Hi, My name is Steve and I am a "shoot for groups" Geek.. I can admit it. I will also be an AR newbi here pretty soon.

Question for the many-thousands of rounds crowd: If you had a RRA 20-24" Varmint, a DPMS 20-24" Varmint and a nicely-built gun assembled with the White Oak Arms $600.00 Assembled 20" upper with good trigger, lower and all the other stuff...would you expect one gun to consistently produce better accuracy than the others? Of course I know that most of the equasion is in the goof-ball behind the rifle, but all things being equal, would the $1,500.00 build-rifle be worth the difference from a $999.00 internet order-in?

My paper-cutting mind needs to have some experienced input on this.

Thanks very much to all research contributors.

Its going to depend on the components you use (mostly the barrel).. if you use better components than the RRA or DPMS then you are going to get better results.  Pretty simple.

The only downside I see to a build would be the possibility of something going wrong with the upper assembly (e.g. the geometry at the front of the upper is off or the barrel is not torques properly) but there's no guarantee that can't happen with a DPMS or RRA.  Everyone produces a lemon now and again.

A lot of barrel manufacturers/vendors (e.g. Krieger) will assemble your upper for a small fee.  Buy good components and build or have a good builder (e.g. ADCO) do it for you.

All things being equal, you should compare a $1000 build-gun to a $1000 box gun. In which case the $1000 build gun will typically get you higher quality components than the $1000 box gun due to the box gun being taxed as soon as the builder attaches an upper to a lower.

Other thing to take into account is that a factory rifle **may** have an upper that marries better to the lower. Less wobble at this junction will also cause some accuracy differences.

Agree with others....you can build better for the same price as a factory unit.    Putting the money where it really counts (barrel for starters) and forgoing the bling or status parts, you can build a good shooter for the same money...

[han solo] Well, that's the real trick, isn't? [/han solo]


Yes it is worth it to build for accuracy, but also for personalization...
There are probably two or three manufacturers that configure guns very close to something I would actually build for myself.

I'm a newbie as well.  I've been shooting for a while but am in the process of aquiring parts to build my 1st AR.  What parts, besides the barrel, contribute to accuracy?  Should any of the parts be purchased together to get the best fit?

I agree with this statement. If you're skilled as a builder/assembler you'll get a better rifle for the same money. The other thing to remember here is even though you may have built a better rifle, when it comes time to sell it, chances are it will be worth less than the factory weapon.



 

One thing i was always told with all rifles, including AR's ... you can shoot better with a crappy gun and good optics than with a top of the line rifle and crap optics. that and a good mount like Larue for your optic.  but, i would wager on yall knowing that already.

True to some extent I suppose. With a terrible optic that's not parrallax free, you might end up chasing bullets around the paper as your reticle shifts from left to right. Same with a bad mount.

However, the threshold for "crappy" in optics is arguable. A $300 Nikon Buckmaster and a $150 ADM Recon mount on your $2K rifle will not inhibit your shooting performance that much IMHO.

That's always a subject for debate.  A better trigger group will help, free floating hand guards are another.  One low cost item would be to make sure your upper is true where the barrel extension contacts it.  There are lapping tools for this that I think are fairly inexpensive.  Don't forget the ammo either.  You can drop 3k on a build and if you have junk ammo it's not going to shoot worth a damn.  

Basically you have to research and decide, depending on how you are going to use your rifle, (and your budget), whether the anticipated gains in accuracy are worth it to you.