Ehhh…bought my AR at my local pawnshop for 373+tax=400 bucks. Used but never shot. He had 4 from the same guy. I upgraded it cheaply. Spent many years fixing & working on antique furniture. I’m tired. And don’t care about the opinions of gun snobs…if SHTF no one will quiz me ” didja build that gat ya shot me with”?!? Peace out.
My PSA rifle and cheapo Sig red dot work just fine.
PSA should sue for libel.
My PSA AR-15 pistol with cheap SIG red dot also works fine. My PSA rifle with a budget Primary Arms 1-8 ACSS works great. Yes, I have taken it on a multi day carbine course and it ran more reliably and shot just as accurately as more experience rifles. More importantly, I’ve run it quite a bit, and have shot accurately to 500 yards with it. It serves the purpose of an AR.
@Dude,
Yeah, exactly. My go-to AR is a PSA build with Sig Romeo 5 red dot. Tack driver. Never had any issue with it and it goes bang every time I pull the trigger.
Sorry, Jeremy, but you got this one wrong this time, and showed your bias against builders. Almost half my collection of ARs and pistols are home builds, and I’ll tell you right now I wouldn’t have it any other way. I now know more about Glocks and ARs than 99% of all other owners out there, and it was because I learned during my builds.
I mean, really, Jeremy?
is that the same woman?? don’t do drugs kids!!
Wait you’re actually under the impression that I make or endorse all of these memes?!?!???!? Surely you’re being sarcastic.
Or just not the ones cooked in a trailer. A natural psychedelic experience can be good to open your mind to unimaginable thoughts and ideas. So I’ve heard.
Drugs are bad. Okay. Don’t do drugs because you’ll be bad.
Potential antifa/SS candidates in their hiring interviews.
The bottom one with some pink or green hair looks like a pantifa rockstar. The island of lost democrats.
Yikes…
Yeah, a re-hash of “Faces of Meth”, it looks like…
I saw a guy the other day that I believe had some sort of birth defect. His face looked similar to meth head up but with a more extreme chin. Stuck out like a curb feeler and he had just a small round hole where his mouth should be. In other respects he looked healthy. Him I felt sorry for.
Dude in the picture? That looks self inflicted. Ugly as a mud fence in the rain.
How dare you assume its gender.
Dude?
I honestly thought the 2 pictures on top were of a woman and the two on bottom of a guy.
Jeebus, Marty and Jobus.
The last picture looks like Gollum from Lord Of The Rings.
A definite PSA on meth addiction.
VERY SCARY!!!
The second picture is the girl who will do things to you that the girl in the first picture would slap you for saying. I like the second girl best.
😆
Well my reaction to this meme is balderdash!!! I do not own a single firearm that I paid more that $600 for and most for less. Probably the average range for midrange priced firearms. However, before I purchased any of my firearms I looked at extensive reviews and gathered as much information as I could regarding price, accuracy, reliability, etc. So I have a very decent collection of handguns and rifles of all types and every single one of them goes bang and allows me to put the bullet where I want it reliably. Considering I am not a sniper, in the military or a competitive target shooter, just a good old self defense person and recreational target shooter I can still put that bullet where it needs to go and I don’t need a $1000 plus firearm to do it.
Lol
If the rifle you build looks like *that* then you didn’t build it with ‘quality’ parts.
Building an AR out of the cheapest parts on the market is never a wise move. The difference between low end ARs is great. Where a $600 build might serve you well, a bargain one under $450 won’t.
No, you don’t have to spend $1200, but, get real…..
Of course, YMMV
I have one PSA and two Anderson builds. I also have a factory Anderson with the RF85 coating. They all run flawlessly. They re equal to my Colt in function and finish. Not sure why the meth pics are appropriate to the discussion.
I believe it’s called hyperbole. It’s like saying a Glock never jams or that 1911s never get through a mag without a jam or that AKs don’t require maintenance. An exaggerated simplification, not meant to be taken literally, if you will.
Covid, Z variant.
Stupid fudd stuff
I think the problem falls into “just as good.”
No, your PSA will never be “just as good” as a Daniel Defense, BCM, etc.
Your PSA might be, however, “good enough.” If your intended use is limited range sessions and possibly an emergency urban defense scenario, it might well be if you keep it clean and lubed.
Is the difference a practical one or only semantics? You decide.
Bullcrap! Sure the PSA likely isn’t as good as a BCM or whatever, but mine are certainly more than good enough for occasional shooting, and basic home defense. I trust it for “SHTF” and even “TEOTWAKI”.
Gun snobs are annoying
Yeah- just what POTG should be doing right now, with all of the offense against MSP being generated in Leftist politics, the MSM, various church denominations, “women’s” groups, etc., etc.: Ridicule millions of people who own the “lesser” brands of MSRs, especially those who just joined our ranks since the 2019 rioting.
So- I shoot trap with an old, elaborately engraved and gold-inlayed Rem 32TC and skeet with an elegantly bulima-engraved Perazzi Mirage with full Briley tube set. The last thing I’m going to do is go out and try to make chumps out of the people using Rem 1100s… (Some of those can shoot rather well, BTW.)
