I have been lurking for a while. Trying to decide between buying my first rifle or building. Decided this morning to go ahead and start ordering parts. Impulse buy. How’d I do?

I’m sure there will be many more questions so I’ll be sure to leave them all in this thread.

Spikes Tactical Stripped Lower:
https://www.spikestactical.com/collections/stripped-lowers/products/stripped-lower-spider-bullet-markings?variant=32734021708

Spikes Enhanced Lower Parts Kit:
https://www.spikestactical.com/products/enhanced-lower-parts-kit?variant=34464508748

Magpull stock, buffer tube and buffer:
https://www.spikestactical.com/products/parts-lower-parts-kits-magpul-ctr-mil-spec-complete-kit?variant=32521252748

Sounds like a winner. Just dont cheap out on the trigger group and lower parts if you decide not buy Spikes.

The parts kit comes with the boron coated battle trigger group. Don’t know much about it but reviews seem to think it’s pretty good.

Edit. Misread that. I already ordered the spikes lower kit.

There was another guy on here complaining that the hammer was following the bolt and having problems. He bought a no name lower parts kit on ebay.

Looks fine to me. Spike's stuff isn't my taste, but people say good things about it, so I'm sure it'll work well for you. I just hope you didn't pay the prices listed on the links you posted, or I think you overpaid. Part of the fun of doing a build - at least for me - is tracking down the best prices on the stuff you're using.

Yeah I purchased directly from them. What is it that you don’t like about them? What’s your preference?

Spikes makes great stuff, can't go wrong with it.

They use FN barrels on their uppers too, thats what I would finish that off with. ;-)

I’m glad you said that because I figured sticking with the same brand as much as possible will make building the whole thing simpler.

I very much don't want to offend you, or anyone else who like's Spike's stuff, so let me start by acknowledging that taste is completely subjective, and a person's preferences in these kinds of things say nothing about their quality as a person. Fair enough? OK, so I guess what it boils down to for me is that Spike's seems to be trying really, really hard to be cool. Too hard. Personally, I like stuff that's a little more understated. Do I buy stuff just because I think it's cool, not because it contributes to the better functioning of my gun in any practical way? Yes, absolutely, but only to a point. For example, I like the look of billet receivers. Do they work better? No, but I like the way they look. For the record though, I'm cheap, and Aero gives me a discount, so when I want that look I use their M4E1 or M5E1 receivers (forged, but they look billet without the billet price). A more extreme example is that I'm putting a 24" fluted stainless barrel on the AR-10 I'm building. The length alone is silly for the kind of shooting I'll be doing, and the fluting is completely superfluous, but I think it looks hot, so I said eff it. When it comes to decorations though, like spiders, or skulls, or Spartan helmets, or different colored infills, or whatever, that just seems a little over-the-top to me. I don't want to cross the line into tacticool. Here's another example besides decorations: KNS pins. If I don't have a trigger that requires anti-walk pins, I'm not going to use them. Imagine you met Chris Kyle, and he saw your rifle and noticed the KNS pins, and asked you what kind of trigger you were using, and you had to tell him it was a mil-spec trigger. I don't know about you, but I'd feel like a fool. Again, all of this is not to cast any judgment on anyone with tastes different from mine, it's just how I see things. To turn it around, I have no doubt that some people will see me with my ginormous fluted barrel, shake their heads ruefully, and think what a poser I am. C'est la vie.

As far as prices go, here are a few suggestions I would give you:
1) Always shop around.
2) If you're a vet or a LEO, always check to see if a place offers a MIL/LEO discount. Many do. Sometimes on top of their sale prices.
3) Never buy direct from a manufacturer unless you've verified that it's the best deal. It usually isn't, unless the item's on sale, and they're giving you a discount, and shipping's free. When that happens though, those can be some of the best deals.
4) Besides googling, and checking sites known to have good prices, a great tool for bargain hunting is gun.deals. It's mainly a site for searching for gun prices, but you can search for
gun parts there too (just be sure to uncheck "firearms only" on the results page). Besides guns, I've found great deals on stocks, magazines, lowers, and other parts. I found your lower there for $35 bucks less, including shipping.
5) Brownells is known for having everything, but not necessarily for having great prices. But, don't sleep on Brownells. They sometimes have good sales, and regularly have some sweet discount codes. Just yesterday they sent me a code for 10% off and free shipping on orders over $49. I picked up 3 HSGI rifle tacos (regularly $34, marked down to $24) for ~$69 delivered (a steal). Brownells doesn't always show everyone the same codes though, so be sure to check a site like retailmenot first. For example, there's a code today for $20 off and free shipping on orders over $199, but that code doesn't show up in the banner for me when I visit their site.
6) eBay. eBay isn't very firearms friendly, but you can find good deals on parts and tools there sometimes.
7) MidwayUSA sucks. Every time it looks like they have a good price on something they bend you over with shipping or other charges.
8) Sort of like gun.deals, but a search engine for ammo prices: ammoseek.com

