Building an AR-15 on a budget, part1

If you have read much of my blog you have no doubt discovered that I do not have tons of cash laying around to put into guns.  In fact, I have often stated that I just do not have the funds to have an AR type rifle.  Well, that is slowly changing.  With Christmas money and the sale of my Mosin, I am building one of the dreaded black rifles.  As is the case with most things I do, it will be on the cheap.



What I have started with is an Anderson made lower receiver that was "in the white".  In other words, it has not been coated.  ($45)  What you see in the picture is 4 coats of duplicolor acid etch primer from a spray can.  The acid etch helps it bite into the aluminum and the olive drab looks pretty neat to me, so I will just leave it as is.  I have no idea how durable this will be, but I do not have the cash to send it out for coating.  Besides, it's aluminum, so I'm not too concerned about it rusting away.  As you can see, I masked the threads where the buffer tube screws in.  I also masked the threads for the grip and ran drill bits through the pin holes.

My Brother gave me a trigger, so I will not have to buy that, but I do need a lower parts kit minus trigger and the buffer, tube, spring, and stock.  That will complete the lower.

For the upper, I decided to just buy a complete upper from Palmetto State.  ($177.00)  They are notorious for slow shipping, but also for having great prices.  I ordered a slick side upper (no forward assist, dust cover, or shell deflector)  But those are not important to me anyway.  It has a 16 inch, 1 in 7" twist barrel.  It also has the A2 style front sight mount and a flat top rail at the rear.  It's a slight bit out of the ordinary, but that is fine with me.  The 1 in 7 twist is great for heavy bullets, should I ever want to shoot them, but still works fine with lighter ones too.  I plan to put a carry handle sight on the flat top since they are plentiful and cheap.  I also like the traditional look of the carry handle.  I'm not much of a scope shooter these days, but the flat top can easily adapt to that if I change my mind.

I was wanting to do an A2 style fixed stock, but the carbine upper may lead me to just go with a carbine buffer tube and collapsible stock.  The upper does not come with a bolt group or charging handle.  For the BCG I went with an M16 "Full auto" BCG from Daytona tactical.  The extra mass of the bolt should help with cycling.  That's the theory anyway.  The charging handle is

I set out on this build purposely trying to avoid all the "tacticool" junk.  I just can't stand people who dress up an AR with a bunch of crap that has no practical reason to be there just so they can brag it up to anyone they meet.  NO quad rails full of stupid shit here.  Just the rifle.

Now, I know there is a difference between cheap parts and expensive ones.  Sometimes the difference is a nicer finish or more features.  Sometimes there really are differences in quality.  My focus is to get the rifle built.  That may mean going with some parts that are less than ideal, but will be serviceable.  The great thing about an AR is that I can always upgrade later.