This build was sort of an experiment spurned by the $65 Radical Firearms barrels floating around a while back combined with all the great deals on stripped lowers. The goal was to see how cheaply I could build a rifle that functions well and looks good. Substance took a few hits from style here. I gathered the parts slowly waiting for deals. The general idea of the rifle is a lightweight, 3-gun sort of thing. It weighs 6.4 pounds without magazines or sights.

The upper is the Radical Firearms 16" 1-7 twist SOCOM barrel, a 13" UTG Super Slim handguard, an Anderson stripped upper, and a DS Arms basic BCG. The lower is Anderson with an ALG ACT trigger (you've got to draw the line on low-end somewhere). I've got $630 in the rifle, including all parts, shipping, and sales tax.

Assuming I can get the mounts to work right, I've got an interesting optics system in mind that will run just $205 including mounts. I’m using a 55 year-old Weaver, El Paso-made K4-60B (that’s a fixed 4x) in a DNZ Freedom Reaper mount with a Primary Arms reflex red dot offset at 45 degrees. The old scope is light and tough with decent glass. The whole enchilada weighs 7.25 lbs.

I think I’ll get 3 moa out of it. I'm hoping I can get 2 moa. If I get more than 4 moa, call the experiment a bust. I'll post a range report when I get it out.

I'm excited to see what this build will do. There's a definite risk it's craptastic. There's also a chance to hit a bang-for-the-buck homerun. Worst case, I figure I can upgrade a few parts if it sucks (the barrel, buffer, spring, and maybe BCG are the suspects) and have a very good, light rifle for under $1,200, including optics.

Nothing wrong with that build..

Nice job!  Can't wait for the range report.

That UTG handguard looks pretty good. Hows it feel? Weight? Solid feel?

I was very impressed with the UTG. The barrel nut doesn't have to be timed. The guard has tabs that fit over the upper which lines everything up and helps solidify it. It has six set screws to lock it down. Stiffness is fine.  The finish is excellent.  On the downside, it's a little too slim. I could not use a Yankee Hill low profile clamp on gas block. I had to use set screws. Even then, block and tube clearance is less than 1/8" in places. The weight is middle of the road. All in all, it's an excellent value, especially in fde.

Looks good. I want to see it with the scope set up. I like those old weaver scopes.

I'm in the process of doing that same concept build with cheap parts just to see how cheap I can get.  I've got the same barrel as you and anderson upper and lower.  The direction I'm going with is iron sights I really wish magpul would come out with the mid-length sl handguard so I could finish it.

I got the build to the range today. There was some good, some bad, and some ugly. We'll go in order.

Here's the build with optics:



and a close up of the optic set up.



I was very happy with the way the optic set up worked out. From left to right the targets are 1) six shots at 100 yards in 2.02" (The shot at the top is a sighter. The group was seven shots. I do not know where the missing bullet hole is.); 2) five shots at 25 yards in 1.867" with the 5 moa reflex red dot; and 3) five shots in .4" at 25 yards through the scope. These groups were shot with commercially reloaded 55 grain lead tips. In short, this barrel that cost $77 shipped sure looks capable of 2 moa, maybe less after some more futzing around.



Now for the bad. I bore sighted at 25 yards, zeroed, and then moved out to 100. I did this with PMC fmj loads. At 100, the rifle put the first shot pretty much on target. The follow up shots were over a foot high and spread horizontally at least 6". I moved back to 25 and switched to the commercial reloads. First, I shot the pictured red dot target. Next, I shot the .4" group. I then moved back out to 100, and shot the 2.02" group. I have no idea what was up with the first group at 100 with the PMC.

Now for the ugly. The rifle would not cycle at all. The bolt doesn't close on a field gauge. The spent cartridges do not show signs of excessive headspace. Thus, we can eliminate way too much headspace as the cause. Manual extraction was a little tight, but nothing crazy. There are no obvious signs of gas leakage. Everything function checks and looks right. I figure my next step will be to put this upper on my lower that works right, and put this lower on my upper that works right. This will eliminate the buffer system as the cause. Next, I'll swap BCGs, and see what happens. Any troubleshooting suggestions are most welcome.

Interesting results.

Please let us know how the swaps work out.

I'd suspect the cheap barrel before the DSA BCG.  Could be, but I've run a few of them, as have several friends.  Not the prettiest things, but nary a problem with function or accuracy.

I did a similar budget build, but opted for the PSA "Freedom" stainless upper and Ares NiB BCG, which I scored for $79 on sale.  I'm into it for $827 including the YHM Phantom, AFG, MBUS (yes, I like them backwards) and TRS-25.  It is 1.1 MOA @ 100 with 50 gr. Z-max hand loads, 1.5-2 MOA with most ball ammo.

Why did you go with FF HG?
A delta ring kit, HG plate and plastic HGs would be about $70 cheaper than the UTG SS FF..

Sure looks like you have your sights on backwards.

Well aware.  Hence my saying:

Yepper sights are on backwards I do believe

66-2, I like your build.

I've confirmed both the lower and BCG work fine. My sights are on gas block alignment now.

Because UTG super slim is awesome.

Based on my limited AR troubleshooting experience (I run about 50/50 with my builds running right the first time out!) that would be next thing to check out. Hope it is a simple issue, let us know how it turns out.

When you fire with only one round in the magazine, does the bolt lock back?

Id agree with the gas block issue.  Its gotten me several times too.

I finally got this gun working today. It appears the main culprit was an overly stiff craptastic buffer spring. There might have been some misalignment with the gas block too, but I'm not sure it was enough to reduce the flow. At least the spring was a $9.50 fix.

I got to shoot a couple of five shot groups today. Hornady Match 77 grain BHTPs clocked in at exactly 2 moa at 100 yards. Hornady Superperformance VMax 53 grain pills came in at 2.716 moa at 100 yards. I'm guessing with just the right pill, I could get it below 2 moa but not much. The rifle does seem to sling 55 grain ball ammo all over the place, but I'm not 100% certain about this yet as I have only function checked with ball ammo.

Here are some things I've learned with this build:

1. You can go cheap, but there might be some headaches. There is a benefit to spending more, but low end parts go together well and work.
2. Scrape from just above the bottom of the barrel. The very bottom isn't such a great place.
3. If I were doing this build over from scratch, I'd step down to an ALG QMS and step up a notch on the gas block, the buffer, the buffer spring, and the BCG. This would likely have added $50 to the build.
3. Some folks don't get the bargain thing. A very kind gunsmith took a look at this rifle while I was trouble shooting it. He gave me some good information that helped me zero in on the buffer spring. But you could tell my cheapo parts were making his head spin. To me, I enjoy the trouble shooting, and the problem was solved with a $9.50 spring (the original one was probably $3.00), so BFD. You could tell he thought the rifle should go straight to the scrap heap.
4. If you hit your muzzle device hard enough to dislodge your BCG out of your empty buffer tube, you'll knock your scope off zero a bit. And you will forget your buffer tube is empty.