AR - to build or not to build

XSlor

XSlor

Regular
EE Expired
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Location
Surrey
Hello fellow CGNRS

I've finally decided to start putting together an AR...

I don't have a lot of money... so basically it would come down to buying the Chinese AR from marstar at sub 6bills or slowly building an AR over the next year or so...

So here are my questions:

A) Would you build your own AR or buy the Chinese AR from marstar?

B) What's the best bang for buck lower that you know of for sale in Canada?

I would save up for gucci AR... but... I'm actually super terrible with money and tend to spend what I got on the spot...
 
XSlor said:
Hello fellow CGNRS

I've finally decided to start putting together an AR...

I don't have a lot of money... so basically it would come down to buying the Chinese AR from marstar at sub 6bills or slowly building an AR over the next year or so...

So here are my questions:

A) Would you build your own AR or buy the Chinese AR from marstar?

B) What's the best bang for buck lower that you know of for sale in Canada?

I would save up for gucci AR... but... I'm actually super terrible with money and tend to spend what I got on the spot...
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Probably more fun to build, customize it the way you want....but you could also buy a US made $600 AR from IRG right now.

Don’t mean to knock the Norc ARs, have one myself and it runs fine, but $600 is too much when US made ones can be had for the same price. Norc’s going to have to drop their prices....hell, I’d probably buy another one if they dropped to $350-400 range.
 
I'd buy an AR. It is hard to find inexpensive parts and shipping will kill any savings that you find. A complete upper will start getting you into complete Norc AR territory. You will still need a lower, a parts kit, grip, trigger (if it isn't in your lower parts kit) and butt stock, buffer tube kit.

Even if you are willing to spend a little more, a complete Daniel Defence is hard to beat in terms of value. I built my own but would not do that again if AR prices stay where they are right now.
 
Can you provide me a link to the AR you mentioned?

Also seems like SFRC is down for maintenance right now :(
 
Pr589 said:
I'd buy an AR. It is hard to find inexpensive parts and shipping will kill any savings that you find. A complete upper will start getting you into complete Norc AR territory. You will still need a lower, a parts kit, grip, trigger (if it isn't in your lower parts kit) and butt stock, buffer tube kit.

Even if you are willing to spend a little more, a complete Daniel Defence is hard to beat in terms of value. I built my own but would not do that again if AR prices stay where they are right now.
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What's the best deal on a Daniel Defense right now? And who's got it?

I don't mind buying a basic AR that I can mod over time... as long as the core is good.

I'd love to build an AR too though... honestly I don't care about the money... it's just that I blow through it when it's available...
 
I've had the same question burning through my mind lately. Local shop deals in a lot of Spikes stuff, and their premium LPK has pretty good reviews. NEA Lowers are cheap, but a fully functional DD can be had for cheap too... I was looking at a decent one somewhere recently for 1100, but then a Ruger SR556e is only a couple bills more than that, and I like that one mostly stock. Where to begin? :/
 
I can't afford 1100 right now haha... I have about 1000 budgeted towards guns this month and I'm getting a .22 pistol in that budget...

I keep looking at that Chinese AR... are the internals ok? What if I bought that an slowly upgraded it?

I remember someone made a good point that because it's not the overall prettiest on the outside, you don't really care about getting it scuffed up...
 
Buy if you want one right now. There are plenty of US versions in the same price point as the norc right.

Build if you want the satisfaction. It won't be cheaper but you'll learn a ton and enjoy the rifle more.
 
I would never own a Chinese knock-off anything. Norco = Junk (let the flames begin, I don't care...). Sometimes the poor quality control is not obvious to the naked eye. Poor castings, forgings and steel with impurities that can effect its ability to stay together when #### hits the fan. My Father taught me "You never regret buying the best, if you buy cheap you'll have something and end up with nothing! Save your money and get what you really want."

Companies spends hundreds of thousands of dollars developing technologies and patented designs to manufacture quality and ingenuity... And then comes the Chinese when the patents expire or they blatently knock them off... They make them cheaper and less durable than the original. I have little respect for people and companies with little or no human/environmental standards who flood our country with inferior crap. Sorry, my pocket book will never support such an endeavour - EVER.

If you seriously want something you'll be proud of and worth your time to build, there are American made AR's at the same price or Genuine Colt's (used) for $1000-$1200 here on our EE. Not to be insensitive but....Is it really much harder to save an extra $400-$600?
 
sPuTnik said:
I would never own a Chinese knock-off anything. Norco = Junk (let the flames begin, I don't care...). Sometimes the poor quality control is not obvious to the naked eye. Poor castings, forgings and steel with impurities that can effect its ability to stay together when #### hits the fan. My Father taught me "You never regret buying the best, if you buy cheap you'll have something and end up with nothing! Save your money and get what you really want."

Companies spends hundreds of thousands of dollars developing technologies and patented designs to manufacture quality and ingenuity... And then comes the Chinese when the patents expire or they blatently knock them off... They make them cheaper and less durable than the original. I have little respect for people and companies with little or no human/environmental standards who flood our country with inferior crap. Sorry, my pocket book will never support such an endeavour - EVER.

If you seriously want something you'll be proud of and worth your time to build, there are American made AR's at the same price or Genuine Colt's (used) for $1000-$1200 here on our EE. Not to be insensitive but....Is it really much harder to save an extra $400-$600?
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I appreciate your comment!

