See more results
for Smith And Wesson AR Sport II on Wikiarms.com
Top 5 Budget AR Manufactures
Updated
10 months ago
Good morning, everyone, this is John with gun.deals, and today we're going to be doing another fan requested review, this is going to be going over the top five or at least my favorite five budget manufacturers focusing on the AR platform.
Starting off with a couple of honorable mentions that can't make the list because I really haven't played around with them all that much, I've handled them a few times, I've shot them maybe once or twice, but certainly not enough to give a full review or opinion on. It’s actually going to be from a couple of the big name brands, so that's going to be the Smith and Wesson Sport 2, which back in the day was probably the king of budget ARs, coming anywhere from like five to six hundred bucks, decent feature set, decent quality barrel, so on and so forth, but I haven't played around with it enough to really say what it is now, and I believe now they've updated it and it's gone up a little bit in price, but something worth mentioning, especially if you've got one back in the day at a really good price, for a while it was probably the best budget AR on the market.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
Powered by Wikiarms.com
The other one is going to be the Ruger 5.56 AR, I forget exactly what they call it, but from what I've heard for a budget AR, from a big brand, it has performed fairly well, and the reviews are pretty good. Haven't really played around with it so I can't really put it on the list, but I thought I'd throw in a couple honorable mentions from some of the bigger name brands if you're not comfortable with some of the other smaller lesser-known manufacturers.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Ruger 5.56 on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
Getting into the real list, starting out at number 5, and it has to be here because it is the cheapest possible, that is going to be Bear Creek Arsenal. Bear Creek Arsenal, if you are not aware, they manufacture a lot of stuff for other companies, and as well that they producea ton of their own ARs. Their ARs start at the high 300s, low 400$, depending on time of year, sales, so on and so forth, but you can also find their upper receivers for under 200$ for a complete upper receiver, so as far as cheap goes, they are about the cheapest you can possibly get, but the reason they're number 5 is that you are going to have more issues with quality control.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
Product
Price
Store
MPN
UPC
AR-15 Adjustable Gas Block | Bear Creek Arsenal/Superlative Arms
$89.99
Bear Creek Arsenal
ADJGBA-750
-
AR-15 Adjustable Gas Block | Bear Creek Arsenal/Velocity Precision
$79.99
Bear Creek Arsenal
ADJGBA-750-V
-
Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 Red Dot Sight - Red/Green Reticle
$64.99
Bear Creek Arsenal
RD3-15
-
Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 Semi-Automatic Pistol 300 AAC Blackout (7.62x35mm) 10.5" Barrel Black
$429.99
MidwayUSA
-
-
Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 Semi-Automatic Pistol 300 AAC Blackout (7.62x35mm) 10.5 Barrel Black - 239712"
$429.99
MidwayUSA
CP636N-300PHB10.518P-10M3
-
BEAR CREEK ARSENAL BCA AR-45 Pistol Side Charger MLOK /wMag USED GUNS
$779.99
Guns.com Used Guns
-
ECOM00255482
See more results
for Bear Creek Arsenal AR on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
For those of you who don't know, Bear Creek Arsenal used to send out products for me to review, after a couple negative reviews, after a couple issues they stopped sending me product to review because they don't like negative reviews, but even with some of the issues that I've had with Bear Creek Arsenal there is an undeniable amount of value there. For instance, I put 30 to 50, 000rounds on Arsenal products, anything from 5.56, 7.60x39, 300 Blackout, 6.5 Creedmoor, and .308, I've tested probably no less than 20 of their products, had a few issues here and there, but by and large for the cheapest AR possible you can get lucky and get a really good one or you can get a little bit unlucky and end up with something that needs some extra work on it, and you can always read horror stories online, and that kind of comes with the territory of being on a budget list. So, they do deserve to be on the list, but probably no higher than number 5.
Number 4 is a newer brand, this actually comes from Primary Arms, and that is going to be Expo Arms. Expo Arms is Primary Arms in-house brand, I've done four builds with Expo Arms products and I've had very good luck with three of them, and then I had one issue. The reason why I would put them overall a little bit above Bear Creek Arsenal is the fact they have maybe a little bit wider variety in terms of their products, and they do offer higher end products as well, I believe they have a Combat line and they've done some reiterations in it, a lot of their products are using Rosco barrels or some other high quality barrels that you can find for on sale 80-100 bucks. The uppers that I put together, the ones that have performed well have performed very well, like way above their price category, and I have had some issues with quality control. So, the reason why I would put Expo Arms a little bit higher than Bear Creek Arsenal is that, even though maybe we still have the similar level of issues with each company, I feel that the ceiling of performance, the maximum performance that you're able toget out of some Expo Arms builds is going to be much higher than a similarly well working Bear Creek Arsenal build and for not too much more money.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Expo Arms AR on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
So, if you get a perfect Bear Creek Arsenal build and a perfect Expo Arms build I think that the dollar-for-dollar performance might be a little bit higher with Expo Arms, even if you're paying a little bit more money because you get a lot more features, cold hammer forged, chrome lined barrel, so on and so forth, and a ton of different variations, higher quality hand guards, higher quality upper receivers, parts, better BCG, so on and so forth. So, I think that Expo Arms does edge out Bear Creek Arsenal, though not a perfect brand because we are talking about budget brands, and you are going to run into some issues with parts, quality control, assembly, so on and so forth.
