When you say "budget build" - many shooters cringe. The thought of so many cheap gun parts coexisting together can only mean disaster. Sometimes, inexpensive isn't a dirty word when building a rifle. If you have the time to spend searching for the right deal on the right part - you can make magic happen.
Opportunity knocks but once
And when opportunity comes knocking, and you're prepared for it - you can make great things happen.
Blems
For those who aren't shy about ugly parts, blem sales can bring unexpected value to your build. For example, I was in the right place - at the right time to hear about 1000 blem barrels being liquidated by Cotton Arms of Georgia. Now, Cotton Arms isn't forthcoming about who manufactures their barrels - but they do state that they're "Built by Americans, for Americans, out of American Steel" and come with a warranty. I picked up a SS 18" 1:8 .223 Wylde HBAR with spiral fluting that normally sells for $189.99 - blem price $75 (+$5 shipping). At the same time I picked up a SS 16" 1:8 .223 Wylde SOCOM which normally sells for $109.99 - blem price $60 (+$5 shipping). That's a savings of $174.98! I don't know about you - but I don't buy stainless barrels because they're pretty - I buy them for their accuracy. A machining chatter mark on the flute or a ding on the barrel doesn't bother me one bit. It's going to be covered by the hand guard anyway - why do I care if it's got a ding?
Sales
I'm buying parts at the time of year when you can get great deals - BLACK FRIDAY! I was able to take advantage of the Blitzkrieg Tactical black Friday sale on stripped uppers. Per their sales pitch, the barrel interface is machined with a tight center bore to ensure a tight fitting barrel lug. This is right up my alley! I always lap my upper receivers to ensure an aligned bore - so a tight center bore is just fine with me.....because I have a heat gun! Normally Blitzkrieg Tactical sells these uppers for $99.99 - so by shopping sales, I'm saving $55.99 (I bought two, so my savings is actually $111.98). Don't worry about keeping track of my numbers - it's all in tables at the bottom of the article.
At a local gun show, I picked up two Anderson stripped lowers for $45 each. It isn't a super-whammo-dyne billet lower milled from aluminum recovered from the Enola Gay and painted with the rarest of wild cryptek flowers grown in the Himalayas, but as I've argued before - the lower receiver is not an item that contributes to accuracy. It's just a place to put the grip, stock and trigger. If I could find cheaper than Anderson - I'd do it! I'm putting shipping at zero because I drove to Mesquite to pick them up, so in reality I spent a bit in gas - but I saved on shipping and the two transfer fees with my local FFL, so I'm calling it a zero sum...even though I didn't do the math.
At the same gun show I picked up a pair of BCG for $99.99 each, about $100 savings ($50 each)
Good Enough
Yeah, I said it... I did mention that this was a budget build, didn't I? Some parts just don't go on sale often enough to grab, and yet other times the sales are over before they even start. I saw a sale on $30 Anderson LPKs last 15 minutes. The guy sold over 100 of them. I did manage to take advantage of that sale, but in retrospect - instead of putting "1" in the quantity box, I should have typed "10". The bottom line is, these parts aren't going to impress anyone, but sometimes a part is a part. The whiz-bang charging handle does the exact same job as the $20 basic model. We're going basic here, because these are budget rifles. The accuracy part is already taken care of.
I'm not going to write up each and every part, the details are going in the tables below.
DIY
When you have Champagne dreams, but a tap-water budget... Well, you do what ya gotta do.... On another rifle, I spent nearly $200 on a 12" carbon fiber hand guard. This is great to reduce weight on your rifle and in your wallet. For the 18" barrel, I picked up a Mentium slim barrel nut for $11.99 (+$2.50 shipping) and bought a 500mm (19.685 inch) carbon fiber tube from eBay ($37.61). A bit of math to get the holes drilled and aligned, a few hours sweating drill bit placement and I saved myself almost $150.
Spend More (sometimes)
There are a few places where you don't want to go cheap. One of these areas is the LPK. The last thing you need is to have a bent trigger or hammer pin because some 3rd world yahoo forgot to run it through the hardening process. Another cheap LPK issue is the trigger. Granted, parts kit triggers aren't that great to start with - I've felt some that were like pulling a nail across sandpaper. Spend a few bucks more and get a brand you trust. I went with the Anderson Premium LPK - which is only $11 more than the cheapest no-name brand I could find. As a bonus, the Anderson Premium parts are supposedly a blackened stainless.
Now is a great time to buy
Because conservatives won the election (in a big way), the pressure is off to buy and sell guns before guns are banned. Finally, some breathing room after 8 years.... This means that all of the manufacturers who ramped up production to take advantage of panic buying are now sitting on a ton of inventory.
As promised, here is the table of prices for each of the rifles.
| Part | Cost | Shipping | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| blem SS 18" .223 Wylde 1:8 Heavy Barrel (Spiral Flute) | $75.00 | $5.00 | $109.99 |
| stripped upper | $44.00 | $0 | $55.99 |
| stripped lower | $45.00 | $0 | $55.00 |
| UPK | $19.99 | $0 | |
| gad tube | $12.99 | $0 | |
| low profile gas block | $8.97 | $0 | |
| Krinkov brake | $23.95 | $0 | |
| CF tube + barrel nut | $49.60 | $2.50 | $147.90 |
| Anderson Premium LPK | $41.25 | $0 | |
| buffer tube kit/stock | $31.99 | $0 | |
| BCG | $99.99 | $0 | $50.00 |
| charging handle | $19.99 | $0 | |
| Total | $465.72 | $7.50 | $418.88 |
| Part | Cost | Shipping | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| blem SS 16" PSA Freedom 5.56 1:8 SOCOM Profile Barrel | $60.00 | $5.00 | $49.99 |
| stripped upper | $44.00 | $0 | $55.99 |
| stripped lower | $45.00 | $0 | $55.00 |
| UPK | $19.99 | $0 | |
| gas tube | $12.99 | $0 | |
| low profile gas block | $8.97 | $0 | |
| Krinkov brake | $23.95 | $0 | |
| 16.5" handguard | $55.79 | $0 | $50.00 |
| Anderson Premium LPK | $41.25 | $0 | |
| buffer tube kit/stock | $31.99 | $0 | |
| BCG | $99.99 | $0 | $50.00 |
| charging handle | $19.99 | $0 | |
| Total | $463.91 | $5.00 | $260.98 |
I'm not going to tell you that a budget rifle is as good as a Daniel Defense or a JP, but not everyone can afford one of those high end rifles. Although you're giving up some luxuries, it's possible to build an accurate and reliable rifle on a budget. Here are two examples of the type of rifles you can build without breaking the bank. For these prices, you're going to have a hard time finding a commercial rifle that can compete.
How did they turn out? Very nice, I think. Better than the budget plastic garbage I see at the local gun stores. After a bit of trigger break-in (the 16" had some reset issues in the beginning), both rifles work great and are reasonably accurate to 25 yards by just eyeballing the sights / red-dot. I need some better optics before I can really test the accuracy.
Because I built them on Anderson lowers, I have a friend cutting some white vinyl stickers for the blank side of the magwell - My Little Pony! So if you see me and My Little Pony at an East Texas gun range, say hi and check out the builds yourself.
