AR15 home-built accuracy/quality questions

[Soybomb]

What would you consider to be quality; are we talkin about putting a good barrel on it, or a good brand upper reciever, or a good trigger...? I agree that quality comes at a price, but why would I buy a dpms stripped lower for $115 from del-ton.com (3-4 week wait due to back orders) when I can get the same reciever from colemantyler.com for $103 ($97 each if you buy 5 or more, I bought six)? There is no reason to find the absolutely lowest price and go with it, but whats wrong with finding the lowest price for what I want?

I keep hearing "buy quality," but I have yet to hear what quality they are refrencing. Asking who the best manufacturer is would get a flood of opinion, but that doesn't leave out discussion on who makes the best lower parts kit or what barrel is superior.

It seems like everyone thinks a good ar costs $1000, and that buying something cheaper than that guarantees that your rifle will malfunction and be inaccurate. The purpose of this thread is to figure out what parts/manufacturers/kits are quality and which are not; I haven't seen a post that points me in the right direction yet, only that it should be expensive.

You'll find a pretty wide variety of opinions on that as well and I think the idea of quality is somewhat subjective too. If you're building a defensive rifle quality might mean making sure you get a top notch bcg and a decent feeling trigger that will be reliable. If you're building a rifle for accuracy you might not care that the bcg isn't as thoroughly tested and might want a better barrel than the defensive rifle's, quality on it might mean the best trigger pull possible at the expense of reliability.

I don't think you can buy a bad parts kit from any of the big names if that helps.

 

[Tarvis]

Very informative Soybomb, thanks; that's what I was looking for. I think I'm going to build the all-arounder; good upper with a good barrel. In other words, I don't plan on making a serious investment and I'm not going to go cheap on anything either.

Suggestions for a good BCG or what to look for as opposed to what is not good? I haven't really looked into the differences or the options.

Suggestions on barrels would be great as well, geared more towards what the barrel is made of and what profile.

 

[Soybomb]

There's a nice chart floating around showing what some guns have and what some dont. If I were you I'd look at some LMT uppers. LMT and colt are the only two bcg's I'll consider because as far as I know they're the only 2 manufacturers that fire a proof load and then mpi every bolt they make. Others claim large statistical samples but the market is pretty tightly price controlled so if I'm paying $130 I might as well get the most bang for my buck. Don't forget to look at twist rate of you barrels. The top defensive ammo is heavier and won't shoot well out of 1/9 twists for many people making 1/7 a better choice.

My last gun was built as a defensive gun and a fun plinker. I don't get to shoot past 100 yards or compete in bullseye competitions or anything like that. I didn't see any reason to spend big bucks for a super accurate barrel for that. I went with a 16" chrome lined, 1/7 twist, light weight profile barrel. I hate holding a shooting heavy rifes. It has a mid length gas system to hopefully be a bit more gentle on the parts, a lmt bcg because of its quality, and is all stuffed into a cmt upper receiver because I didn't see the need to spend big money on billet since it wasn't a target gun. Ymmv, you can do a lot of reading and think about a lot of options

 

[Grunt]

I have seen a lot of junk put together cobbled together from the cheapest parts available put together by people that were at what I'd consider questionable compitence. A lot of these rifles tend to have problems. However, if you stick with the decent parts and are compitent in what you are going, a home-built rifle can be every bit as good as the high-end factory rifles at a fraction of the cost. It's not going to be as cheap as a rifle you built from "gun show special" parts but it's going to work better in the long run and still be cheaper than the factory that has to deal with customer service, labor, equipment, infastructure, etc.

 

[Tarvis]

I was planning on buying a kit, but now I think I may do the LMT bcg and a barreled upper. +1 on the 1-7, I haven't heard if it would give you any problems with lighter bullets and opens the door to 69+ grain bullets. I think there are times for chrome lined and times for non-chrome lined, and I haven't decided what kind of rifle I'm gonna put together first, but I will most likely own atleast one of each at some point.

 

[Coronach]

Building an AR is not that hard, EXCEPT the barrel/upper interface. Everything else is just "go slow, RTFM, if it won't go don't force it, check it twice before you think you're done" type stuff. I've had plenty of detents and springs go flying, but it's pretty easy to figure out what you did wrong, and as long as you can find the little bit that went soaring across your garage, you didn't harm anything. It pays to take your homebrew rifle on a shakedown cruise before you put it in the rack for anti-zombie duty, but that's probably true of a factory built gun, too. You just need to be careful and check everything, multiple times.

Putting the front end on the upper, though? That's where a guy who knows what he's doing, has the proper tools, and likes to drink your brand of beer comes in handy, at least the first time. If nothing else, you can get a complete upper and assemble your own lower. There's NOTHING in the lower to fear.

