How to build an AR for under $1000

DASQ said:
Hard to call it a $1000 gun when you did 6-8 hours of work just machining the barrel.
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If it takes me 20 mins to brew a pot of coffee in the morning I don't think of it as a $11 cup of coffee. :) 6-8 hours was the time I spent in the shop doing this and other things. Not sure on the actual time on the lathe. Either way it was all done on Friday and Saturday night and those aren't working hours for me. Just something I did in my spare time. It helped that my wife and son were gone away for the weekend!!

I should add as well that my lathe skills are average. I have a very good mentor and have learned a lot over the last few years, but I am not a trained machinist by any means. Someone who does this for a living could have knocked it off in a few hours or less.
 
ricka2 said:
Shorty builds can be problematic, what type of buffer did you use ? did you use a F/a bolt ?

Ricka2
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Using a regular carbine buffer with an AR bolt, not FA.

My other three factory barrels had the same setup. I wanted to try this. I know the possibility of gas problems, but you never know if you don't try.
 
WOW...nice job. I am VERY new to the black rifle market...all i can say is nice. I cant wait to hear how it shoots. I am planning on buying an M4...then when i learn on that gun maybe do a build of my own.
 
Allen Gun Works said:
If it takes me 20 mins to brew a pot of coffee in the morning I don't think of it as a $11 cup of coffee. :) 6-8 hours was the time I spent in the shop doing this and other things. Not sure on the actual time on the lathe. Either way it was all done on Friday and Saturday night and those aren't working hours for me. Just something I did in my spare time. It helped that my wife and son were gone away for the weekend!!

I should add as well that my lathe skills are average. I have a very good mentor and have learned a lot over the last few years, but I am not a trained machinist by any means. Someone who does this for a living could have knocked it off in a few hours or less.
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I'm not arguing it didn't cost you <$1000, I'm just saying I couldn't do the same :p
 
I didn't quite beat the $1000 dollar mark, but I came close at $1147 (complete with taxes and shipping) for a 20" A2 style AR (although nowhere as nice as AGW's). Only thing new was the lower reciever and the LPK.

Everything else off the EE. If you are patient and somewhat flexible in your end goal, you can totally do it on the relatively cheap.

Essentially it was revenue neutral for me because I also ended up selling a bunch of gun and equipment I don't use anymore to fund it.

And I had never even held an AR before. Rookies need not be afraid.
 
well it ran over 100rds without issues no FTF or feeds just spit them out with lots of muzzle flash!!! vid up soon
 
Well, I am very happy with the way it shot. Not one single gas issue. Rapid fire, no problem.

Turns out the bolt I bought on the EE had a worn out firing pin, luckily there was another AR on the range. It was fine for Remington green and white box, but wouldn't strike the Norc. I checked the Norc ammo and the firing pins seemed to be seated a little deeper. Compared to the other firing pin mine had an obvious flat spot on the tip. Easily solved, as I have a bag of them here.

I didn't really have time to test the accuracy properly, but from a standing supported position at 25yds, with only a four round mag, it put three into a half inch and one flyer to make the overall group 1.5". I am going to get it out again and try it off the bench with optics at 100yds to really see how it shoots.

Overall I would say it shoots as good, or better, than the factory 10.25s I have owned.
 
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We plan on putting together some uppers for retail next year. I want to build a few more and make sure that I have all of the tweaking down to be sure they are going to be reliable. We got lucky with the gas system on the shorty. We are going to build a few more to the same specs and make sure it wasn't all luck!!!
 
My last build came in at around $650.00 it's an Armalite frankengun but works great. Some mods done since but even then I doubt it comes in at over $1000.00 now.
 
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