I understand that these memes are meant to be humorous, if not ironic at times. I would not, however, poke fun at the vast majority of MSR owners out here- without them, the rest of us would never be able to keep them for long. Just sayin’
Craig in IA- Well thought and expressed! We need some testing of these so-called “budget guns”, not unsubstantiated attacks and rumor-mongering from firearms websites.
TEOTWAWKI. Sorry.
There is a difference between pride of ownership versus gun snobbery.
I personally prefer firearms that are out of the ordinary to ones which look like they were spit out by a cookie cutter; which is the catagory that the AR falls into IMHO.
Granted, if I was going to war when SGTF, I’d pick up an AR variant in a heartbeat. But for recreational target shooting, I don’t see the need for one. I have milsirps and small bore firearms for that purpose.
I have several PSA’s and they are working fine. Besides, if you want a real rifle step up to a 308. 🙂
Real rifle? My MK18 and M4 in Iraq and A-stan dropped plenty of MAM’s in dresses. Good luck tough guy!
Humor goes by you too quick Army. You should have joined the Marines.
Sorry, too smart and have no taste for crayons!
Take your conventional kool-aid flavored crayons and stuff ’em.
A 1st Grouper… Droppin MAMs… Hard to believe…
All my buddies that went to 1st were lucky if they ever even HEARD gunfire.
Stop trying so hard.
2004-5 timeframe. Not today’s ISFG
I have several PSA lowers, and a full AR-10 PSA, and I could not be happier. I don’t plan on shooting my AR out past 300 yards, I have better guns for longer ranges. Never let Perfect be the enemy of good.
“Never let Perfect be the enemy of good.”
I agree.
Also, never be in the position of needing a SHTF, run for weeks, hardcore battle rifle, but have nothing but a safe full of “range toys”.
Everyone need a handgun and rifle they’re willing to carry thru hell and back. Sometimes “good enough” falls short.
” if you want a real rifle step up to a 308. 🙂 ”
Truer words have never been spoken. 👍
My Anderson build can easily go three rounds without a jam. I mean it did. Once.
Remember the rule of 3. 3 feet. 3 seconds. 3 shots. You got it covered.
Ehh, the first AR-15 i had was built out of parts from 4 different makers. It always ran like a champ. Of course the upper was an made by FN Herstal and the bolt carrier was original Armalite. Can’t recall where I got the lower and the stock. I built this AR back in the early ’00s when they were just getting super popular when the AWB died.
Back in ye olde days of the 1990s there was an expat pom who had two SLRs (L1A1). One was a factory gun that shot and worked about as well as could be expected. The other was a “parts-bin” gun cobbled together. The owner said the latter was more reliable and more accurate than the factory rifle.
Sounds like you lucked out and got some very cherry components.
after 10+ ar pattern builds
have yet to pay more than 400 for a complete upper
and still as of yet failed to get one that doesnt shoot 1 moa or better with factory match ammo
If that’s what a “high quality rifle” looks like, I think I’ll sell all my guns or turn them in to Biden and Co. Yuck.
Or maybe this is just a bad meme.
FWIW my stock Ruger AR is my only gun that doesn’t like cheap steel case ammo. Will run it with some brass mixed in, but everything else I own runs it without issue. That includes some pretty cheap builds. Everything I’ve built runs perfect after a test run or two. Some mid grade and upper end stuff, but mainly cheap. PSA is a solid base.
Bought an original Colt Ar15 back in the early 80’s. Paid the princely fee of $500.00 used in a small town hardware store. 20in barrel and fixed stock. 4power scope and good out to 300 yards. If I need more, I have other rifles for such use. Only problem was when I bought some crap/cheap mags. Tossed 2 of the 5 in the trash can at the range. Other 3 worked fine for a decade. Picked up another Colt someone took apart to modify and either lost interest, or couldn’t figure out how to reassemble. Had to replace the buffer spring and gas block. Paid a whole $200 for the box of parts. Did have to dig into my spares for the receiver pins. Might be why it was a box of parts. Fool lost the pins and didn’t realize pins are not hard to get. Current project is an 80% receiver build. Will be the winter project after Thanksgiving. Been too hot to be in the shop for non essential work. While I don’t miss the Minnesota winters, summer in south Alabama can be miserable inside a non airconditioned shed/shop, under a tin roof.
And that explains one of the reasons why I will never live in the Deep South again. The summer heat and humidity are too much to deal with for me. I do much better in central Wisconsin. Having lived in Texas and central California for years in each, cured me of residing in that part of the world.
The overwhelming majority of people probably aren’t using their ARs beyond 300-500 yards and are unlikely to put more than 1,000 bullets though any single barrel. 2MOA is perfectly acceptable for an AR15.
Very few operators operate operationally and will make use of a $5,000 pimped out rifle with the finest parts. I’ve yet to come across an AR15 that didn’t perform it’s core and intended function.
Is a PSA rifle as good as a NemoArms? Probably not, but it doesn’t have to be.
Military weapons are made by the lowest bidder.
And maintained for the most part by bleary-eyed soldiers doing just the bare minimum to get them accepted by the unit armourer.
