*** Disclaimer *** Those who are tired of giving advice to noobies looking to make their first AR puchase should stop reading here
Ok, now that that's out of the way, here's my deal. I'm fairly new to firearms. My collection so far includes a .22 rifle, .22 pistol, and a 9mm pistol. Next on my wish list is an AR. It is SO tempting to buy a S&W or Stag "off the shelf", but if I'm going to spend $600 t0 $900 for that, it does seem foolish if I could put together something like Indivdualist's BCM build. I've read enough to know that for my first AR I don't want to build it complete from scrach (I don't want a stripped lower), but as long as I bought completed components it seems like I would be ok and don't have to necessarily buy "off the shelf".
In asking myself what I care about, my list is fairly short:
* $1000 max budget (but of course anything under that would be nice and would go to ammo)
* Fairly light weight (not sure what to look for exactly here, I've only held a few AR's but they really seemed to range in weight. What components most impact overall weight?)
* Does NOT need to withstand rolling around in mud. It will mostly be a range plinker but I would like it to be fairly accurate. If I miss bullseye, I want it to be my fault or the fact that I'm using cheap ammo, but not the guns fault. This gun would have a better chance of seeing zombie blood at "go time" than it would seeing dirt or mud.
* Lastly (and perhaps most importantly?) I want it to handle cheap steel cased ammo without flinching. Do tier 1 guns handle cheap ammo better than tier 2? Or is that an apples to oranges comparison? I can always use better ammo for serious target shooting, but if I feel like dumping 30 rounds into a short range target for grins and giggles, I want to be able to use the cheap stuff.
All of that said, should I save a few hundred $ and just pick up a S&W?
Thoughts? Thanks in advance for any replies.