A young family friend (college student) has been wanting an AR for a while. He saved what he could from a part time job and finally asked if I'd help him build something. His only request was he wanted an 18" barrel, lots of rail space and a Minimalist stock.
I told him the easiest approach was to buy a complete upper if he found one he liked, and he soon ordered a budget assembly from PSA (nitride, key mod). He found the stock on eBay and got an LPK with PSA's enhanced polished trigger and MOE grip.
I had a spare lower, BCG and charging handle for him, so in all, it only cost him about $410 out of pocket. His budget was $700, so this leaves him enough to shop for an optic. (I'm lending him a set of Diamonhead sights for the time being, and mounted the Aimpoint Micro just to give him an idea of how a red dot looks and works.)
The PSA parts looked fine and went together well--except for one of the trigger/hammer pins. It had a burr on one end that was a good quarter inch long. Essentially, it was like
very sharp thumbtack. I had to file it off, but that left an unfinished pin so I replaced it with a spare.
The enhanced trigger is worth the $20 or $30 extra he paid for it. It's a basic trigger--fairly heavy and has a good bit of creep--but the polish job does make it far less gritty than most milspec triggers.
I gave him a few accessories--a few PMags, sling, boresnake and padded carry case--and he seemed very excited about the who thing. He enjoyed putting it together, listened to everything I told him and asked good questions.
Unfortunately, he won't have a chance to shoot it until his spring break, but I promised I'd go with him when he's ready. I've never used any PSA parts before, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that budget barrel is capable of.
ETA