As I said, it's not about the money... if I had 10k I'd spend 10k... I'm just terrible at saving, so when I have a lump of cash, I spend it...

I have about 1k to spend on guns... and I had hoped to buy a 22lr pistol and an AR...

I think I'm going to build my AR though. I also want ammo and that definitely won't fit in the budget haha...

Thank you Chemist for the update.

Do you still have these lowers people are talking about?

If you could please PM me a link to the deal, I'll come back to it in a couple of hours.
 
Ive built 12 AR's in the past year. Its addicting and fun and the end result is exactly the sum of what parts you build it with. However, its NOT at all a cheap way to go. Even with deals on lowers and buying used parts off the EE the cheapest AR I built cost me over $1000 and it was definitely nothing special.
Buying a complete gun is the best value right now and the best deals are from IRG from what I can see.

With that said, I know 4 people with Norc AR's and I've owned a pile of their pistols and a bunch of T97's... everything I've owned from Norinco has performed just fine. Doesnt look the prettiest and often benefits from a good smoothing of rough edges but the base of what your getting is good. If you want to buy a gun and leave it stock, a basic Norc AR will work for you just fine. If you want to buy a gun and upgrade it, start with something else. An upgraded Norc isnt worth more than a stock Norc... so you'll never get your money back. But an upgraded american gun can have greater value than its stock counterpart.

You could also look into some of the dealers here that offer financing on guns. If you can pick up a $1000-1200 AR, pay the $600 you have now up front and finance the rest over a few months you'll end up with a gun you really like and don't need/want to upgrade. Then use the money you WOULD have spent on upgrades to pay back the loan. Just a thought.

I hate it when people ask about a gun on a budget and people comment with "save up and buy a better gun, cheap guns suck"... thats an unrealistic comment that does nothing to help the OP. Not every can or will save up. Im the same way as the OP... I can't save money to save my life. Furthermore, sometimes, a persons situation dictates they can only responsibly spend a certain amount on a gun. Instead of telling them they are SOL and there is no such thing as a good gun for that price, maybe help them find the best gun for the money they DO have to spend.
 
pavmentsurfer said:
Ive built 12 AR's in the past year. Its addicting and fun and the end result is exactly the sum of what parts you build it with. However, its NOT at all a cheap way to go. Even with deals on lowers and buying used parts off the EE the cheapest AR I built cost me over $1000 and it was definitely nothing special.
Buying a complete gun is the best value right now and the best deals are from IRG from what I can see.

With that said, I know 4 people with Norc AR's and I've owned a pile of their pistols and a bunch of T97's... everything I've owned from Norinco has performed just fine. Doesnt look the prettiest and often benefits from a good smoothing of rough edges but the base of what your getting is good. If you want to buy a gun and leave it stock, a basic Norc AR will work for you just fine. If you want to buy a gun and upgrade it, start with something else. An upgraded Norc isnt worth more than a stock Norc... so you'll never get your money back. But an upgraded american gun can have greater value than its stock counterpart.

You could also look into some of the dealers here that offer financing on guns. If you can pick up a $1000-1200 AR, pay the $600 you have now up front and finance the rest over a few months you'll end up with a gun you really like and don't need/want to upgrade. Then use the money you WOULD have spent on upgrades to pay back the loan. Just a thought.

I hate it when people ask about a gun on a budget and people comment with "save up and buy a better gun, cheap guns suck"... thats an unrealistic comment that does nothing to help the OP. Not every can or will save up. Im the same way as the OP... I can't save money to save my life. Furthermore, sometimes, a persons situation dictates they can only responsibly spend a certain amount on a gun. Instead of telling them they are SOL and there is no such thing as a good gun for that price, maybe help them find the best gun for the money they DO have to spend.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your input!

I did see wolverine supplies has financing... if I was to go down that path though, I'd probably go for the XCR... mainly because it's non-res...

I'll look into their financing..

so not muddy the waters too much... what's peoples opinions on XCR vs AR?

I mean in the same price range you'd get a pretty sweet AR... I would assume most people would vote on the AR?
 
Went through the exact same dilemma that you are looking at. Was going to build, have a bunch of experience with mechanical assembly, so wasn't worried about that aspect.
Priced out different options and as above I was looking at 1k for something that may or may not work perfectly. Others at the range had a few assembled ar15 and had various levels of success with this endeavor. Saw the Wolverine deal with Daniel Defense, missed out but they sorted me a great deal with the DDM4 LW, it arrived and put up against the 1K builds I have seen it is leaps and bounds above what I would have been able to put together for the price. Will I ever build an AR, yes but after I have collected some spare parts ie I will be replacing the Magpul furniture that came on the older versions of the DDM4 with either the current Daniel furniture, or something a little less utilitarian.
 
The XCR is a great gun for an NR, AR style rifle. But it aint no AR. Its heavy... which is its biggest drawback for me (I've owned more than one). It shoots great, very accurate and I like the ergonomics but the weight was something I couldn't get over. Picking up a similarly equipped AR feels like it weights nothing.
My XCR's were all reliable and shot anything I fed them but they suffered from intermittent bolt lock back issues with all mags and the bolt lock tab got really worn really fast. Made me worry it wouldn't last long. My AR's have never had bolt lock problems and the bolt lock itself lasts forever.

If your not uptight about NR... get an AR. If NR is an issue... there are LOTS of choices.
 
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