Mike

 

[DougW]

I suppose that I might be in the minority when it comes to building. I am about to build #10 with my son in a few weeks. I have changed barrels on uppers probably 6 or 8 times. I haven't broken anything, and all the rifles function 100% and are all accurate. I will also say that I don't have a rifle that has less than $1000 invested in it, especially since I have enough spare parts to assemble a complete upper, and only need a lower parts kit and a lower (on order). Thus, #11 will be here by May. It is just me, since I am very interested in the inner workings of all my weapons that I love to be hands on with my weapons. I haven't seen anything personally in a complete factory rifle that I cannot do or add myself.

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

I've built 4 so far---both uppers and lowers---all are reliable and accurate.

The receivers themselves(upper and lower) are just shells and most anything will work---I pretty much use DPMS for those----I use Bushmaster barrels as they are already headspaced and chrome lined---most all other internal guts are from Rock River or Bushmaster.

I have all the tools--use the proper grease(looked all over--finally found a tube of Exxon brand at Autozone)--properly torque the barrel and buffer tube--have a military armor's manual and the Bushmaster video and used AR15.com directions---take your time and do it right the first time.

I'll put my home builds against any factory offering.

 

[johnson_n]

To those that have "built" your own (piecing together everything), how many classes has it been through? How many rounds? Has it been thrown around or is it just a target gun?

 

[Tarvis]

I'm willing to bet that they are just as tough and durable as a factory AR, as the parts are generally the same. Some of the internals may be better on the high end factory guns, but other than that I'm sure they're different yet the same.

 

[DougW]

johnson n, one of my builds has been used in 7 3-gun matches and a rifle/pistol class. Approx 1500 rounds with no failures. My rifles are for training, target, and fun use, and I don't haphazardly "throw" my weapons around. The older rifles have signs of use, and are not safe queens. They all run.

 

[sacp81170a]

To those that have "built" your own (piecing together everything), how many classes has it been through? How many rounds? Has it been thrown around or is it just a target gun?

My M4gery build, a DPMS lower and upper with all DPMS parts except for the quad handguard rails and the stock went through a 5-day Patrol Rifle course and about 2000 rounds with nary a hiccup. Never cleaned it, either. It was March, weather was cold and rainy with snow flurries throughout. Occasional squirt of Rem Oil was all it needed when it got dry. It was messy to clean afterwards, but not much more than usual. I'd say it got a good wringing out, and I fired Expert on the standard Army 25 meter paper target (39 out of 40). Not too shabby with iron sights.

 

[taliv]

To those that have "built" your own (piecing together everything), how many classes has it been through? How many rounds? Has it been thrown around or is it just a target gun?

mine's been through several matches and a couple of carbine classes and hasn't had any failures that weren't ammo-related (or intentionally setup in the class to practice clearing malfunctions. i also just keep squirting LSA in it, in lieu of cleaning, and have just shy of 6k rnds through the current upper and about 13k through the lower.

however, i hasten to add that a) i spent almost twice as much in parts as a new colt would have cost me, and b) one or two positive examples isn't statistically significant and you should probably make any decisions in light of the overwhelming negative examples

i can't remember the last time i shot it off a bench. it wasn't this year

 

[Tarvis]

IMHO, if you aren't very apt at fixing broken guns or trouble shooting problems and aren't in to the "self built" or the "sweat equity" rifle and have the cash, it may be a good idea to buy a rifle thats already put together and possibly with a warranty.

 

[Gary G23]

"Essex thinks that when doing a build, think twice about going with lowest bidder. Quality only hurts once. Essex"

I have to agree with this. There is a big difference in the quality and price of parts. Of course you can build one cheap if you use cheap parts.

My last iron sight build cost over $1000 in parts. But it has never malfunctioned with thousands of rounds through it. And it was pushed very hard at the Steel City Tactical Rifle Championship last weekend.

 

[Tarvis]

There is a big difference in the quality and price of parts. Of course you can build one cheap if you use cheap parts.

So, if I find a DPMS lower for $115 on website A and a DPMS lower on website B for $100 I should go with the one for $115? I agree that you get what you pay for, but if a standard parts kit is $10 less at a different vendor and they're both USGI, why spend more? I am planning on getting a LMT bcg, possibly a LMT upper and a good match grade barrel, both of which cost more; but at the same time the rifle will still function well with standard parts, and I'm willing to bet (by bet I mean I'm guessing ) that with mediocre factory ammo it will still shoot less than 2moa; and I'd bet it would shoot less than 1moa with good handloads tuned to the rifle and a trigger upgrade. The whole point of the thread was to figgure out if a standard ar15 kit would be accurate, and if not what I need to look for in upgrades.

You can spend 1k on an upper and be satisfied that it was expensive and is of high quality, but I want to know what part or what about the parts make it high quality, as opposed to the "spend more" theory.