My buddy is looking to purchase an upper for his first SBR.

He's on a tight budget, and only owns one AR which he efiled and stamp should come back by the end of August.

What he wants: 10.5" 5.56, free float rail, $300 or less not including BCG/CH

What would you guys recommend? PSA seems to be out of stock on all their short uppers, plus they don't really make 10.5" with free floated rails

EE or part it together himself. If he doesn't want to buy tools, he could send it to ADCO and have them put it together.

PSA has their sbr uppers with rail on sale for $300 all the time.  Just subscribe to their email.  Last one was $250 for barreled upper with rail.

If he had the tools he could also build one easy for under $300.

True we could build one. I have all the tools except a solid vice which he might have.

PSA has a few options. I got my PSA complete 11.5 upper for $280 a few months ago. Probably not their fanciest. But, it sure is nicely put together, BCG is clean too. MASDefense, Radical and some others have quite a few railed options. I almost went with one of MAS's 10.5 uppers.

Right now you can buy a 10.5" upper in 556 with free float handguard from Radical Firearms for $239, that does not include bolt which is about $100.00!  I have one, shoots well operates flawlessly!  Most all prices I have seen for 300 have been without the bolt!

I have four PSA SBR uppers, all are amazing for the money and work 100 percent so far.

I would look at Andro Corp. They have great reviews here (are also a sponsor) and have a discount code that would take even more off the prices listed on their website.

What's the coupon code/discount it offers?

ETA: Found it, AR15% for any interested.

On another note what makes their upper any different from lets say Radical Firearms besides the fact they pay to advertise on this site? Even after the coupon code it's still a $300 upper w/o BCG or CH compared to Radical's $240 (round hand guard) or $280 (quad rail) option? All these uppers have 4150 steel melonite treated barrels with 1/7 twist and 5.56 chambers unless I'm missing something.

Anderson slick side upper
Aero has mlok rails on sale through the end of the night. Otherwise guntec
BA barrel from andro Corp

should have posted a week ago when these were in stock
$209
http://www.aimsurplus.com/product.aspx?item=XRFU556105FGS&name=Radical+Firearms+FGS+.223%2f5.56+10.5+in.+Barreled+Receiver&groupid=5924&fprdct=1

Just got an email for PSA railed upper 8.5" for $220.

Saw that email 30 minutes after it was sent, was already sold out. RIP

8.5 is on the short side, go 10.5-12 if on a budget and are going to have this be a go-to rifle.  

A $209 psa 10.5/11.5 freedom stainless/nitride upper with fsb shaved into lopro block and an added alg rail  wouldn't be much more than 300.  Or he could keep the fsb and throw on magpul Moe SL handguard for $30 and not have to buy a front sight.

That would be about 230-240 for upper with pinned front sight block and SL

A 209+100 psa/alg upper needs the cowitness 12'o'clock m-lok rail section ($20?) plus a front sight (mbus is the least expensive one worth buying, about another $30. So that would be about $360 for upper, emr v1, mbus front signt.

So if I were on a particular budget, I'd be choosing between:
-$240 for upper with fsb and moe-sl handguard
and
-$360 for upper with alg emr v1 and mbus sight.

Option #1 affords you the difference of the cost of an upgraded trigger like an MBT or perhaps Geissele if on sale.  I'd be more accurate with the non-free float and sweet trigger than free float and milspec trigger. There is also the option of "get both."

Andro Corp should be able to put together something that appeals to you as well.  They sell a 10.5 that includes bcg, ch and FF rail for 435.  If you could get them to swap out for an ALG rail, that would be nice. Or maybe their house-brand rail is good enought?

So it all depends how you want to allocate money and how hard your ceiling is.  

I don't think you can go wrong either way.  I'd probably ean towards a FSB and Moe-sl and MBT/G2S for $350 over a milspec trigger and mbus for $350, if I had a hard ceiling. But you can always add stuff like triggers down the line.  I just got a emr v2 13" and it's suhhhhweet.  More expensive than v1, but doesn't need a 12'o'clock rail section for front sight.

I was sick of waiting for the BCM to come back in stock so I jumped on one of PSA's Premium 10.5 CHF upper when it was on sale for $299. From what I can tell, their FN barreled premium line is a good of quality as the few BCMs I've handled since then and I feel no need to replace it with an upper that's $150 more than what I originally spent. The only issue was the upper was over gassed but an H buffer fixed that no problem.

10.5" @ Joe Bob's for $210

It's even in stock.

AIM had radical Firearms uppers for $209

My vote goes for AndroCorp. I've bought two 10.5 inch free floated uppers from them. One for myself and the other for a friend. Both included BCG and CH. I bought mine a year and a half or two ago and my bolt is not marked HPT/MPI. Paid $375 shipped. The other one I bought probably 8-12 months ago for $350 shipped, and the bolt with that one WAS marked HPT/MPI.

I have had no problems at all out of mine, both with and without a can. I have a carbine buffer in my lower just because its all I had when I put it together. I could go to an H buffer for sure, and probably even an H2 and it would run even better. I did swap the rail on mine for a DD lite 10 inch but there was nothing wrong with the rail it came with for a range toy. I just wanted the rail to come to the end of my suppressor. My buddy uses his on a full auto receiver and says it runs great as well. Can't say enough good about the value from AndroCorp. Customer service is awesome as well.

I shop the used stuff on EE here.  Part of the fun is collecting the stuff at bargain prices, screwing it together and having fun doing it.  I feel the BCG is the heart of the upper, can't buy crap there.  A few sales recently I have seen some at about $90, known quality.