Both of my ARs are “parts” rifles. Buy a lower and a lower kit and build that. Months later get an upper, then add barrel, gas block and tube. Months later a decent drop in trigger. Finally a BCG and a forend. All the main parts were from different manufacturers. Last but not least an optic and a few pairs of irons sights. The -15 has changed the most over time. Started with a polymer 80%, the switched to a Spikes when California outlawed unnumbered lowers. Upper is a DD slick side. Pistol grip then fin grip were PSA, and finally a Thordsen (and the thankful removal of the bullet button) to make a “featureless” rifle. The one main issue I had was the barrel throat wasn’t deep enough, but a local gun shop fixed that for free. Shoots just fine, although I am thinking about changing the forend out to something different. The -10 was a similar story. I bought a lower on sale when my son said he wanted to build one, but after it’d sat around for a couple of years, and a few other parts had been collected, I just gave up and built it myself. They both run quite well.
Is a $500AR with a $100 red dot and $100 trigger just as good as $1000+++ guns? No. Will it outshoot most shooters and fufill their needs? Absolutely Yes!
Since we’re (sort of) talking about PSA…anyone have opinions on their AK’s?
Their prices seem pretty decent, but I’m not really savvy about the platform. I’ve read they use forged trunnions now, which is good. Don’t know anything else about their offerings.
I paid $300 for my Panther Arms AR in 2017. Yes its a cheapie, but it works. Why pay 1k+ for something that does exactly the same thing exactly the same way?
Gunm,,,,blue gunm, blue gun, glue gun, gunm
whats a budget? we make our ar15s ourselves out here in the woods with a hand drill, hammer, some welding rods, batteries, and jumper cables!
Is it cobbled together if you put a Bushnell scope on it vs. a Leupold? What about using a Faxon barrel vs. a Satern? How many factory premade AR’s out there come with carbon fiber barrels or hand guards? I’m sure that there are people that would like black rifles with a red safety selector. I’ve always been partial towards raw titanium for various parts. Is it ‘thrown’ together if it’s cerakoted and not engraved?
I see a Ruger AR556 as a cheesy thrown together budget starter gun even though it’s new from the factory prebuilt. Maybe it will hit the target just the same. Some people just need a vehicle to get them from point A to point B. Other people would rather do it in style while some want a family air loom to pass down. Sure, you can buy a Daniel Defense for a couple grand. I have no doubt of it’s worth. You can also spend that same amount building one. If you want an AR on the cheap that’s fine. Ruger will fit that bill. If you want one YOUR way, build it. It will reflect your taste and vision (and skill). Your personal level of satisfaction is every bit as important as it’s reliability and accuracy at what ever distance it’s called on to do.
Why build an AR for $1500 that’s equal to a Ruger AR556 with a price point of half to a third of that? But then, Why pay $1500 for a factory prebuilt AR only to end up replacing two thirds of it with other parts? Does any of it make sense?
It’s important to know and understand your guns thoroughly. The experience of building it from the ground up will teach you a few things.
Drugs are Bad, Mkay?
I guess there are people who like quality, but many like cheap. I have a Ruger AR 556. It works fine, no issues. Building AR’s is a great hobby. Have built a few KIT rifles, none had any problems. I don’t understand why M1A’s are so expensive, same with Ruger Mini 14’s. Why so expensive?
Absolutely NO ONE thinks a PSA AR is “just as good as” a POF or Noveske or Daniel Defense or even a Colt AR.
It doesn’t matter that a rifle that costs a third of the competition is only 85% the quality. What matters is that even the “affordable alternatives” are likely to last a lifetime with proper care and any fool can kaboom a 5.56 DD with a single round of .300blk. Stop hatin on people who act frugally. Be inclusive: we accept all rifles.
Not sure where your going with this…wait, yes I do
Lol
There is no hate here.
Lol
Ridiculous
Buy what you want. There are many to choose from.
Elitist drivel from a guy that gets free guns from the mfg.
If everyone on this blog is telling you you’re an elitist idiot and/or an incompetent . . . believe them.
I’ve built multiple ARs. I am not, and never have been, a professional gunsmith. I have yet to build one that cost as much as even a high-middle range manufacturer offering – and yet to build one that didn’t shoot <MOA with decent ammunition, and they jammed, if at all, less often that factory builds.
Go micturate up a hawser, elitist nitwit.
I know this meme deal is supposed to be a joke, however…
The average guy can watch for parts on sale and build (read “assemble” if you are a snob) a decent AR that will likely shoot as well or better than he can, at an economy price. It doesn’t have to be like a Johnny Cash car, just because he went for inexpensive.
Jeremy must have been on crack for this one.
Building high quality AR’s for less money than buying a complete gun is the backbone of AR ownership. They are the Lego or Erector sets of guns. Sure you can build a garbage rod with Wish.com parts but seriously, who does that other than to make funny YouTube videos?
It often takes a fair bit of time waiting on sales and discounts but you can build a very high end AR at a much lower cost if you have the patience to do it.
When I first entered the AR world, I knew diddly squat about the platform, and in ignorance bought a DPMS Oracle for $525 with a cheap Redfield Red Dot/Laser. It ran inconsistent and I was forever tightening various parts. As I learned more, I worked on the rifle to the point, that all that’s still original, is the upper and lower receivers. Everything else has been replaced. All in all, I spent close to another $500 turning the Oracle into a decent gun. So I do believe it’s possible to go too cheap.
