Low cost AR-15

[Cmdr of Flying Saucer X-2]

Palmetto State Armory has a sale on a AR15 kit. It includes all parts with a completed upper for $300 and free shipping. All you'd need to get beyond that is a stripped lower.Those can be found for $40. $340 plus FFL transfer fee and shipping for the lower, pretty good deal. Less than $400 for an AR.

The only thing the Palmetto Freedom line doesn't have that may be considered a negative is a free float hand guard. Less than $400 for a decent AR, I could live without the free float is I was watching my pennies and add the free float down the road.

I would think this sale will go out of stock rather quickly.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-16-midlength-5-56-nato-1-7-socom-melonite-freedom-rifle-kit.html

SKU: 507279
UPC: 507279
MFR#: 507279
16" Barrel length
Chrome Moly barrel steel
5.56 Nato Chamber
A2-style profile barrel
Melonite Finish
1 in 7" twist rate
M4 Feed ramps
F-Marked Front sight post
A2 Flash Hider
Sling Loop
Standard Hand Guards
Forged Upper Receiver
T-marks
M16 Bolt Carrier Group
Carpenter 158 Bolt
Charging Handle
PSA Freedom Lower Build Kit

[Mutant Texan]

The path that you are taking will no doubt give you a good carbine for the money.  I like how you are going for the barrel with the nitride finish instead of the chrome lining.  Just make sure they use the QPQ method.  You have me seriously thinking about getting this kit from PSA.  You also need to buy a Mbus Pro rear sight which is around $120.  The UTG MNT955 rear sight rear sight looks pretty good for the money and it costs $30.  I have not tried that one so I am not sure if it is good.  I would risk it for $30.

After your build is complete, make sure you run at least a thousand rounds through it to eliminate any early infant failures and establish confidence that it will not malfunction.  I also recommend that you put a "pistol" buffer tube and arm brace on the lower FIRST because that makes it a pistol in the eyes of the ATF.  You can legally change it over to a rifle later by installing a carbine buffer tube.  You CANNOT easily convert a carbine/rifle into a pistol due to the legal mine field with the ATF that this presents.

If you can go cheap on the lower, I say go for it!  Put a cheap 2 stage trigger in it.  I would however get the highest quality upper that you can possibly afford.  The reason for getting the high quality upper is for the barrel quality.  You could build a Frankenstein gun that will outshoot even the cheapest store bought ARs.  Throw an A2 style stock on the lower and combine it with a high quality upper for an interesting look!

The best uppers for the money IMHO are the CMMG complete uppers.  If you look around you can find them cheap online.  I even see them reasonably priced online at the Cabelas website when they have a sale.  It would also not hurt to buy their lower parts kit.  It comes with most of the stuff that you will need to complete the build.  You could then toss an ATI or Anderson buffer tube, spring, and stock on it for very little $ (I have installed both with no issues).

The CMMG products have high quality barrels in them that will likely never wear out in your lifetime. 

I am including a picture of my Frankenstein AR.  I put a CMMG 300 AAC upper on it.  I think the upper cost me around $400 on a holiday special last year.  The lower cost me $100 at Camp Perry in 2017 at the matches because it was a blemished lower (bought 4 of them).  Never over look the blemished lowers!  They are every bit as good as the non-blemished ones and as a bonus one of my lowers has 1776 in the serial number.    The furniture is Magpul that I bought on sale with Midway.  The parts kit was around $40.

$$$$$ Total estimated cost of my AR minus the sights and trigger:  $600

I have more money tied up in the EO Tech sights, Mbus Pro sights, and the Fostech binary trigger (total of about $1,400 for just these 3 items).

This carbine is proof that Frankenstein guns are every bit as capable as an expensive name brand firearm.  One of my buddies suggested that I hang stem pressure gauges off to the side or make it look like something you would see in a Fallout video game.

My next frankenstein gun will be to turn a Calico M955 into something that looks like it belongs in the hands of an Imperial Stormtrooper.

[TaosGlock]

PSA has "Daily Deals". I just put together a PA10 18" SS 308 together for a $550. Prices have gone up a bit after the last "election".  With the new Emperor in office, his minions have gone back to sleep thinking Liberty is safe. Thus, prices are still rock bottom. Use this time wisely.

[Mutant Texan]

PSA has "Daily Deals". I just put together a PA10 18" SS 308 together for a $550. Prices have gone up a bit after the last "election".  With the new Emperor in office, his minions have gone back to sleep thinking Liberty is safe. Thus, prices are still rock bottom. Use this time wisely.

Agreed.  I just bought an AR-10 complete lower from PSA.  I will finally build that 375 Raptor & 45 Raptor setup that I have been planning to acquire for a while.

Things are not as peachy as you think with the current occupant in the White House.  The bump stock ban that he is pushing will cause a lot of grief.  I personally don't like bump socks because it is a waste of ammo and awkward to control.  Before I hear the crap about "who needs a bump stock?", I want to remind ya'll that if currently legal items can be made illegal and you are requrired to surrender them, where will it stop?  This redefinition of a machine gun in the regulations should not stand up in court based on Ex Post Facto being explicitly banned by Article 1, Section 10 of the US Constitution.

[scuzzy]

My youngest son wanted to get more involved in shooting. I figured I'd build a rifle to loan him at shoots. So I did the build in two stages - kinda like a layaway plan.

1. Bought a complete lower - it was about 160 for an A2 style. We both like the A2 style. The standard M4 style lowers are about 30 bucks cheaper. I saw one listed 2 days ago (m4 style) for 99 bucks.

2. Two months later I bought a complete upper, blemished (I couldn't see anything wrong), for about 270. It had a free float hand guard & magpul BUIS to boot.

