), changed the upper from the A2 to an A4 flat-top, swapped buttstocks (I hated that ugly thing that came with it originally), and put on a steeper-angle pistol grip that's more comfortable.

So now my $750 bone-stock AR probably has about $1100 in it not counting the optic.

depends on what you want.
Are you going to want up graded furniture?
Different trigger, plated bolt carrier?

if you are doing a bunch of customizing then you build
if not you buy kind of have to do some math,
probably you would buy a complete upper anyway.

as to caliber that also depends,
5.56 nato is fairly cheap light to nonexistent recoil,
down side you probably shouldn't or perhaps can't use it to hunt anything
other then varmints.
possibly the easiest modern center fire rifle to shoot, that's one of the reasons it's so popular.
and it a relatively light rifle.

7.62 nato on the other hand not as cheap much more recoil,
and considerably heavier rifle,
it has longer real effective range, can be used to hunt anything in North America big game wise.
pretty much like owning any 308 rifle.

Lots of midwest, southern, and southwest whitetail have been cleanly killed with 68gr, 75gr 5.56 rounds from an AR. Bullet technology is a wonderful thing.

I don't hunt with my AR15 anymore, though it works. I like my lever action, now.

As has been said, it is cheaper to buy a built one than assembling one yourself unless you plan to replace all the factory parts with something else. Then it makes more sense to simply build with the parts you want.

I built one and found, as others said, it does cost a little more. Still if you have specific wants i think to build is better. Seems like most if the guns are built more for a movie set than for funtional features. In my case i wanted a flat top light varmint gun with a basic free float forearm- not a common configuration.

Build an 80%, totally legal and no serial number.

Def gnna be cheaper to build. I say that from a "quality rifle" stand point. You can buy a really cheap AR.... A few years ago smith and wesson had a very basic AR line for 650ish. Personally Im not a basic kinda guy, and for $200 more than that you could have had a real decent build. The polymer stuff has come a long way but Im still not that into it. And I dont know why...I have FN and Glock pistols and both have plastic recievers.

Thanks all....I am still leaning on just buying one as I will not be shooting much for fun. Maybe 50 to 100 bullets a year. I have been watching You Tube and the Colt is a couple of hundred dollars more...or a Windham. I will be buying it for an investment too. Also going to look for a bolt action or BAR 30-06. I will be going out and testing them at Cabela's and see how they feel and buy one and a gun Safe. Thanks again. Rich

Richard,

Just a FYI - I have also checked out a lot of guns at the local Cabela's and even bought a couple BUT once you've decided on what you want I highly recommend doing some internet shopping for the best price. I've found that places like Cheaper Than Dirt! Discount Guns, Ammo & Accessories or Ammunition, AR15 Parts, Magazines, Bulk Ammo - Palmetto State Armory can have much better pricing and can maybe avoid sales tax as well. Doing an FFL firearms transfer to your local shop is very easy to do (I've got one in the process right now.

Best of luck with your acquisition,

-Ron

Chips-Ahoy said:

I can build an LR308 DPMS style rifle and be right at $750.00

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I'd like to know what upper you are using to do it for $750?

Haney