Now, I’ve 5 AR’s, the other 4 are all builds. 2 in 5.56 and 2 in .300 AAC. 3 of the 4 use PSA uppers, 1 is a Davidson. All 4 run without a hiccup, and all 4 were in the $300 to $400 range to build (pre-pandemic). I’ve somewhere between 500 to 1,000 rounds through each without any problems. I’ve eschewed cheap optics for mid level on all 5 guns, so I’m pleased with how each serves its purpose. I really like the Vortex Venom 3 MOA on 3 of my guns. One 5.56 uses a Barska 3 X 9 that I picked up at a really closeout price. In spite of Barska’s dubious reputation, this scope holds its zero and my only complaint is it drains the battery when not in use. I just take the battery out when it’s stored to solve that problem.
The meme strikes me as being snobbish. Very few have the option of spending $2,000 and up for a rifle. As long as the gun is accurate and reliable, the name on the part doesn’t really matter.
The meme is just silly and distracting to me so far as the gun is concerned.
On my first AR I was limited in budget and I had the idea of looking for a light-weight build, just for the curiosity of doing so. In the end that became a Plum Crazy Firearms lower, a YHM upper. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked out well enough, I could consistently bust clays placed at 100 yards with the EOTech 511 holographic sight I bought used off GunBroker. I wasn’t looking for anything better than minute of varmint/deer/bad guy accuracy. A clay pigeon at a 100 yards is darned good for my purposes. I would take that carbine hiking on desert outings, no worries.
Then one day I happen to see that Bushmaster had their Carbon-15 for cheap including a red-dot sight. The gun is a polymer lower AND polymer upper. The light-weight for hiking still has my curiosity peaked, and I went for it. Intention being to part out my first AR, which I still have not gotten around to.
The Carbon-15 feels like a feather weight alright. Out of the box, everyone in the gun shop where I picked it up wanted to heft it and I let it be passed around. When I did get out to shoot it, I was just as able to bust those same clays at 100 yards, standing, with that EOTech on it. Which is about what my old eyes can do without a better rest and optics.
Note – I cannot really see thru a peep sight anymore, the peep sort of fuzzes over/doubles now. Not like when I was young and put a Williams peep on the Winchester ’94 for deer hunting, and kept my hits respectable in the black at 100 yards standing. Without optics, these days, I’d be more like “Target? What target? I don’t see no stinking target!”.
Anyway….
Thing about the Busmaster Carbon-15 I do not like is the standard mil-spec trigger. That arrives feeling like you are crunching beach sand while trying to haul the trigger back with grunts of the big lever handle on a come-a-long pulling a truck out of a ditch. I have a proper set of whetstones for knife work. Carefully hand worked the sear until that trigger had a livable break to it, more or less sand-free. I lack a trigger gauge to measure, but certainly it is not ideal or a bragging point. Just better than the disaster it arrived as.
The Plum Crazy Firearms trigger, on the other hand, was a surprise. Compared to a mil-spec anti-accuracy trigger, it’s a big leap toward mass production acceptability.
I do now have an after-market drop-in 4.5lb trigger that was on sale at Sportsmans Warehouse for $80. Still in the package. Need to get it into the gun and try it out.
I’ll keep the Carbon-15, but do want a higher level AR-15 in 7075-T7 aluminum and a step up from common, mass production quality. Nothing crazy, I can’t put $2K in a rifle.
An AR-10 is also in my thoughts, not that I can really budget that just now.
The Sig 716i looks like a reasonable deal for an AR-10, but of course nothing’s like it used to be price wise.
My Anderson lower build works just fine (better if California didn’t have the stupid laws we have). It was cheaper to assemble it myself than to buy the comparable rifle. It was $475 with the irons that I had to buy twice because the first set got lost.
And who builds an AR15 with Chinese parts other than optics?
The author reveals in no uncertain terms his prejudice against people who buy a lower receiver and put together a kit… another log in the raft of taking lowers and kits off the market. Personally I really don’t have the “bildit bug” and have usually bought new when available. Put together an AK once cuz it was cheap(er) at the time, but I’m so-so on the hobby, personally, not exactly being a mechanical whiz….
THAT SAID, the route many guys, younger and/or with families where money may be tight, building may be the only way they could afford an AR or maybe an AK… This is back-door gun control. Or maybe NOT so “back-door”.
And registering each “non-gun” lower receiver would be a change in long accepted law and policy. And the Yellow Sheets and “back-ground checks” are EXACTLY THAT- registration. Anyone who believes that such records arent scrutinised and kept on file is fooling themselves. “Und vhere is das #xy123456Z receiver du bought 10 yerss ago, Herr Amerikan? Vee haf vays uff maykink du talk, ja!”
Make mine a Colt, and except for an optic sight of one sort or another, let it be. Whatever else can be said, this is the golden age of the AR-15. Get ’em while they’re hot (and available!). The hey-day of civilian AK’s was a few years ago. FREEDOM!
I guess my “dream gun”- if I actually have one in mind- is a Windom Weaponry 20″ Government Rifle. Perhaps one of the new Yugo Zastava AKs, too, but the AR comes first.
Also, don’t do drugs kids.
