Rainier Arms is who I deal with for most all AR stuff. They have good prices, and they don't sell junk; they also only deal in AR and AR derivatives for the most part. They don't carry a few items I like, but they have most of the good stuff, rather, what they do have is all good stuff. They sell Rock River, but along with White Oak and Stag, are considered quality "commercial". They consider the LMT and the Noveske the "military grade". From being able to look at them all in their showroom (it is more of a showroom than a gun shop) and compare them, I have to agree. The Noveske is certainly the best, they use hammer forged SAW blanks that are double chromed for their M4 barrels. Pretty tough.
I went with an LMT upper, 14.5", it was $485 I think. Probably close to $600 out the door with the bolt and carrier. I had them blind pin an AAC Brakeout for a suppressor mount and to bring the overall length to over 16". They did a GREAT job, almost invisible, for less than ADCO would have. This barrel shoots very well, I am quite satisfied with it. Nice tight groups, but I've only had it out once and haven't nailed down the perfect combo with it. Still, a dime size group at 50m the first time out and less than 50 rounds down the tube ain't bad. It has a 1/7 twist, I prefer that, and if you use 62gr. it will work great with those. It will work with 55's fine too, but shines with 62, 75, and 77 in my opinion. The Hornady T1 is a good reloaders bullet in 75gr.
You could get this same upper in 16" though, and not deal with welding the suppressor mount. Also, if you plan on changing sights or handguards, permanently installing the mount isn't such a great idea. But my rifle is a copy of a military M4 for the most part and has regular KAC rails, not FF.
The LMT stuff is good quality and looks just like the military issue stuff I got, maybe even better. This is compared to Colt. I'm real happy with my upper and build, it works like a charm. I used a Noveseke lower and M4 buttstock along with a Geissele 3gun trigger and JP Ent. lower parts minus trigger/hammer. I used an LMT carrier and bolt (or it could be DD --mil spec either way). JP makes GREAT parts btw, I have their "Tactical" bolt carrier in another rifle, a Grendel, and it is the bees knees. If you can swing one of those in an LMT upper, that would be very sweet. It is easily the best made carrier, period. Slick, no machine marks, tight tolerance. You didn't say if you had a trigger or not, but you can polish a DPMS for a good single stage stock trigger, a RRA 2 stage, polished, for a nice cheap 2 stage target trigger (I love mine) and of course, Geissele, who make a trigger for every application.
Either way, go check out Rainier Arms or give 'em a call. They will also help you build what you want, they can put it together right there in their shop if you go with parts instead of a complete upper.
