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Posted: 6/5/2011 8:36:16 PM EDT
| Is it cheaper to build a rifle from parts or from a kit? |
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depends if your just wanting to build a very basic rifle... if your gonna upgrade this and that, then your buying parts twice... but then if you peice it out then you might be buying form differant venders and staking up shipping fee's....
if your just trying to build the cheapest budget rifle you posibly can... then i recommend a parts kit all the way... and try to find one that offers free shipping..!!! and then go with the cheapest lower you can get... and you can definanly get real close to the 500 range... if you buy used parts and get free hand me downs you might be able to do better but then you have a used rifle build and hand me down parts.. soo in my opinion if you want just the basic of basic rifle then go with a parts kit!!! |
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Part by part and bit by bit adds up extremely fast. Generally a kit gun will be cheaper, but the trade off will be total customization will be limited.
Custom builds vs. off the shelf is comparable to buying a new car off the lot or building one 100% from parts purchased at the auto parts store. We all know how that plays out. 
I would buy a kit, customize it as funds allow, and use the extra parts in a future build. 
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Quoted:
Is it cheaper to build a rifle from parts or from a kit? There is no way to answer this. All depends on the cost of a particular kit vs. the cost of individual parts that you might or might not choose to use in your particular build. What someone else chooses to buy might not be cost comparative to what you might choose to buy. Go buy the parts & you'll see for yourself. |
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if your planing on upgrading just the "furniture" later on when the funds become available... then i would definantly recomend building the parts kit rifle, just to have a rifle you can start shooting and getting familair with the weapon sytem...
you can always swap out a stock, grip, handguards or upgrade to a rail later on with out really feeling like you overspent on the basic furniture... most kits come with the basic m4 furniture and really if you peice that stuff its not like more than 40 -50 bucks on it... sooo if your gonna take a while to get that 200.00 stock that 175.00 rail and 40 dollar grip... at least you have the basic furniture you can still use, untill you get the funds for the other high-end furniture.... and that in its own right is worth the 40-50 bucks that was included in the kit price... just so you have a working rifle that you can start training with.... JMO... |
I bought a J&T Dist. kit a few years ago and upgraded as funds allowed, it shoots great and works flawlessly, I basically have it the way I want, but I still need a light, vertical grip and a optic/sight 
I'm wanting to build a A4 clone, and either want to use a J&T parts kit, build its from parts or buy a BCM upper and lower, just not sure which way I want go. |
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It just really depends.
We've seen stripped lower prices for as little as $58 - but buy 1,000 and they get a lot cheaper, down toward $30. That's why assembled guns are now selling for as little as the cost of parts - TO US - or less. There is still enough markup to make a profit. Another consideration is that building an inexpensive gun, or buying it at the $600 level, then upgrading it isn't often really accurately reported. All the used parts sell for less, very few include the loss as part of the overall cost. Buy a stock for $50, upgrade it with another for $100, then sell the old one for $25, that installed stock has cost you $125 bottom line. You DON'T save money in the long run, you spend even MORE - all in an effort to limit cash flow. It's actually more expensive to do it that way, you're better off saving up and getting the part you want, not spend 15-25% more than you needed just to "improve" a working gun. If spending 25% more to wind up with what you will eventually have anyway, I have to ask, were the ubercool parts really that necessary? Wasn't the first edition gun good enough? Can you precisely quantify in real numbers the exact amount of improvement? I can say with more honesty than the guys selling them they certainly can't and won't guarantee X amount of improvement. And if you haven't practiced enough you can't make a mistake, then you aren't good enough to use the small incremental improvement anyway (including myself.) The better method is to specify exactly what the gun needs to do - range and target - then build to those requirements. Start with the appropriate caliber, a barrel accurate enough, an upper that allows you to use the sights needed, a stock and grip that does the job, handguards that complement the barrels accuracy, and then a trigger that fits all that. Get the appropriate parts the first time and build it right. Don't expect inappropriate parts - like a match target trigger on a Bargain Bin gun - to help at all. What you get is an Bargain Bin gun for $899 that still shoots 2MOA. In fact, adding one to a Tier One $1100 milspec gun just makes it a $1400 2MOA gun, too. Spend $300 extra ON THE BARREL, you get more accuracy. Far too many on the internet have no clue or regrets spending YOUR money on stuff like that. FWIW. |
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I'd say building from parts really has the potential to be cheaper, but most people don't do it properly. Doing it from parts takes time- it'll probably take longer to get everything together than from buying a kit because you will need to shop around more. To do it right, you should be shopping and waiting for sale events, buying some parts used off the EE, etc. If you do it right, you might be able to save $200 or so. |
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