I am getting ready to accuire my first AR. After reading here and a few other forums for a month or so, I have decided on an M4 variant. How much am I going to save by just shopping for a good lower and buying a prebuilt upper? I don't want to get a kit or piece it togther, at least for the first one as I would like it to be a good experince the first time around.How
Iron Addict

I bought my first, a Bushmaster, complete and really like it.  Accurate and reliable (at least with the first 700 rounds I have put in it).  At this point, a little over a month later, I wanted to build at least one and had the same build or buy an upper question.  I answered it by looking at what I could buy, and pricing out what it would cost to build it.  Also, could I be happy with what was being spec'ed out by someone else, or would I end up swapping out parts anyway.  Turns out, I ended up just buying the few tools I need to build, and ordered the parts.  This way, I get what I want up front instead of spending more only to spend more again and swap out parts.

Lois

The real question here is why are you buying.  Of the 7 ARs I own, 5 are built.  I chose to build because I wanted custom options that do not generally come on factory rifles cheaply.  I wanted match grade trigers on some, certain types of tac rails, certain bbl types, certain flash hiders.  A "store bought" would easily cost me $200 - $400 more that what I could do on my own.  However, if the rifle is not custom, store bought may be better.  At least I would have a 1 year warranty.  

I would recommend this.  If you don't want custom parts and you are going to shoot the hell out of it, buy yourself a used M4gery off the site.  You can also buy used uppers and used lowers and pin it together.  But if you want a "real" bushy or RRA or Colt, pay the $$ to make sure you get a real one.  875 is a good reasonable price for a new bushy.