Just curious, What would be the total cost to build a reliable rifle with this lower? Would you get a parts list and buy one of each part? I am not really considering building a rifle myself, Like stated just curious.
It depends on what you’re trying to do.
If you do a search, I have a thread detailing a build I’m doing. It’s basically a “budget” 3 gun build. I’m currently in the process of building a rifle for three gun competition that isn’t the cheapest AR you can build, but not insanely expensive. In other words, I’ve been trying to get the best parts for the buck to build a decent rifle.
I’d suggest you do some searching and figure out what your goal is. If you want the least expensive AR that isn’t junk, get a PSA lower when they’re on sale for $125 or so and add an upper from them. Just make sure the upper has a big and add magazines and you’re good to go.
They also have a ki5 that has everything minus the stripped lower. You could combine one of these lowers and get a good deal.
Personally, I see these lowers as a way to add a better trigger and stock and not break the bank. In my case on my current build I added an ACE Skeleton stock for about $100 and a LPK with an ALG trigger and Magpul pistol grip. When I started my build stripped lowers were a deal at $45. So I have about $225 in the lower.
The last deal I saw on the stock was about $20 less. So you have to decide do you want cheap, or what upgrades are important and are you willing to wait for deals. In my case the stock is what I’d consider a good solid middle of the road choice. Not a cheap mil spec one that is functional but is just blah, nor an insanely expensive one.
For the upper, I went with a stripped Anderson, and a kit that included the dust cover. They weren’t very expensive. The barrel and the hand guard are the big question. Barrels run from cheap to insanely expensive as do handguards. Unfortunately, they also have the biggest impact on your build. If you want cheap, I’d go with the PSA kit and be done. Otherwise it’s an exercise in picking the caliber, length, material, twist rate, etc. this is where I’m at now. I’m looking for a good value on an 18” rifle gas length barrel. And I’m looking for a good free float handguard that’s not insanely expensive. I’ll get them in January after I’m done with. Christmas expenses.
Of course there are a few other things like BCG, gas tubes, gas blocks etc. again, pick wisely and you can get goo deals on decent parts, you can get cheap or you can go nuts and spend a fortune.
As for the list do a search on Google. There are several good ones that detail each part. I think I hit them all but I’m half awake so I might have missed someth8ng.
I hope my point is clear that you can build a real cheap AR using these lowers, but a better use is to shop wisely and to upgrade the important parts while getting cheaper parts that are generic and won’t imoact the build.
So with all of this said. The reality is if you’re building a rifle yourself you’re probably going to spend $750 to $1,000 before the cost of tools. Again You could go cheaper, or more expensive but this seems to be the value range . The cool thing though is you can spread out the cost as you have spare cash.