Ehhh…bought my AR at my local pawnshop for 373+tax=400 bucks. Used but never shot. He had 4 from the same guy. I upgraded it cheaply. Spent many years fixing & working on antique furniture. I’m tired. And don’t care about the opinions of gun snobs…if SHTF no one will quiz me ” didja build that gat ya shot me with”?!? Peace out.
My PSA rifle and cheapo Sig red dot work just fine.
PSA should sue for libel.
My PSA AR-15 pistol with cheap SIG red dot also works fine. My PSA rifle with a budget Primary Arms 1-8 ACSS works great. Yes, I have taken it on a multi day carbine course and it ran more reliably and shot just as accurately as more experience rifles. More importantly, I’ve run it quite a bit, and have shot accurately to 500 yards with it. It serves the purpose of an AR.
@Dude,
Yeah, exactly. My go-to AR is a PSA build with Sig Romeo 5 red dot. Tack driver. Never had any issue with it and it goes bang every time I pull the trigger.
Sorry, Jeremy, but you got this one wrong this time, and showed your bias against builders. Almost half my collection of ARs and pistols are home builds, and I’ll tell you right now I wouldn’t have it any other way. I now know more about Glocks and ARs than 99% of all other owners out there, and it was because I learned during my builds.
I mean, really, Jeremy?
is that the same woman?? don’t do drugs kids!!
Wait you’re actually under the impression that I make or endorse all of these memes?!?!???!? Surely you’re being sarcastic.
Or just not the ones cooked in a trailer. A natural psychedelic experience can be good to open your mind to unimaginable thoughts and ideas. So I’ve heard.
Drugs are bad. Okay. Don’t do drugs because you’ll be bad.
Potential antifa/SS candidates in their hiring interviews.
The bottom one with some pink or green hair looks like a pantifa rockstar. The island of lost democrats.
Yikes…
Yeah, a re-hash of “Faces of Meth”, it looks like…
I saw a guy the other day that I believe had some sort of birth defect. His face looked similar to meth head up but with a more extreme chin. Stuck out like a curb feeler and he had just a small round hole where his mouth should be. In other respects he looked healthy. Him I felt sorry for.
Dude in the picture? That looks self inflicted. Ugly as a mud fence in the rain.
How dare you assume its gender.
Dude?
I honestly thought the 2 pictures on top were of a woman and the two on bottom of a guy.
Jeebus, Marty and Jobus.
The last picture looks like Gollum from Lord Of The Rings.
A definite PSA on meth addiction.
VERY SCARY!!!
The second picture is the girl who will do things to you that the girl in the first picture would slap you for saying. I like the second girl best.
😆
Well my reaction to this meme is balderdash!!! I do not own a single firearm that I paid more that $600 for and most for less. Probably the average range for midrange priced firearms. However, before I purchased any of my firearms I looked at extensive reviews and gathered as much information as I could regarding price, accuracy, reliability, etc. So I have a very decent collection of handguns and rifles of all types and every single one of them goes bang and allows me to put the bullet where I want it reliably. Considering I am not a sniper, in the military or a competitive target shooter, just a good old self defense person and recreational target shooter I can still put that bullet where it needs to go and I don’t need a $1000 plus firearm to do it.
Lol
If the rifle you build looks like *that* then you didn’t build it with ‘quality’ parts.
Building an AR out of the cheapest parts on the market is never a wise move. The difference between low end ARs is great. Where a $600 build might serve you well, a bargain one under $450 won’t.
No, you don’t have to spend $1200, but, get real…..
Of course, YMMV
I have one PSA and two Anderson builds. I also have a factory Anderson with the RF85 coating. They all run flawlessly. They re equal to my Colt in function and finish. Not sure why the meth pics are appropriate to the discussion.
I believe it’s called hyperbole. It’s like saying a Glock never jams or that 1911s never get through a mag without a jam or that AKs don’t require maintenance. An exaggerated simplification, not meant to be taken literally, if you will.
Covid, Z variant.
Stupid fudd stuff
I think the problem falls into “just as good.”
No, your PSA will never be “just as good” as a Daniel Defense, BCM, etc.
Your PSA might be, however, “good enough.” If your intended use is limited range sessions and possibly an emergency urban defense scenario, it might well be if you keep it clean and lubed.
Is the difference a practical one or only semantics? You decide.
Bullcrap! Sure the PSA likely isn’t as good as a BCM or whatever, but mine are certainly more than good enough for occasional shooting, and basic home defense. I trust it for “SHTF” and even “TEOTWAKI”.
Gun snobs are annoying
Yeah- just what POTG should be doing right now, with all of the offense against MSP being generated in Leftist politics, the MSM, various church denominations, “women’s” groups, etc., etc.: Ridicule millions of people who own the “lesser” brands of MSRs, especially those who just joined our ranks since the 2019 rioting.
So- I shoot trap with an old, elaborately engraved and gold-inlayed Rem 32TC and skeet with an elegantly bulima-engraved Perazzi Mirage with full Briley tube set. The last thing I’m going to do is go out and try to make chumps out of the people using Rem 1100s… (Some of those can shoot rather well, BTW.)
