AR build or buy. Pro’s or con’s

[Swang]

I am in the market for a higher end AR. Thinking LWRC, Daniel Defense, Barrett. My question is, are these rifles at their price points going to be any better then a homemade such as generic lower, BCM upper, BCG and Gisele trigger and some magpul furniture? The body after all is the same 7075 aluminum. Are there any benefits other then name recognition/cosmetics?  Will it actually last longer or more reliable?

[gregintenn]

Build=get what you want.

Buy=better resale value.

[DaveTN]

“Higher End” means we are not discussing $500; $1000 factory builds. Because those you name are not in that price range.

Name recognition (for the higher end Mfg’s) is because they work. Parts are matched, sometimes hand fitted if necessary, and usually tested.

If you are building a rifle that you will keep; I would say build your own and go for what you want. Problem is, if you try to sell it. It’s a garage build, and no one is going to want to pay much for it.

You will also have to buy gun building tools.

In my own opinion based on the many AR’s I have seen and owned; you can buy a factory build that will be just as accurate and reliable as the high dollar designer guns.

Guns are like computers. It used to be that you could build your own better, and for less money. Those days are gone. You can build, more specifically to what you want, but you can’t save any money doing it. It’s hard to beat the quality of the big boys in the mid to high end PC’s.

That’s just my opinion.

[Erich]

Depends on what you reason for wanting a "higher end" gun is, and how good a shooter you are. If you have the time and tools already.

Sounds like you already appreciate that the most important thing is the barrel, interface to the upper receiver, BCG. Triggers help, but secondary to those.

Greg hit the mark on the economics.

Current generics have closed the gap over what was the wild west of parts 6 to 10 years ago. Popular opinion and experience seems to point to there be little difference for a good shooter who knows his build craft and gas system function. The biggest difference seems to be feature sets (ambi this and that) and rail to upper interfaces. There are some that have minor tweaks that are designed to mitigate recoil impulse. If that is worth another 1000 to 1500, is subjective.

[Swang]

All valid points, thanks for helping me decide.

[Pickaroon]

The only reason I’ve pieced ARs together is because I’m a poor. Otherwise I would buy something like a Barrett.

[Handsome Rob]

I'm no where close to being any color of authority on the platform, but I've built a couple of really low budget ARs (sub $400) & I've spent a pretty solid amount of range time behind some much higher end guns ($1000+) trying to figure out if it was worth it, to me, to invest the difference & buy a Barrett that I'd fallen in love with.

Needless to say, I'm still shooting my $400 gun. Out to sensible .223/5.56 ranges (600yds) I could see absolutely no accuracy or reliability difference that made me want to spend the extra.

The cynic in me is saying that, come October, I'm pretty sure my $400 gun is going to be worth a bit more, where a $1000 gun is still going to be a $1000 gun

 

[Danger Rane]

I have yet to have an AR that I did not change/upgrade things on, even some that I have purpose built myself after lots of deliberation on each part. Thant’s just the evolving nature of it with there being so many options for one to easily customize for their individual needs/wants. That being said, you will never come close to selling a frankengun (even one of all high end components) for what you put into it. So the only ones I build from scratch are the ones I know I’m going to keep. As to them lasting longer and working better, I would say that the majority of AR owners won’t ever come close to the service life of their gun or having enough trigger time on it to notice the benefits that some of the higher end components provide. For a shooter that has let’s say a $2k-3k budget, instead of blowing their whole load on the high end/name recognition gun and having it sit in a safe most of its life, they could increase their lethality by getting a $1000 gun, a quality optic, a case of decent ammo, and attending some training or getting into local competitions.