Hey y'all.  I sent off a couple of Form 1's last July.  Knowing that it would be quite a while before they came back approved, I pretty much forgot about them.  Well, I didn't "forget" about them, but I sure wasn't worried about building them out into anything.  They just came back approved, so now's the time to start picking components.  I've been looking around at completed uppers and I'm having a hard time picking and choosing what I want.  The Textbook answer is:  "Send a check off to Noveske or Daniel Defense and be happy."  I'm not sure I want to spend $1,200 to $1,500 per for a couple rifles that I'm not even going to be able to shoot all that often.  

All my AR's are ones I've put together. One has a 16" RRA upper (bought a full decade before this current dust-up), with a 16" Wylde barrel.  Another has a 16" PSA "Freedom" upper, and  I have a pistol I put together with an 11.5" PSA upper.  To be perfectly honest, I'm happy with all three.  I'd like to build these two SBR's into nice, solid shooters.  Nothing fancy, just good, dependable tools.

Who makes middle-of-the-road uppers that give decent performance, for a decent price?

PSA

BCM, DD, Colt 6920 upper, to name a few. Or you just build your own.

Bcm. But I have an 11.5" PSA freedom upper that I threw a AIM surplus bcg in and it runs like a champ, suppressed or unsuppresses and holds 1.5 moa at 100 yards with a red dot

They're all the same. Just get a milspec bolt carrier from any suitable manufacturer and replace barrel as they wear out.

BCM is a name I hadn't considered. Not really sure I want to spend Daniel Defense money. I'm fairly satisfied with the perfromance of my two PSA uppers, but I haven't been shooting for groups - just shooting to make sure they go "bang" and that the bullets end up roughly where I wanted them to go, and that they don't keyhole or anything.  PSA gets a bad rap for being cheap - for an actual "HD" SBR, I didn't know if more expensive is better.

I've had good luck with my Andro upper I bought. I ended up changing the rail but other than that it's stock and works great. They use BA barrels on their builds. The ONLY complaint I have is the FA is the non pinned type but mine hasn't broken. Check out the used upper in the EE for their Ad he posts under jwill242004.

I built a 10.5" 5.56 SBR upper that is one of my favorite ones to shoot.  I ran it in a 2 day course suppressed and it didn't miss a lick and never cleaned it after the first day.  Shot about 750 rounds through it and was able to hit a silhouette steel plate at 300 yards with a T2, no magnification and Wolf Gold ammo.

Aero Upper that I lapped
Faxon 10.5" Socom barrel
NIB carrier made by Toolcraft
NIb bolt don't remember who's it is
SLR Solo Lite hand guard
SLR adjustable gas block
Muzzle device is a Crux Suppressor flash hider mount
Aimpoint T2 Optic

I am really pleased with the barrel and it is very accurate.  Only thing I did was dimple it for a set screw gas block as it is not from Faxon

Mega Arms

If you're willing to build the upper from scratch, the answer is put it together yourself.  With faxon and BA barrels putting out sub moa offerings at around $150, it's a no brainer to me.  Source the parts separate (some great sales going on right now) and you can have a lights out upper for 3-400

Start with a good stripped upper (or a "complete" one with the port door and FA installed).  I like Aero Precision and Surplus Ammo and Arms (whose uppers are made by Aero), but almost any brand should be fine.

I built my second 300 Blackout upper with a KAK Industry barrel.  I went with one of their Value Line barrels, and I'm quite pleased.  They start as Green Mountain blanks, and mine is really nice.  Full disclosure: my first Blackout upper has a CMMG barrel, but there's a story behind that.  The second one, with a longer barrel, is yet another story...

After you choose a forged upper and barrel, all you need to worry about is what kind of hand guard, and what sights you want.  Assembling an upper is pretty easy.

So my advice is to decide what you want your SBR upper to look like and what you want it to do, and then build that.  Buying a complete upper may be a bit faster, but you have more control when you build it yourself.

Sounds great!

I have an upper with an Engage Armament upper (local co.) the Faxon 11.5" Gunner bbl and 10.7" SLR Ion Lite MLok, SLR block adjustable .625" block. It's wearing a T2 and a DT Omega with Ti 5.56 flat end cap, can't recall whose BCG but it is melonite and crud just wipes off.

OP,

Get a decent mil-spec upper and have at it, you can have a BETTER upper than you can buy, if only because you can install and adjustable gas block and the barrel and handguard you want.

JPK

Mega Arms - you will not be disappointed