I understand that these memes are meant to be humorous, if not ironic at times. I would not, however, poke fun at the vast majority of MSR owners out here- without them, the rest of us would never be able to keep them for long. Just sayin’
Craig in IA- Well thought and expressed! We need some testing of these so-called “budget guns”, not unsubstantiated attacks and rumor-mongering from firearms websites.
TEOTWAWKI. Sorry.
There is a difference between pride of ownership versus gun snobbery.
I personally prefer firearms that are out of the ordinary to ones which look like they were spit out by a cookie cutter; which is the catagory that the AR falls into IMHO.
Granted, if I was going to war when SGTF, I’d pick up an AR variant in a heartbeat. But for recreational target shooting, I don’t see the need for one. I have milsirps and small bore firearms for that purpose.
I have several PSA’s and they are working fine. Besides, if you want a real rifle step up to a 308. 🙂
Real rifle? My MK18 and M4 in Iraq and A-stan dropped plenty of MAM’s in dresses. Good luck tough guy!
Humor goes by you too quick Army. You should have joined the Marines.
Sorry, too smart and have no taste for crayons!
Take your conventional kool-aid flavored crayons and stuff ’em.
A 1st Grouper… Droppin MAMs… Hard to believe…
All my buddies that went to 1st were lucky if they ever even HEARD gunfire.
Stop trying so hard.
2004-5 timeframe. Not today’s ISFG
I have several PSA lowers, and a full AR-10 PSA, and I could not be happier. I don’t plan on shooting my AR out past 300 yards, I have better guns for longer ranges. Never let Perfect be the enemy of good.
“Never let Perfect be the enemy of good.”
I agree.
Also, never be in the position of needing a SHTF, run for weeks, hardcore battle rifle, but have nothing but a safe full of “range toys”.
Everyone need a handgun and rifle they’re willing to carry thru hell and back. Sometimes “good enough” falls short.
” if you want a real rifle step up to a 308. 🙂 ”
Truer words have never been spoken. 👍
My Anderson build can easily go three rounds without a jam. I mean it did. Once.
Remember the rule of 3. 3 feet. 3 seconds. 3 shots. You got it covered.
Ehh, the first AR-15 i had was built out of parts from 4 different makers. It always ran like a champ. Of course the upper was an made by FN Herstal and the bolt carrier was original Armalite. Can’t recall where I got the lower and the stock. I built this AR back in the early ’00s when they were just getting super popular when the AWB died.
Back in ye olde days of the 1990s there was an expat pom who had two SLRs (L1A1). One was a factory gun that shot and worked about as well as could be expected. The other was a “parts-bin” gun cobbled together. The owner said the latter was more reliable and more accurate than the factory rifle.
Sounds like you lucked out and got some very cherry components.
after 10+ ar pattern builds
have yet to pay more than 400 for a complete upper
and still as of yet failed to get one that doesnt shoot 1 moa or better with factory match ammo
If that’s what a “high quality rifle” looks like, I think I’ll sell all my guns or turn them in to Biden and Co. Yuck.
Or maybe this is just a bad meme.
FWIW my stock Ruger AR is my only gun that doesn’t like cheap steel case ammo. Will run it with some brass mixed in, but everything else I own runs it without issue. That includes some pretty cheap builds. Everything I’ve built runs perfect after a test run or two. Some mid grade and upper end stuff, but mainly cheap. PSA is a solid base.
Bought an original Colt Ar15 back in the early 80’s. Paid the princely fee of $500.00 used in a small town hardware store. 20in barrel and fixed stock. 4power scope and good out to 300 yards. If I need more, I have other rifles for such use. Only problem was when I bought some crap/cheap mags. Tossed 2 of the 5 in the trash can at the range. Other 3 worked fine for a decade. Picked up another Colt someone took apart to modify and either lost interest, or couldn’t figure out how to reassemble. Had to replace the buffer spring and gas block. Paid a whole $200 for the box of parts. Did have to dig into my spares for the receiver pins. Might be why it was a box of parts. Fool lost the pins and didn’t realize pins are not hard to get. Current project is an 80% receiver build. Will be the winter project after Thanksgiving. Been too hot to be in the shop for non essential work. While I don’t miss the Minnesota winters, summer in south Alabama can be miserable inside a non airconditioned shed/shop, under a tin roof.
And that explains one of the reasons why I will never live in the Deep South again. The summer heat and humidity are too much to deal with for me. I do much better in central Wisconsin. Having lived in Texas and central California for years in each, cured me of residing in that part of the world.
The overwhelming majority of people probably aren’t using their ARs beyond 300-500 yards and are unlikely to put more than 1,000 bullets though any single barrel. 2MOA is perfectly acceptable for an AR15.
Very few operators operate operationally and will make use of a $5,000 pimped out rifle with the finest parts. I’ve yet to come across an AR15 that didn’t perform it’s core and intended function.
Is a PSA rifle as good as a NemoArms? Probably not, but it doesn’t have to be.
Military weapons are made by the lowest bidder.
And maintained for the most part by bleary-eyed soldiers doing just the bare minimum to get them accepted by the unit armourer.
