Quoted: I've looked a million times at J&T's website, but never gotten around to buying one. Most of the people I know either have completely assembled ARs (Colts or Bushmasters) or built the entire gun from pieces and parts; so I'm kind of curious. Of guys who have kit guns, was it your first gun, do you have other ARs that were factory assembled guns, how often do you shoot (per month/year or rounds per year), what do you use your kit AR for (defense, target shooting, hunting, plinking/fun); why did you get a kit gun over either building from scratch of buying a complete gun?

My only AR currently is one I built from an M&A kit.  My next one will probably be from a J&T kit (see my J&T vs. Del-Ton thread on the builder it yourself forum).  I mainly use mine for target shooting.  I've got other rifles, shotguns or handguns for defense purposes, and for most hunting I prefer larger calibers.  That said, I wouldn't be afraid to use my AR for defense or for hunting where .223 is an adequate caliber (varmints or smaller).  My AR sees several hundred rounds at the range at least 3 weekends a month.  I bought a kit because it was significantly more convenient and likely less expensive than buying all the parts separately unless I wanted to spend a lot of time bargain hunting for each component.  The upper also came headspaced, which I felt reduced the risk a little for my first build and saved me from having to buy a barrel wrench.  Comparing to buying assembled, my whole AR was under $600 including all relevant shipping on the kit and sales tax on the lower, I've not seen wholesale prices on assembled rifles much below $100 more than that, and I'd have to pay shipping, FFL transfer fee ($20) and sales tax (8.25%) on top of those prices.  So the bottom line would be about $200 more for a comparable assembled rifle.  I like "do it yourself" projects.  My 2nd build is an 80% lower, which isn't cost effective (I could have bought 3 finished lowers for what the 80% plus tooling cost), but it is fun.

My first AR is a kit gun; Hbar A2, 20".  It is a Model 1 kit, and it was the least expensive way for me to get an AR.   I liked the fact that it was all there except the reciever, and was easy to put to gether, while helping me to understand the platform.

My newest AR isn't quite finished, but it has been built up from the special parts I want in an AR.  It will be exactly what I want.  

Will it be better than my first?   I don't know, it will sure cost a hell of a lot more.  I've already got almost three times what I paid for the whole kit and lower reciever in the first gun.   Will it shoot better?  Probably not.   My Model 1 kit shoots 3/4" 5 shot groups with handloads at 100yds with irons.

I learned so much more from building the kit instead of just buying a whole rifle.   I still have another stripped lower waiting.   I'm not sure how it will become a rifle.

My first AR was a kit from M&A Parts, a good basic A2 style, I was new to AR's and didn't really know what I wanted yet.  I use it for recreational shooting mostly, you could almost call it a plinker.

My second AR was a 24" Bull Barrel Kit from J&T Dist, built on a Stag lower and used a JP Rifles single stage trigger, it is awesome, extremely accurate!

My next AR is in the planning stages, it will be something like the M4, and it will be from J&T with a Stag receiver.

Here's the 24" Bull Barrel Kit:

I bought this M4 kit from M&A parts as my first AR 2 years ago (optic is a newer addition).


I hadn't found this site yet so it took me about 45min-1hour to assemble the lower. I had about 2 cases of ammo through it when it started to have some extreme FTFeed problems. Turns out that they put an M4-cut upper on a rifle barrel extension and that left one hell of a lip. It got so bad that I couldn't fire more than 1 round without it FTFeeding.

I whipped out the dremel when I got home and matched the barrel extension to the upper and it hasn't been too bad since then. I now have about 4000-4500rds through it and use it as my beat around rifle for around the farm and for coyote hunting.

I was thinking about getting a 20" A2 kit from somewhere (Del-ton or J&T, I'm not going M&A again and I'm not going to even try Model 1) but I've found it to be much more fun to build from the ground up.

And to answer your questions.
1)Yep, First AR.
2)The AR's I have bought afterwards all started as stripped lowers. I don't plan on buying complete.
3)I shoot it about bi-weekly, usually about 100rds per session. About 2 or 3 cases a year between my 4 AR's and this one gets shot the most.
4)Hunting, plinking
5)Cheaper. My kit total was $540 and my lower was $130. I had a complete and functioning AR for $670. The Bushies on the rack were $899. I didn't build from scratch because I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want to have to deal with the barrel at the time.

Hope this helps.

WIZZO

I have a kit AR only I pick the parts that make up my kit like Bushy barrels and uppers,Colt Bolts,RRA telestocks,Bushy lowers.

I built all 3 of my ARs from either kits, or from scrounging on the EE.  The first one was on a Del-Ton kit and the last 2 were built from "bargains" on the EE.

I assemble my rifles because there are no AR's that are available the way I like them out of the box (except the FA stuff, and I ain't going to pay those prices).

Far as shooting them, I test the upper with anywhere from 60 to 200 rounds on full auto on a friends RR.  Only then do I bother to zero it with the semiauto lower that goes with it.  If all is well then the rifle goes in the safe, and I start on another project.  Keeps me busy.

The custom built AR-10 and AKM are the only rifles I regularly take to the range.  The AR-10 goes hunting, which ain't often these days.

Quoted: I've looked a million times at J&T's website, but never gotten around to buying one. Most of the people I know either have completely assembled ARs (Colts or Bushmasters) or built the entire gun from pieces and parts; so I'm kind of curious. Of guys who have kit guns, was it your first gun, do you have other ARs that were factory assembled guns, how often do you shoot (per month/year or rounds per year), what do you use your kit AR for (defense, target shooting, hunting, plinking/fun); why did you get a kit gun over either building from scratch of buying a complete gun?

Aimless,

For fun gun (pun intended): It doesn't matter..............

For any serious stuff:
Factory Colt or LMT only, no kits period. For special applications I have MSTN build what I need.