Well, first you gotta decide what the intended use is. Tactical Carbine? Varmint Hunter? CMP match shooter? Plinker? Target gun? Once you have it narrowed down, you can then choose your components. There are several top quality companies out there. I prefer Rock River Arms, but also like Armalite, Stag, Bushmaster, DPMS, to name a few. Rock River uses Wilson barrels that are very accurate. I also like the Rock River Two Stage Trigger in most any rifle configuration. If you're building a 16" Carbine, look at the Mid Length handguard/gas tube option. There are a ton of other options/upgrades, but as I said you first have to decide what the main purpose of the rifle will be. Donnie
I would use Rock River. We have done a couple of builds they work great and they are worth the money. You could alway use a RR lower and put whatever on the top end. Later Joe
For the most part a lower, is a lower, is a lower as long as its in spec. You just have to decide if you want a Snake, a Recticle, or a Deer on the side, as well as how much you want to pay (I use Bushmaster lowers for purley cosmetic reasons FWIW). I would need to know the intended use of said rifle to recomment a stock/upper as well as your budget. I can build a $600 AR, and I can build a $2500 AR for the same purpose. Not to start a brand bashing fest but I personally avoid DPMS parts.
Bought a complete (w/ BCG) chromed 1:9 16" Stag Arms upper (2H-M4) from Legal Transfers in NH for $480. Got a Stag Arms lower w/ trigger assy installed from Title2.com for $150. Stock was $50. It helps to have instructions for the recoil buffer/stock assembly if you've never done it before. Even as a complete newbie, it only took a few minutes to put it all together. This thing is very accurate and has been very reliable -- no problems at all. One friend did the same with an RRA upper and Stag lower and another friend did a roll-your-own Colt. These are all excellent rifles.
Huh. Whats wrong with DPMS? Fit issues? Quality? I heard Oly Arms doesn't necessarily play well with parts from other manufacturers.
Fit issues are the commonly encountered problem. For some reason DPMS recievers both upper and lower only seem to work well with DPMS parts. I have had a DPMS upper that would not work with any of my charging handles, but would work with one from DPMS. A guy I shoot with has a DPMS stripped lower that would not take his Stag lower parts kit, but it took on from DPMS fine. I bought the Stag LPK from him and it worked fine in my NDS lower .
I've been mainly using RRA lowers mated to Del-Ton's upper kits. They work together flawlessly. I've used a couple uppers from Sherluk, and after a couple tweaking-- mainly with the gas ports, they too work flawlessly.
