Should you buy an AR-15 or build an AR-15? Let's discuss.

Hello and welcome to the STNGR Workshop. My name is Rick Barrett and I'm your host for these series of videos where we talk about everything in the gun community from gun accessories to gun maintenance.

In today's episode, we are going to be talking one of the classic debates; One along the lines of Glock vs 1911, 9mm vs .45 ACP. That's right. We're gonna talk whether you should build an AR-15 or buy an AR-15.

Now before we get into the nitty gritty is the pros and cons of both, I just want to let you know there is no right answer. While it's fun to debate these topics whether you choose to buy an AR-15 or choose to build one or we have a third option where you customize one along the way, you're gonna be getting a rifle that's right for you and you should not let anybody tell you differently. Your rifle is for you and not for anybody else.

So let's get to our first topic, buying an AR-15. Now when you buy an AR-15, you're going into your local gun store and you're getting a completed one, a completed upper and lower. And that advantage is you're getting an AR-15 completely functional right off the bat.

Now there are some in the gun community that will look down on a budget tier or entry-level AR-15 and that's just ridiculous. There are a lot of great AR-15s out there to fill the needs you're looking for that don't have to cost $1500+. Just because it's more expensive doesn't mean it's going to be better.

There there are four things you can count on when you purchase a complete AR-15 from your local gun store:

• The first is the backing of the company.
• The second is the ease of purchase.
• The third is the accuracy.
• And fourth is the full package.

Ruger AR-556® Standard Model 8500 Caliber 5.56 NATO. Image from Ruger.com.

In regards to warranty, if you're purchasing an AR-15 from a company like Ruger or a company like Smith & Wesson, you can be assured that they will offer a warranty. So if there's a problem with your AR-15 you have the backing of that company that made it. So if you have a problem you can send it back to them to have it fixed. This is in contrast to building or customizing an AR-15 where you could potentially void the warranty and then you will be on your own.

The second point is ease of purchase, simply put you walk into your local gun store or you could purchase it from an online FFL and sent to a local gun store or another FFL and once you finish the paperwork it's all yours.

The third point we're gonna be talking about is accuracy because there's a lot of people that will tell you that entry-level AR-15s or stock AR-15s are not very accurate and this is completely false.

Now you may not be running 3-Gun Competitions with this thing as soon as you buy it, but understand you're buying it for specific purposes: Home defense, maybe you're gonna go hog hunting, maybe you just want something to go plinking. The role it was designed for, whether it is home defense or maybe it's in a bug out bag or whatever the case may be, it is ready to perform that as soon as you purchase it.

And the last one is the full package of the AR, meaning all the parts were assembled by the manufacturer. So at least in theory, you know everything's working properly and you can take it right to the range and start using it.

We've talked the pros of buying an AR-15. Now let's talk cons.

Now as far as the cons of buying an AR-15, it really comes down to what you're using it for like we talked with the full package or with accuracy. Now some people are gonna want to customize their AR 15 or they're gonna want a very fancy model and they're gonna want to have some special things attached to it.Some people are going to take that AR-15, put it in their safe, lock it up, take it to the range twice a year and that's it.

In addition, some people regret buying a stock AR-15 once they see the plethora of options that can be done to them: Things like trigger groups, foregrips, stocks, bolt carrier groups. They may come to regret buying a fully functioning or stock AR-15 because of all the customizations they want to do to it. The reason this is a con is because even though you bought your AR-15 at an entry-level price for a specific job, once you're done customizing it you may regret it thinking you should have built one from the ground up or may be gone for a mid or upper tier AR-15.

Of course this brings us to building an AR-15 which can be a fun experience. However, it can also be costly and frustrating if you don't know what you're doing. But let's look at the pros and cons of it.

Now there is something very satisfying about building an AR-15 (or really anything if you're mechanically inclined). The overall pros of building an AR-15:

• It's yours.
• You will get to know your rifle very well as you build it.
• You can take your time building your AR-15.
• In theory, once you get all the parts, it won't take long to assemble.
• The experience you gain from building an AR-15 will give you a nice foundation when you work on your other firearms.

Now the first point being it's yours. Everything you selected on that AR-15 from the trigger to the grip to the handguard to the bolt carrier group, even the gas tube, it's all yours. You selected it, it's your AR-15.

In following up the first point, when you build an AR-15 you will know how your rifle works because you've selected every individual part you know the inner workings and how it's supposed to function. This also helps because you may be able to diagnose problems with your AR-15.

The third point in building an AR-15 is you can take as much time as you want with it. Do you want to buy all the parts in a weekend? You can. If you want to save up money over time for specific parts, maybe you want a really specific trigger group or you have your eye on a stock that you like, you can do that as well. Building an AR-15 gives you the flexibility to make it just as you want at your speed.

The next point is once you have all these parts together technically it shouldn't take too long to assemble. With the proper background, you may be able to build it in a weekend or over a week. Once again you can take your time when you build it. Now if you've never done this you're gonna have to do the research on how it is actually built and where they're supposed to go. But once you have all that knowledge gain you can build it in as quickly as a day or spread it out over a week, it's up to you.

The last pro we'll talk about in building an AR-15 is it will give you confidence in working with firearms. Now obviously no two guns are the same but when you work and build your AR-15 you'll get familiar with how the trigger group is supposed to operate, how firing pins work and you can take that at least as a foundation when working with your firearms.

Of course we've discussed the pros of building an AR-15, now we have to discuss the cons.

Although the AR-15 is easy to assemble it will take some knowledge and research to do so, and it will take patience.

The second con when building an AR-15 is if you find yourself buying mil-spec parts. Mil-spec parts are designed for the M16 which is the military version of the AR-15. These parts generally do not work with the civilian version. You have wasted your money because they're not going to work together.

The final con is maybe you're not ready or confident to build one. Now this is not a knock on you. Plenty of people don't know how to do it. Don't force yourself to build an AR-15 because it's cooler or because your friends at the range will like it. If you aren't confident or if you're not proficient enough to do it, you're gonna be wasting your time, money, and potentially having an inferior gun when you're done building it.

Now the compromise between building an AR-15 and buying an AR-15 is customizing an AR-15.

Now we talked about this a bit and we covered buying an AR-15 but there are some people that will buy entry-level AR-15s with the sole purpose of upgrading it.

Why do they do this? Simply put they have a foundation in place with a completed gun. That way they can put a STNGR USA handguard on it, a Magpul stock on it, put in a new trigger group and a new bolt carrier group and the overall gun is still there. That way they can upgrade the stuff they want and leave everything else stock.

And that's it for this video. Coming to you from the STNGR Workshop, my name is Rick Barrett. I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll talk to you again soon.