If You Can Afford An X You Can Afford An AR

The expense of an AR is a common refrain.

I went through several options a couple years ago; let's revisit them.

The cheapest way into an AR is to build one from a parts kit.

If you're going to build the common as dirt M4gery you're going to need a couple of specialized tools to put the lower together.  A stock wrench to tighten the castle nut they run between $9 and $65 depending on if you want one that does other things.  I got this one ($33.49).  A pair of channel-lock pliers and some tape on the jaws let you put in all of the fiddly roll pins without marring or breaking anything off.  Google AR lower assembly and pick a set of instructions; they are numerous.

Then you're going to want a lower.  There are lots of choices.  The average price is about $100.  Plus about $50 for shipping and FFL.

Then you need a parts kit.

I've used Del-Ton for several builds.  Their M4gry kit starts at $510.
M&A Parts' kit runs $545.
J&T Distributing has them from $549.

Gen 2 Magpul Backup Irons are still the go-to for cheap and decent rear sights.  $55.

If you know someone like me, you can swing by and borrow the tools.

So for $715 you have a basic 5.56x45mm 16" M4 flat-top.  Sevenish months at $100 a month.

That's less than quite a few guns!

If you feel like spending more on tools and doing a lot more research you can improve on the basic kits and end up with a better gun for about $100 total more, but you're going to have to buy nearly everything individually and put it all together yourself.  That's how all of my ARs are done now.  It's more fun and I trend towards non-popular configurations.