Best Deal on an AR Upper Assy.

[sta500rdr]

I am now in the market to complete my AR. I was going to get the lefty upper from Stag, but after reading the post on Lefty AR's and seeing that Stag does not have a lot of the bells and whistles that others do I have decided to stick with the righty. Now, Bang for the buck, what is the best option. It will be used for paper punching, yotes and all around shooting. I don't need anything super fancy, just reliable, functional and moderately priced. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[rob_s]

Best "bang for the buck" is the BCM midlength 16" upper which sells for $475, but you need a BCG ($130) handguards ($30) and charging handle ($20) to make it complete. $655 for a complete upper of that quality is the "best deal" going IMHO, but YMMV. Not sure what "moderately priced" means to you.

It's usually better to put an actual price range when asking questions like this. Especially when AR uppers can run from $400 complete for pure garbage all the way up to $2k for a top shelf SPR upper.

 

[1832]

I have two complete Uppers from Model 1 and am completely satisfied with both. One is a 7.62x39 with a 20" bbl. and the other is a 5.56 Varmint with a 24" bbl. Both were either under or slightly over the 400.00 range. I didn't order the BCG for the 7.62x39 from Model 1, but went with MGI instead.

 

[longdayjake]

I have ordered from Del-Ton as well as J&T distributing/ Double Star. The better experience by far was with J&T. They have a better product as well as a better customer service. Atleast that was my experience.

 

[tkcomer]

Poke around Model 1 Sales. For target work, get the flat top, free float tube and gas block. That way, nothing interferes with any optic you put on it. Here's a pic of one of my Model 1 uppers: http://www.pixagogo.com/0961684563 Click on a pic to make it bigger, then click on original at the top to really blow it up. It's the one with the stainless barrel.

 

[techmike]

I have ordered from Del-Ton as well as J&T distributing/ Double Star. The better experience by far was with J&T. They have a better product as well as a better customer service. Atleast that was my experience.

I have also bought from Model 1 Sales and J&T is head and shoulders above them as far as service.

 

[briansmithwins]

Use dictates what you should get.

Are you planning on optics? If so get a flattop with either a 16" or 20" depending on what range you anticipate. You lose some velocity but gain handiness with the shorter barrel.

If you plan to never use optics get a 20" with fixed carry handle. The longer sight radius comes in handy.

Either way a fixed front sight base should not be a problem. Red-dot type optics can be set up for co-witnessing and a magnified scope will find the FSB too close to focus on so you'll never see it.

I prefer light weight barrels. I haven't seen any difference in group size and they are much easier to carry and manipulate. I'd only go with a heavy barrel for a rifle that spends 90%+ of it's life living on a bipod. In that case you'll probably want to free float the barrel too.

I purchased my last upper from CMMG and my second barrel from them too. There was a wait but I've found their quality to be very good. If I had to buy another upper or barrel I'd look at them 1st.

Barrel twist rate depends on what weight of bullets you're using. My CMMG 1/7 barrels both shoot 55gr bullets into 2MOA groups with 75gr getting me about 1.25MOA.

BSW

 

[sta500rdr]

most of my applications will be for target work. This is my first AR and I am just breaking into the world of this style rifle. Any other application would be for varminting. I definitely want a flat top so that I could easily apply an optic. I do not anticipate shooting any particularly heavy bullet weights, I would say 55 gr would probably suffice for most of my work. Any suggestions on twist? What if I wanted to up my bullet weights would one twist rate be more of an issue than any other? I am just trying to get all my facts straight before making any decisions. Thanks for the help guys. I would like to stay <1000$ for the complete upper assembly, which seems to fairly easy to do.

 

[sta500rdr]

This is what I have picked out thus far. It is probably way more than I really need but hey, what the heck.

24'' AR15 Tactical Upper Half, 5.56 NATO, chrome lined chamber & bore, 1-9 twist, target crown; Threaded muzzle, $35.00 option; YHM free float 4 rail handguard, $140.00 option; Chrome bolt & carrier, Wook ambi chrg handle, $156.00 option; Versa-Pod, $55.00 option

The versa-pod and threaded muzzle option are probably not totally necessary, but hey, why not splurge a little. I also do not know a lot about charging handles so I just picked the middle of the road option. Being left handed, I thought ambi was the way to go. $831.00 isn't too horrible. Let me know what you think. Will this suit my application?

 

[gvnwst]

Well, if you get the target crown, no threaded muzzle. And vise versa. I would also "splurge" with the harris bipod, mine is the meaning of perfection. (just kidding, but it is the nicest bipod i have ever used)