AR-15s

gzig5 said

If you are at all mechanically inclined you can put the lower together yourself and plop a pre-built upper on top and save a hundred or two. You only need the FFL transaction on the lower. I actually build my uppers too now, including chambering the barrels. My first one I bought a stripped Rock River Arms lower and a parts kit and then put an upper on it from White Oak Armory. Guaranteed to shoot better than you can. If you just want it to go back and hit a can out to 200 yards, just about any of them will do that. I've had good luck with PSA, Colt is fine but your are paying a premium for a name, not quality IMO.

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Great advice - there's an excise tax on assembled firearms. 11% I believe. That means that by buying the upper and lower separate you can save 11% right off the top. Technically you're supposed to pay that 11% yourself, but we were all supposed to pay our own sales tax on all internet transactions too..

Based on an extensive first-hand experience with inspecting parts. Colt does a way above average job of holding the actual print tolerances. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I've found a Colt part truly out of spec. It helps that they developed the prints and manufacturing process for all the parts in the first place.