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Posted: 1/13/2005 4:30:05 AM EDT
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Is is very difficult to build a stripped lower and do you save much money by getting the kit and doing it yourself? Thanks |
Purchasing a stripped lower and installing a LPK is like putting LEGO's together. Building a 80% lower is another story...............Which are you refering to? |
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I assembled my first lower in about 40 minutes. Follow the post from Falarak & you can't go wrong. I spent the extra $12.00 for the front detent tool. Made getting that sucker in its place a snap. It was really very easy. You want to be careful, BRD is VERY easy to catch.... |
Depends on how you do the comparison; ie, who's lower and LPK at what cost vs who's complete lower at what cost. Usually you can save around $20-30 or so if you do your homework and shop around. VERY easy to assemble if you have a few basic tools. A punch set is necessary, and a shop vise helps (I use mine to press in some of the roll pins vs whanging on them with a punch). You can put one together in around 30 min. |
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All true The Assembly of a Stripped lower is a piece of cake. I like the LPK from bushmaster because the parts are slightly darker then the generic ones I have seen out there - aka J&T, Model1sales Plus the LPK from Bushmaster is about 5 dollars more and they got great LPK atm G'luck and follow the guide from here, it helps ahead of time just to make sure you have every piece before you start - it's easy to overlook missing a detent or spring... L8r 
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| I built my lower for $225. It's an Ameetec lower, RRA LPK, RRA M4 stock and a Hogue grip. I don't think you can buy a compete lower with those parts for that price. BTW, it's very easy to build a lower. You don't need any special tools at all, not even the detent tool. I used a pair or vise grips, a nail and a hammer, no scratches either. |
Where do you get that there is a $200 tax? There is an excise tax but it would take one hell of an expensive rifle to get a $200 tax. I don't know what percent it is but it isn't that much. I think your refering to the $200 (NFA is it?) tax. |
| I can see that price for an M-4. I paid $115 each for 4 DPMS lower receivers from an FFL dealer at a gun show. All 4 were brand new, stripped lowers directly from DPMS to the store owner. I got a good price because I bought 4 at the same time. All 4 were registered as rifles when I bought them and have been built into rifles. If I wanted to build a no frills M-4 for as cheap as possible, I could have ordered an M-4 kit from Model1Sales which costs $455 with all needed parts to turn your lower into a functioning firearm. So for a total of $570, I'd have an M-4. Granted, it would cost more if you added some fun toys like a free floating 4 rail, or an Ergo grip, or the collapsible stock. But I could still build one fore less than $600. |
Close, but no cigar. There IS a Federal Excise Tax on manufacturing complete firearms, but it is more like 11% as I recall. Built into the manufacturers price, when they sell it. This may also be close, but no cigar but it WOULD be less than $200 on a $1,000 or less weapon. The $200 Tax figure may come from the Federal Making Tax required, when an Individual manufactures an NFA weapon.  Lonny |
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If you can successfully perform simple manual tasks AND follow written instructions, assembling a stripped lower is easy-though it sometimes tried my patience when I built my first AR. I had to go on the cheap, which meant that I could get a few parts at a time, and sometimes that meant that I got parts for "step 5" before I got the parts for "step 4." Frustrating. You can save quite a lot of money building a cheap rifle, or by building a custom rifle. The difference is that with the cheap rifle you're just interested in it going "BANG," while the custom rifle is built around custom options that you research and choose. Either way you save money, but I'd go with saving money over what the manufacturers want for the custom options you want. The excise tax is due when a complete rifle is sold. So if you build your own rifle, there is that 11% or so tax as a savings. However, when/if you decide to sell it, you should do so intelligently. That means selling it as a complete lower and a complete upper-NOT a complete rifle. This avoids both a tax liability and any thought that you're building rifles for profit. Of course we only build these rifles because we love them, right? |
I could have built it even cheaper if I had used cheaper parts such as Model 1. Anyway, here's the break down of the cost, and these are all quality parts. Ameetec stripped lower from Ameetec: $90 RRA LPK from Eagle Firearms: $54 RRA M4 stock from Eagle Firearms: $69 Hogue grip from Cheaper then Dirt: $14 CMMG MOD4A2 chrome lined 1/7 twist upper complete from CMMG :$499 |
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