Thanks for the info. I noticed that most of your complaints were aesthetic. You didn’t mention anything about them being poor quality or anything. I noticed the same thing. Colorful unicorns and stuff like that. At first I had the no logo lower selected but eent with their logo. Just engraved. No color.

There’s is absolutely nothing wrong with Spike’s quality wise.  They build and sell solid products.

That's right. I've never heard anything bad about their quality. Beyond that though, aesthetics aside, you're paying a higher premium for their branding than I think their quality warrants. I wouldn't buy their stuff for that reason alone, in the same way that I would never buy Colt parts. Ditto JP Rifles, unless maybe I were a competitive shooter or something.

Spike’s stuff is GTG. Use their site to figure out what you want then, shop around for better prices. Check out AIM Surplus , decent on prices and many parts ship for free. They have a good selection of Spike’s too.

Another great site is Primary Arms. Excellent selection (lots of Spike's stuff), fast shipping, good customer service, and very competitive prices. I've spent too much there.

Wish I had known that before. I still have an upper to assemble though. I’ll check these sites out.

I'd buy a complete upper for your first one. Shoot the crap out of it, see what you want/desire, and then build a second one if needed. BCM, DD, even PSA makes good uppers.

Why?

I think you should have shopped around a bit, for your 1st rifle you should go and handle others guns to see if you like some of the added features, I would recommend just mill spec lower to start.
Shop Palmetto State Armory, they have complete lowers and uppers on sale all the time, you could have got your complete lower with that mag pull stock for $159.00, the path your taking your on your way to a $900 gun that you might not like, try to tame that impulse buying....

If you rally want to build your upper, look for a member in EE named hochimin, he sells a lot of scratch and dent ST hardware.

I've gotten four or five barrels from him at significant discounts over the years and they were all stellar performers.

I think he has a batch of stripped uppers  on EE right now too.

Wow!
NotoriousDBA great write up and dead on. you're 100 %

You overpaid.  And I would probably buy an upper instead of upper parts as well

We all over pay/ overpaid at one point.

OP, don’t worry about it.  I always recommend to buy a complete rifle or mostly complete for your first from a reputable manufacture/ assembler (Spikes is an assembler, they manufacture nothing).  Spikes is GTG, they seem to only use quality parts.

I too am working on my first build. Just need to find an upper. Trying really hard keep from impulse buying. I have been eyeing one from Hardened Arms. Not a ton of feedback or reviews that I can find, but they boast to using in-house manufacturing as much as possible and have some models that I really like the aesthetics of. There is a good possibility though that I will fight the urge and pick up a complete upper from PSA that I know will fit my functionality needs perfectly.

When I built my first AR(*), I went to my FFL to pick up the receivers, and he said something to the effect of "Oh, you're building the upper too. I built one upper, and I just buy complete uppers now." I don't get that, or why people on arfcom often recommend buying complete uppers to people doing their first build. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I haven't found building uppers particularly difficult. Is people's reluctance to build uppers about timing the barrel nut? It takes a little patience, trying different shims, and stepping up through torque settings, but I wouldn't call it difficult. Frankly, the hardest part of the whole first build was getting the dang pivot pin into the lower (tip: get a 1/4" clevis pin for $1 at the hardware store). I guess my point is: don't be afraid to build your own upper. There are many excellent resources out there to walk you through building an AR. Brownells, in particular, has a series of videos that cover the entire process. You can find them on youtube here, or on their website here: https://www.brownells.com/aspx/learn/learndetail.aspx?lid=11004 (don't click on this link - you'll have to copy/paste it into the address bar).

That said, I definitely agree that you shouldn't try to get too fancy with your first build, especially if you have very little shooting experience, or very little experience shooting ARs. Like someone else was saying, you want to have a better idea of what you want, and what you like, before you start building something that you think you'll like. Also, if all you want is a straight-up M4gery, then it doesn't make sense to build your own from an economic standpoint. The price points on entry-level M4geries are so low, it's tough to build one as cheaply as you could buy a complete rifle. Regardless though, if you want to build one anyway, I'd say go for it. Just be sure to have the right tools for the job. There aren't many specialized tools required to build an AR, but they make all the difference. Plan on spending $100 or more on tools for your first build, depending on what you already have in your shop.

