Hi all,

I am new to the world of ARs (and this site, thanks mods!) but not new to firearms.  I've been looking to break into the fascinating world of higher end ARs and have a question I can't figure out the answer to.

The Larue Ultimate Upper kit seems highly recommended and good value at ~$900.00 which is attractive to me.  You can pair that with a Larue lower (or the lower of your choice) for a few hundred $$$'s more, call it $1200 or $1300 all-in.  My understanding is that would give you a quality, completely functioning AR minus magazines, sights and optics....correct?

If that is true, I also see Larue sells some really nice complete rifles, starting around $1800.00 and going up from there.  

So my question is....what does the $1800 complete rifle have that the $1300 upper and lower kit doesn't?  Am I missing something?

Also, I'm just using Larue as an example, there seems to be many other companies with similar options.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and comments.  I've learned a lot here by lurking and looking forward to participating!

In theory you get someone that knows what they're doing putting the rifle together with proper tools, so it should be put together properly. Everything should be checked to be in spec, properly torqued to spec and head spaced. If there is an issue during the build the person should know how to resolve to issue or replace the offending part. In theory, because I  sure there are plenty of place out there that half ass builds. Larue however I would think is not one of those places I would expect everything from the to be GTG.

That said you buy the upper from them and a built lower its the same thing...attaching an upper to a lower is not really "building"

Thank you for your response and I appreciate your distinction with my (mis)use of the word 'build'.  That is kind of my point and doesn't really tell me what you're getting with the complete rifle for $500+ more over buying the upper and lower and easily putting them together.

When you purchase a complete rifle, you  buy a "COMPLETE" rifle that is listed in advertisements, etc. When you assemble a rifle out of different components (upper/lower), you are basically assembling a "frankenstein" rifle that won't have the re-sale value of a complete "factory" rifle.

To add to the conversation, when you make a decision to build a rifle that is the same (or similar) as what the factory has to offer, the factory takes all responsibility for making sure the rifle is correct in all stages of the build - head spacing, torque, alignment of gas block, fit, function, etc. If you decide to build your own rifle, you assume all risk in the assembly of the rifle - not to mention all the cost of the tools that are required for assembling the rifle.

Don't know about LaRue specifically but a lot of "complete" uppers don't come with BCG and charging handle.  That could be a couple hundred bucks in the price difference right there.

IIRC, there’s an ATF/tax thingie that hits companies harder for a complete firearm vs selling parts, even if its just an upper separated from a lower. So buying the two halves will always be cheaper for them, and therefore more incentive to get their customers to buy.

I’ve never seen an assembled rifle go for less than the pieces. So there’s that.

For your Larue question- their complete rifles have the Larue handguard pattern, which is heavy AF and proprietary. The UU kit is MLOK, so a better design IMO.

Once you have the knowledge, etc to assemble and have gathered the necessary tools required or convenient to have, it can be very rewarding and gratifying to "build". So much so that you're ready to do another and another, and .................

The Larue UU comes with a BCG and CH.

As others have posted i believe there is a specific tax for a complete rifle but usually not $500 worth...

I ended up buying a complete lower and then later a complete upper separately because it saved me some money i put towards some different furniture i wanted and accessories like optic, sling, case.
As well as with the lower being transferred as an other/firearm i had the legal freedom to run 16" barrel w/ stock or if i wanted to throw on a shorter barrel w/ pistol brace.

Well for me I always thought I did want a AR because I had no real use for It and I didn’t want to spend the money in a complete rifle that I couldn’t hunt with. But last spring a lot of companies were having spring cleaning sales on parts, so I decided after a lot of research to build one. I built a 18” barrel 223 Wilde, which all the parts prices before these sales added up around $1000, but it ran me $500. It ran great and building was very enjoyable. Soon after I was able to get my hands on a 350 legend barrel and built my new deer rifle. And now it’s a dam wildfire. Three more in the process of ordering part and assembling. But it is fun!

Look into PSA....cheap prices for kits.  Solid quality for the money.

I have a BUNCH of PSA stuff.  

If I were to do it all over again KNOWING WHAT I KNOW NOW, I would probably buy a complete upper from BCM (or something like that) and a complete lower from someplace else.

I say that because buying one or two really nice AR's would have saved me a lot of time and money (and space in my safe).  

But again, that is knowing what I know now because building all of those PSA kits really helped me get an understanding of how the weapons work, along with what I like and don't like.  You have not lived until you orbit a detent, install a hammer spring upside down, make your own H1/H2/H3 buffers, gap a gas block, do your own staking, or unscrew a barrel that PSA's in-house gorilla installed.

For me, it came down to assessing how much I'd need to modify a stock gun to my liking vs. just building a gun with the parts I would have ended up with anyway. I'm also an engineer by education and trade, so getting to put together my own gun from parts had a strong appeal. As a result, I built my first and only (thus far) AR-15. I finally got to shoot it this past weekend: the bullets hit the target, the action cycled like it should, and the gun didn't blow up in my face, so I think I did alright.