Right now you can get a complete upper, free float, BUIS, for 319. They've got non free float for 219:

https://palmettostatearmory.com/ar-15/barreled-upper-assemblies.html

My kid is happy with it. Good rifle.

[Mike AKA Bandaid]

I have a Palmetto State upper on my Rifle. I shot Rifleman with it on the first AQT of my known distance class this summer. Great setup, didn't break the bank, and very accurate!

[Cmdr of Flying Saucer X-2]

The path that you are taking will no doubt give you a good carbine for the money.  I like how you are going for the barrel with the nitride finish instead of the chrome lining.

You wrote some good advice/thoughts in your post MT, thank you. I am not in the market for an AR. I just posted this since it is a great deal; just like some post ammo deals in the ammo forum. If I were to be in the market I'd go a similar but different route.

$340 plus what $25 for FFL transfer and $10(?) shipping for the lower. A good AR for $375ish. There are built ARs for less than $400 out there however I don't believe they are the quality of the PSA.

The icing on the cake is it's relatively easy to build an AR and with that, you know more about your system than someone just pulling a built rifle out the box.

[Charles McKinley]

I tested this upper and a PSA pistol upper for a friend of mine and they both shot very well.

I agree with the statement above that now is the time to buy there is some very ugly legislation being proposed H. R. 7115 3D Firearms Prohibition Act proposes to ban parts kits.  It has an extreamly vague definition of "parts kit" that can be applied to almost anything including magazines and triggers.

[Cmdr of Flying Saucer X-2]

Wow, they just popped another sale up. $260 free s/h. Add the lower and you're at $335-ish for a complete AR.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-16-5-56-nato-1-7-m4-nitride-classic-gray-freedom-rifle-kit-5165450284.html

SKU: 5165450284
UPC: 5165450284
MFR#: 5165450284
16" Barrel length
M4 Profile Barrel
Chrome Moly barrel
5.56 Nato Chamber
1 in 7" twist rate
F-Marked Front sight post
A2 Flash Hider
Sling Loop
Standard Gray Hand Guards w/ heat shields
Forged upper receiver
Bolt Carrier Group
Charging Handle
PSA Gray Freedom Lower build kit

[Mutant Texan]

My new PA10 Gen 2 lower yesterday at a local gun store and I was able to pick it up after work.  I am actually surprised by how much it is different compared to other DPMS style rifles that I have looked at.  It is just a tad bit bigger than a standard AR-15 receiver.  The width is about the same as the AR-15 and the height from the base of the pistol grip to the top is slightly taller.  The weight difference between it and the AR-15 receiver is also very small.  The only big difference is the size of the magazine well.

My upper is still in the mail so I have no fired it yet.  I did buy a 20 round Magpul magazine for it and it fells snug/secure.  I should be able to test it this weekend.

I am overall very happy with what I have seen so far.  This lower came with a Magpul ACS-L stock.  The stock alone would run about $80 according to the MSRP of Magpul.  This complete lower only cost me $209!  Not bad for a first Winchester .308 AR-10 style rifle.

I plan to start out using some ZQI 7.62x51 ammo that I bought at Walmart a long time ago (for some reason I can't find it anymore) and then test some reloads that I made out of previously fired ZQI 7.62x51 brass, Hornady 168 grain Amax &150 grain SST bullets, and Benchmark powder.  These reloads were awesome and a pleasure to shoot in my bolt action .308.

[Charles McKinley]

I got a 220 out of the upper from this kit last weekend at Beaver Falls.

[Mutant Texan]

I took my new PSA PA10 to the range today and shot it for the first time.  It is a beast!  It kicks a lot harder than my .30-06 eating M1 Garand and the bruises prove it!  I put a Magpul Mbus Pro rear sight on the upper and used the front sight post contained in the gas block tower.  The front sight is not the NM width that I normally use and the sight radius is well below the 27" sight radius that I prefer.  I have replaced free floated handguards with longer ones just for the sight radius in my AR-15 uppers.  This AR-10 upper will be getting glass in the near future.

I started off by firing my "fun" loads that use 16 grains of Trail boss powder and a M1 carbine bullet to get a rough zero.  I made these loads for my 11 year old nephew to fire in my brother's bolt action .308 to make shooting at the range an enjoyable thing for the kid.  The ammo would not cycle the gun and that is exactly what I was expecting.  I used this ammo to both get a rough zero and get an idea on how hard it would be to extract a spend case manually.  The gun was easy to operate and gave me no problems manually extracting the cases.

I next moved up to the ZQI 7.62x51 that I bought in mass at Walmart many years ago.  On a side note, this ammo was an awesome deal while it lasted.  It was about $0.50 a round and the brass is reloadable.  The ZQI stuff performed pretty well but kicks a hell of a lot more than my 7.62x51 reloads that use 168 grain bullets and Benchmark powder.

I finished the day by shooting my reloads.  I used once fired ZQI brass filled with 42 grains of Benchmark powder and 168 grain Hornady Zombie Max bullets (AMAX with yellow/green tips) in these loads.  These loads were definitely easier on my shoulder but they did cause a few malfunctions that were easily cleared.  I am not going to pin this on the gun just yet because the gun cycled perfectly on the factory ammo.  These reloads however gave me the best groups.

I will voice my only reasonable complaint.  I do not like the A2 style flash hider on the end.  I would much rather have had a muzzle brake. 

Overall I am very happy with what $508 bought me.  The barrel appears to be precise, has a nitride finish, and the length is close to the sweet spot for a full power cartridge.  My next course of action will be to build a "proper" upper that has a 15" free floating hand guard.  I am also planning on building either a 375 Raptor upper and a 6.5 Creedmoor upper.  The 6.5 Creedmoor appears to be a superb cartridge for KD shooting.