* To clarify: it was the first AR I built, and the first AR I owned, but not the first AR I'd shot.

I thought I read/heard that youtube removed all forms of gun related how-to videos recently?

Anyway, I wouldn't be afraid to build your own upper. Personally, I found the upper was the biggest reason for building my own, because nobody makes one the way I want it. So, I could buy a complete upper, as some people are suggesting, and then buy parts to swap out and have spare parts I don't even like lying around. Or, I can build it the way I want it from the beginning, and be done with it.

No. Who'd you hear that from? Our community can be a little paranoid sometimes.

That's exactly why I decided to build my first AR. I wanted a 16" barrel w/ mid-length gas, a free float handguard, and magpul grip and stock. Nothing fancy, but no one made a complete rifle like that, or if they did, there was a large price premium over the M4geries.

After seeing the low prices in Palmetto State Armory emails lately for uppers, I don't see why anyone would build one.  Unless you plan to build a few more, the cost of the tools alone will not be worth it, IMO.  Public service announcement:  Palmetto isn't exactly fast in shipping consistently.  Sometimes, it takes a really long time, sometimes, it's fast.  But it's cheap and generally good quality.

You are referring to this as your "first" AR, so I assume you have plans for more.  If that's the case, maybe building one will be good.  The tools are easy to use, and it's easy to build an AR upper.

But the wall of text above about coolness and being ashamed of your build in front anybody cracked me up.  Don't care if anyone thinks my decisions were good or not in my rifle.   For fun builds, I like the color fill.  I like novelty rollmarks, and I like KNS pins if I find them on sale (not paying $20+).  It's all about personal preference.  That's the best thing about ARs - you can make about anything you want.  Make it look like an issued rifle, or make it look like a space gun with all colored parts - who cares?  It's yours.

As mentioned previously, don't cheap out on the trigger group.  I would add to not cheap out on the barrel, and to buy the tool that trues the face of the threaded portion of the upper receiver.  About 95% of the forged receivers aren't truly square, and squaring them up helps with how the barrel extension mates to the upper receiver...  It is easy to do yourself, and the tool is only about $35 from Brownell's.  I have only had one forged receiver that was square to begin with.

If you they have it in stock and when they might ship it is still a mystery. Palmetto has good prices, but their customer service sucks.

OP - Here is a complete upper SPIKES 556 MID LE UPPER 16" FSP Complete . Cost is $469.05 and $10 to ship. Great deal and would get you up and going right away.

Spikes makes quality gear. They may be a bit “tacticool” with markings etc. but the quality is there. We have all fallen victim to the buy it then find it cheaper elsewhere bug, but I personally have also caught the wait too long for a good deal and end up putting a build on hold bug. At the end of the day if you have a quality rifle at a price you can bear you are ahead of the game vs waiting for a deal with no rifle

I couldn't remember specifically, except that it was general news, not hear-say within our paranoid community. So, I just searched and found this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-21/youtube-bans-firearm-sales-and-how-to-videos-prompting-backlash
This isn't specifically where I originally was given the impression from, but the result of a search, today. It isn't even conservative leaning media, seeking to vilify youtube as someone supporting leftist agenda. Here is a portion from the article with the key statement highlighted:
There's also this little tidbit within it, making it even more relevant to the discussion based on the OPs choice of parts:

Beat me to it, I also heard it from some youtubers that were discussing moving their new content because of the new rules as their channel was primarily building in nature

I wish I had know how stupid easy that building complete ARs was when I got my first one, that being said in the late ban days at least where I was I dont even know if I could have just gone into a shop and gotten a lower.

Now I am an advocate for building what you want, but I also dont think every one should build an AR themselves nessacarily as some people are just not mechanically inclined, I am very much so, but I have friends I wouldnt want to shoot a rifle they built unless I was watching them build it, to this end I never fault people for wanting to buy a complete upper, hell I still do at times.

As to the point on price I completely agree it is almost cheaper to buy a complete upper, and sometimes rifle, than to build, but lets face it a lot of times there isnt a good priced upper or rifle that is exactly what you want.

And tools... god that is a rabbit hole isnt it... I have God knows how much just in AR tools, and still want/need more to make my life easier

Well, what you know. My apologies, bbies1973.