Both of my ARs are “parts” rifles. Buy a lower and a lower kit and build that. Months later get an upper, then add barrel, gas block and tube. Months later a decent drop in trigger. Finally a BCG and a forend. All the main parts were from different manufacturers. Last but not least an optic and a few pairs of irons sights. The -15 has changed the most over time. Started with a polymer 80%, the switched to a Spikes when California outlawed unnumbered lowers. Upper is a DD slick side. Pistol grip then fin grip were PSA, and finally a Thordsen (and the thankful removal of the bullet button) to make a “featureless” rifle. The one main issue I had was the barrel throat wasn’t deep enough, but a local gun shop fixed that for free. Shoots just fine, although I am thinking about changing the forend out to something different. The -10 was a similar story. I bought a lower on sale when my son said he wanted to build one, but after it’d sat around for a couple of years, and a few other parts had been collected, I just gave up and built it myself. They both run quite well.
Is a $500AR with a $100 red dot and $100 trigger just as good as $1000+++ guns? No. Will it outshoot most shooters and fufill their needs? Absolutely Yes!
Since we’re (sort of) talking about PSA…anyone have opinions on their AK’s?
Their prices seem pretty decent, but I’m not really savvy about the platform. I’ve read they use forged trunnions now, which is good. Don’t know anything else about their offerings.
I paid $300 for my Panther Arms AR in 2017. Yes its a cheapie, but it works. Why pay 1k+ for something that does exactly the same thing exactly the same way?
Gunm,,,,blue gunm, blue gun, glue gun, gunm
whats a budget? we make our ar15s ourselves out here in the woods with a hand drill, hammer, some welding rods, batteries, and jumper cables!
Is it cobbled together if you put a Bushnell scope on it vs. a Leupold? What about using a Faxon barrel vs. a Satern? How many factory premade AR’s out there come with carbon fiber barrels or hand guards? I’m sure that there are people that would like black rifles with a red safety selector. I’ve always been partial towards raw titanium for various parts. Is it ‘thrown’ together if it’s cerakoted and not engraved?
I see a Ruger AR556 as a cheesy thrown together budget starter gun even though it’s new from the factory prebuilt. Maybe it will hit the target just the same. Some people just need a vehicle to get them from point A to point B. Other people would rather do it in style while some want a family air loom to pass down. Sure, you can buy a Daniel Defense for a couple grand. I have no doubt of it’s worth. You can also spend that same amount building one. If you want an AR on the cheap that’s fine. Ruger will fit that bill. If you want one YOUR way, build it. It will reflect your taste and vision (and skill). Your personal level of satisfaction is every bit as important as it’s reliability and accuracy at what ever distance it’s called on to do.
Why build an AR for $1500 that’s equal to a Ruger AR556 with a price point of half to a third of that? But then, Why pay $1500 for a factory prebuilt AR only to end up replacing two thirds of it with other parts? Does any of it make sense?
It’s important to know and understand your guns thoroughly. The experience of building it from the ground up will teach you a few things.
Drugs are Bad, Mkay?
I guess there are people who like quality, but many like cheap. I have a Ruger AR 556. It works fine, no issues. Building AR’s is a great hobby. Have built a few KIT rifles, none had any problems. I don’t understand why M1A’s are so expensive, same with Ruger Mini 14’s. Why so expensive?
Absolutely NO ONE thinks a PSA AR is “just as good as” a POF or Noveske or Daniel Defense or even a Colt AR.
It doesn’t matter that a rifle that costs a third of the competition is only 85% the quality. What matters is that even the “affordable alternatives” are likely to last a lifetime with proper care and any fool can kaboom a 5.56 DD with a single round of .300blk. Stop hatin on people who act frugally. Be inclusive: we accept all rifles.
Not sure where your going with this…wait, yes I do
Lol
There is no hate here.
Lol
Ridiculous
Buy what you want. There are many to choose from.
Elitist drivel from a guy that gets free guns from the mfg.
If everyone on this blog is telling you you’re an elitist idiot and/or an incompetent . . . believe them.
I’ve built multiple ARs. I am not, and never have been, a professional gunsmith. I have yet to build one that cost as much as even a high-middle range manufacturer offering – and yet to build one that didn’t shoot <MOA with decent ammunition, and they jammed, if at all, less often that factory builds.
Go micturate up a hawser, elitist nitwit.
I know this meme deal is supposed to be a joke, however…
The average guy can watch for parts on sale and build (read “assemble” if you are a snob) a decent AR that will likely shoot as well or better than he can, at an economy price. It doesn’t have to be like a Johnny Cash car, just because he went for inexpensive.
Jeremy must have been on crack for this one.
Building high quality AR’s for less money than buying a complete gun is the backbone of AR ownership. They are the Lego or Erector sets of guns. Sure you can build a garbage rod with Wish.com parts but seriously, who does that other than to make funny YouTube videos?
It often takes a fair bit of time waiting on sales and discounts but you can build a very high end AR at a much lower cost if you have the patience to do it.
When I first entered the AR world, I knew diddly squat about the platform, and in ignorance bought a DPMS Oracle for $525 with a cheap Redfield Red Dot/Laser. It ran inconsistent and I was forever tightening various parts. As I learned more, I worked on the rifle to the point, that all that’s still original, is the upper and lower receivers. Everything else has been replaced. All in all, I spent close to another $500 turning the Oracle into a decent gun. So I do believe it’s possible to go too cheap.
