Unless you’re Actually A Tactical “Operator” (in which case it doesn’t matter since it ain’t your money anyway), or doing serious target shooting (including varminting), I don’t see any reason to pay more than $650-700 for an AR.
A dirt-cheap one will be plenty reliable and plenty accurate for normal-people uses, as far as I can tell from personal experience and observation of others.
My first AR I took that path. Cost me $740 for everything as I was on a budget. The second one was nearly triple at $1900. Why? The EoTech 516 and the magnifier to go with it. Optics can cost as much or more than the gun. The gun by itself was was just over $1,000 And that was WITH a cold forged Spikes upper and falizero BCG with VTOLR furniture.
I bought an Armalite upper during their T’giving sale a couple of years ago for $300. I got a complete lower during their Xmas sale the same year for $215 (they gave me dealer price since they were sending it to my FFL). I had a complete AR (well, I had to buy a BUIS) for $515. Still less than $600 with the sight. Great gun, too.
August 18th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Nice. Maybe I’ll try something like that on my second try when I can afford another.
August 18th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Totally.
Unless you’re Actually A Tactical “Operator” (in which case it doesn’t matter since it ain’t your money anyway), or doing serious target shooting (including varminting), I don’t see any reason to pay more than $650-700 for an AR.
A dirt-cheap one will be plenty reliable and plenty accurate for normal-people uses, as far as I can tell from personal experience and observation of others.
August 18th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
My first AR I took that path. Cost me $740 for everything as I was on a budget. The second one was nearly triple at $1900. Why? The EoTech 516 and the magnifier to go with it. Optics can cost as much or more than the gun. The gun by itself was was just over $1,000 And that was WITH a cold forged Spikes upper and falizero BCG with VTOLR furniture.
August 18th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
I bought an Armalite upper during their T’giving sale a couple of years ago for $300. I got a complete lower during their Xmas sale the same year for $215 (they gave me dealer price since they were sending it to my FFL). I had a complete AR (well, I had to buy a BUIS) for $515. Still less than $600 with the sight. Great gun, too.