For anyone who's interested, here's the actual policy: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7667605?hl=en

Given the vast number of AR how-to videos that are still on youtube today, not to mention hundreds of thousands of reloading videos, etc., it seems like we're looking at maybe one of two possibilities: 1) youtube made a rash decision that they've since had second thoughts about, and are going to back away from by simply not enforcing the policy, or 2) it's going to take a while, but most if not all of these kinds of videos will eventually get removed. I'm guessing most likely the former, but I suppose we'll see. Another thought is that maybe when the policy says "manufacture", they're not targeting assembly videos like the Brownells stuff, but more so stuff like building guns from 80% lowers. On the other hand, a search on youtube for "80% lower" still returns tens of thousands of results. Who knows. Regardless, the idea that youtube would ban videos about perfectly legal activities is concerning.

Oh, you're so right. I hadn't even considered that. I guess I'm assuming that anyone with the confidence to jump into a build has the self awareness to judge whether they're competent to do so. Which flies in the face of the fact that less competent people tend to overestimate their abilities, and more competent people tend to underestimate them.

LOL! Yeah. I've tried my best to get the minimum tools necessary to do the job properly/easily, but there always seems to be at least one more tool required for each build. Part of the problem for me is that I'm the only one of my friends who owns guns, much less builds ARs, or I could at least borrow the occasional tool. I shudder to think what I would have spent though, if I wasn't already fairly well equipped.

I am the only one of my friends that really works on or assembles ARs or Glocks... or well most anything firearms, so I get the work/ help me work on this... but I got tools out of it.

and yes yes people without skills do at times tend towards overstepping their abilities, while I tend towards overcaution when I am very able to do what I wasnt sure of

Wow. I thought the thread had died. Checked back for one of the links and saw all the responses.

I have quite a bit of shooting experience. Between that, visiting the stores and looking at builds that are posted I have a pretty good idea of what I’m after. Someone else hit the nail on the head. Out of all the complete uppers I don’t see one that’s perfect. Run into the same thing in other hobbies. Couldn’t find the perfect PC so I built them. No guitar fit the exact specs I wanted so I had them built custom. I’m not passing on the opportunity to familiarize myself with the platform more or build a rifle exactly how I want it. I expect to go through different parts. See something else I want. Eventually I might even accumulate enough to build #2. My girl won’t even see it coming either. Win/win. I do not have experience building. And no, this won’t be the only one I build. So most of the tools I have to invest in will see use.

Between the reviews and general opinion I’ve seen around the net I think it’s the lower is a good buy. More concerned with the quality then I am with the cost. I will shop around for bargains now though. Especially if they have the items currently in stock. I’m going to go with an upper from them too. I’ll also follow a lot of the advice I got here.

Update. Ordering my upper now. Here’s what I’m going with.

Spikes Flat top upper
Odin works 16.1” .223 wylde
BCM MCMR 15” mlok rail
Spikes Dynacomp Extreme

Eotech XPS 2-2 (might grab magnifier later)

Friend just bought a DD M4V7. This stuff needs to get here so we can go shoot.

SOunds like a good upper, I like BCM rails a lot slim and light.

This is a great resource for barrel installation.

Barrel installation

Just a note to anyone out there who sees the battlereadysulutions or https://battleready.solutions
Stay as far away from them as you can!!! This company is completely disorganized and its been almost 3 months since my order and the only way to get in touch with them is to leave a negative post on their facebook page and then contact them on facebook messenger. Thats when the games begin.... they are quick to take your money but nearly impossible to get your order. PLEASE Pm me before you order from them no matter what the price i will show you the communication to expect from them i took screenshots of everything. This is ancompany who does not need to get anyones business.

Let me know if this could be posted somewhere better

I have built a couple of AR's and don't think I'd go back to buying complete rifles. I have several things I always add, and to me there's no point in having a bunch of excess parts I'll never use. It's definitely not a cost cutting measure for me, as I end up buying nicer parts than I'd end up having otherwise lol. But all of my stuff is quality made, reliable, and suited as well as possible for their specific purpose. That being said I'm likely gonna build off of a receiver set next time simply for looks. All of my other rifles are mixed uppers/lowers from random places like Spikes/Larue/JP/DD/BCM etc. Doesn't bother me at all but I'm always trying new stuff to squeeze every drop of performance I can out of them to help offset my lack of shooting talent!

First couple of AR's I bought complete uppers.  Once it was established I have BRD (black rifle disease) I invested in a barrel wrench, better punches, a clamshell upper vise block and recently a Magpul BEV block.

For a first build, I would not recommend in buying all the tools if that's going to be your only build.