Now, I’ve 5 AR’s, the other 4 are all builds. 2 in 5.56 and 2 in .300 AAC. 3 of the 4 use PSA uppers, 1 is a Davidson. All 4 run without a hiccup, and all 4 were in the $300 to $400 range to build (pre-pandemic). I’ve somewhere between 500 to 1,000 rounds through each without any problems. I’ve eschewed cheap optics for mid level on all 5 guns, so I’m pleased with how each serves its purpose. I really like the Vortex Venom 3 MOA on 3 of my guns. One 5.56 uses a Barska 3 X 9 that I picked up at a really closeout price. In spite of Barska’s dubious reputation, this scope holds its zero and my only complaint is it drains the battery when not in use. I just take the battery out when it’s stored to solve that problem.
The meme strikes me as being snobbish. Very few have the option of spending $2,000 and up for a rifle. As long as the gun is accurate and reliable, the name on the part doesn’t really matter.
The meme is just silly and distracting to me so far as the gun is concerned.
On my first AR I was limited in budget and I had the idea of looking for a light-weight build, just for the curiosity of doing so. In the end that became a Plum Crazy Firearms lower, a YHM upper. I was pleasantly surprised that it worked out well enough, I could consistently bust clays placed at 100 yards with the EOTech 511 holographic sight I bought used off GunBroker. I wasn’t looking for anything better than minute of varmint/deer/bad guy accuracy. A clay pigeon at a 100 yards is darned good for my purposes. I would take that carbine hiking on desert outings, no worries.
Then one day I happen to see that Bushmaster had their Carbon-15 for cheap including a red-dot sight. The gun is a polymer lower AND polymer upper. The light-weight for hiking still has my curiosity peaked, and I went for it. Intention being to part out my first AR, which I still have not gotten around to.
The Carbon-15 feels like a feather weight alright. Out of the box, everyone in the gun shop where I picked it up wanted to heft it and I let it be passed around. When I did get out to shoot it, I was just as able to bust those same clays at 100 yards, standing, with that EOTech on it. Which is about what my old eyes can do without a better rest and optics.
Note – I cannot really see thru a peep sight anymore, the peep sort of fuzzes over/doubles now. Not like when I was young and put a Williams peep on the Winchester ’94 for deer hunting, and kept my hits respectable in the black at 100 yards standing. Without optics, these days, I’d be more like “Target? What target? I don’t see no stinking target!”.
Anyway….
Thing about the Busmaster Carbon-15 I do not like is the standard mil-spec trigger. That arrives feeling like you are crunching beach sand while trying to haul the trigger back with grunts of the big lever handle on a come-a-long pulling a truck out of a ditch. I have a proper set of whetstones for knife work. Carefully hand worked the sear until that trigger had a livable break to it, more or less sand-free. I lack a trigger gauge to measure, but certainly it is not ideal or a bragging point. Just better than the disaster it arrived as.
The Plum Crazy Firearms trigger, on the other hand, was a surprise. Compared to a mil-spec anti-accuracy trigger, it’s a big leap toward mass production acceptability.
I do now have an after-market drop-in 4.5lb trigger that was on sale at Sportsmans Warehouse for $80. Still in the package. Need to get it into the gun and try it out.
I’ll keep the Carbon-15, but do want a higher level AR-15 in 7075-T7 aluminum and a step up from common, mass production quality. Nothing crazy, I can’t put $2K in a rifle.
An AR-10 is also in my thoughts, not that I can really budget that just now.
The Sig 716i looks like a reasonable deal for an AR-10, but of course nothing’s like it used to be price wise.
My Anderson lower build works just fine (better if California didn’t have the stupid laws we have). It was cheaper to assemble it myself than to buy the comparable rifle. It was $475 with the irons that I had to buy twice because the first set got lost.
And who builds an AR15 with Chinese parts other than optics?
The author reveals in no uncertain terms his prejudice against people who buy a lower receiver and put together a kit… another log in the raft of taking lowers and kits off the market. Personally I really don’t have the “bildit bug” and have usually bought new when available. Put together an AK once cuz it was cheap(er) at the time, but I’m so-so on the hobby, personally, not exactly being a mechanical whiz….
THAT SAID, the route many guys, younger and/or with families where money may be tight, building may be the only way they could afford an AR or maybe an AK… This is back-door gun control. Or maybe NOT so “back-door”.
And registering each “non-gun” lower receiver would be a change in long accepted law and policy. And the Yellow Sheets and “back-ground checks” are EXACTLY THAT- registration. Anyone who believes that such records arent scrutinised and kept on file is fooling themselves. “Und vhere is das #xy123456Z receiver du bought 10 yerss ago, Herr Amerikan? Vee haf vays uff maykink du talk, ja!”
Make mine a Colt, and except for an optic sight of one sort or another, let it be. Whatever else can be said, this is the golden age of the AR-15. Get ’em while they’re hot (and available!). The hey-day of civilian AK’s was a few years ago. FREEDOM!
I guess my “dream gun”- if I actually have one in mind- is a Windom Weaponry 20″ Government Rifle. Perhaps one of the new Yugo Zastava AKs, too, but the AR comes first.
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