Choosing an AR upper, or custom build?

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Macs675

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So having gone down the XCR-L and Tavor road and not really enjoying either I have finally committed to an AR. Tried out a Norc 10.5 and really really liked it, so here's where I'm at:

Aero Lower, Bushmaster LPK, ambi mag release and low-pro safety, commercial tube and heavy buffer.

I was considering buying either a complete DPMS panther or LE6920 just to sell off the lower or keep as a spare and use the upper off one, but I was also considering a full upper build.

The problem is the M4 forums are full of elitists and brand snobs, and these forums have a tendency to go off topic, lol.

So what sort of parts should I be sourcing for a MOA upper? Price point all in for the upper is $1100 or less so I can get a good optic
 
The most important ingredient is the barrel. The brand of the upper doesn't really matter much as long as it's in spec so the rest of the parts fit properly.
My last build I used an NEA upper and BCG I got off the EE with my $400 custom 11 inch 300BLK barrel and I'm shooting about .85 moa groups with that one.
As long as you don't get too carried away with brand names you can easily build a sub moa upper for under $1000. The finish is usually a little nicer on the higher priced stuff but if all you want is something accurate and reliable it's no problem to go with the other brands.

This upper was under $1000 with a barrel cut from a McGowen blank and a Troy forend
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I was looking at an ATRS barrel, but don't know if they're worth all the hype. Their prices are also way out of touch with the current market for other components so I'm not sure where to go for a barrel.

I love my Aero lower so I was thinking an Aero barrel. If I can do sub-moa for my price range what barrels are best? It's for a 3gun setup so I was thinking 16"+ right?
 
I have an Aero Precision upper and barrel...I'm hoping to put it together realsoonnow... They are nicely finished and appear to be very good quality.

One thing I feel sure of is that you won't save much money assembling just an upper. Unless you want some specific brands of components, I think you might be better off buying a whole gun and reselling the lower [unless you want to keep it after all, of course].
 
Macs675 said:
I was looking at an ATRS barrel, but don't know if they're worth all the hype. Their prices are also way out of touch with the current market for other components so I'm not sure where to go for a barrel.

I love my Aero lower so I was thinking an Aero barrel. If I can do sub-moa for my price range what barrels are best? It's for a 3gun setup so I was thinking 16"+ right?
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Whatever length you are most comfortable with. My 6.5 inch barrel was able to make about 2 MOA at 100 yards so it's really up to you. Also depends on how serious you want to get. Seems like most of the guys you see on the video's are running 16-18 inch barrels but I'm sure for a guy just having some fun a 12-14.5 will do just fine.
You don't save a lot of money building one but it can be done fairly cheap if you buy your parts from the EE and wait for good deals.
 
It is ALL about the barrel. I built a rifle with a friend that used an ATRS barrel and matched bolt. Was it worth it? Maybe, maybe not. It was very accurate and we were consistently hitting Fig 11's at 1000 yards. It is an MOA ish rifle with hand loads. For $1100 you could build a pretty nice upper, you won't save much building it your self, but if you know what you want you won't end up replacing things like the forend or muzzle device right away either.
The manufacturer of the upper receiver, fore-end, bolt, muzzle device, etc matter very little in my opinion.
For 3 gun you should definitely look at nothing shorter then 16". First if you want to go the US to compete you need to make a minimum length, second if you can get a mid or rifle length gas system (which you can with 16"+ barrels) you'll find it is a "softer" shooting platform.

If you can get a match grade barrel, or a high end barrel with a matched bolt, that's where I'd spend my money.
For example ARMTAC has Noveske 16" recon barrels for $615 and 18" SPR $465. Suddenly those ATRS barrels might not look so pricey at $550.
cou:I expect to catch some flack on this ... but you could always go the NEA route, I did on my SPR build last year. NEA 18" barrel for $230ish from SFRC. It shoots under 1.5 MOA all day back to 500 yards, with hand loaded 75gr pills I can get it down to 1 MOA if I'm very, very patient. When I was looking around at the end of last year there was virtually no stock on barrels in Canada, and I didn't want to go through the effort of importing the barrel I really wanted (White Oak Armament SPR bbl).
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I'm not looking to save money building my own, if anything it's cheaper to buy a pre-assembled AR and swap out what I don't want. I'm just a firm believer in doing it right the first time.
 
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