For number 3 in the list that is actually going to be Radical Firearms. I have less experience with Radical Firearms than I do with Expo and quite a bit less with Bear Creek Arsenal, but the builds that I've used Radical Firearms components on and tested their complete rifles, I have yet to have an issue with them and I've tested 7.62x39 and 5.56, so even though I have a little bit less experience with them so far they performed very well. Keep in mind that you can find their complete rifles for anywhere from the low 400$ range all the way up to about 500$. Usually they come with a very decent furniture set as well, you're usually getting like B5 furniture on a lot of the Radical Firearms components, which is quite nice M-LOK rails, really basic feature sets, but all the features that you would want at a low price and so far in my personal experience they have worked quite well.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Radical Firearms AR on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
Radical Firearms as a company has evolved, they used to be just a cheap, really crappy company, they got new leadership, the new leadership came in and was basically like we need to redo our brand basically, we still want to be a high value budget brand but we really need to bring up the performance to compete with some of the other manufacturers on the market that are keeping prices down, but also providing you a very high level of value. I'm sure that they're still not going to be perfect and you're going to find issues here and there with their product because that is one of the things that will happen with any company at any price category, but if you are cheaping out on quality control or someof your assembly processes it's going to pop up more on the lower end than it will on the higher end, at least in theory.
Moving on to number 2, number 1 and 2 can really be swapped around depending on your personal opinions or what you're looking for. For me personally, number 2 is the best of the lot but it's a little bit more expensive, and that is going to be Aero Precision/Ballistic Advantage/Stag Arms because all three of those are sister companies. For instance, this is a Aero Precision 300 Blackout with an 8-inch Ballistic Advantage barrel, so if you buy this exact same upper receiver or build it yourself from Aero Precision you're going to be getting a Ballistic Advantage barrel, it might be marked Aero Precision but it is the exact same barrel, Aero Precision charging handle, so on and so forth.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Aero Precision on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Ballistic Advantage on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
See more results
for Stag Arms on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
The assembly on Aero Precision products that I've tested from them has been the best of any budget company, what might make them a little bit worse value overall is the fact that they are a little bit more expensive. Depending on who you talked to, Aero Precision might be a super cheap trash tier company, but for most more value-minded people there are going to be a little bit more expensive than someof those super budget brands, but their components are going to be a little bit higher quality or in some cases a lot higher quality, the builds that they put together are going to be a lot nicer as well, barrels are going to be good, bolt carrier groups are going to be good, the assembly processes themselves are going to be better than a lot of the other budget brands out there, and the performance is going to be higher as well.
Ballistic Advantage has actually started offering some of their builds in a complete package, so you can actually buy Ballistic Advantage Hansen upper receivers complete from them for anywhere from like four to five hundred bucks, which is more expensive than the other companies on the list, but you're getting a lot more performance out of them, factory pinned gas blocks, Hanson profile barrels, which are fantastic. You're going to be paying a little bit more money, but you're getting more performance as well, so depending on who you're talking to, Ballistic Advantage, Stag Arms, Aero Precision, might be number one in terms of performance, but maybe a little bit lower when it comes to just a straight up dollar-for-dollar value.
Number 1 on the list should be pretty easy to figure out as it hasn't been mentioned yet and it is probably the biggest dog in the budget space, and not only in the AR space, but basically everything, Palmetto State Armory does just about anything you could ever want and everything you probably don't want as well. That being said, when it comes to AR specifically not only do they have some of the cheapest ARs on the market, but with their new Saber lineup they're also offering a lot higher quality parts and hopefully assembly processes as well.
Wikiarms.com Search Engine Results
Want to see your products here? Click this
link.
Product
Price
Store
MPN
UPC
Palmetto State Armory AR-15 Classic LPK w/o Fire Control Group - 1785
$39.99
Palmetto State Armory
1785
000000001785
Palmetto State Armory AR-15 EPT MOE Lower Build Kit with Double Loop Latch Plate
$169.99
Palmetto State Armory
7778104
000007778104
PALMETTO STATE ARMORY AR-15 USED GUNS
$599.99
Guns.com Used Guns
-
ECOM00287119
PALMETTO STATE ARMORY AR-V USED GUNS
$950.99
Guns.com Used Guns
-
ECOM00342525
PALMETTO STATE ARMORY Defense PA15 AR15 Rifle USED GUNS
$949.99
Guns.com Used Guns
-
ECOM00203107
PALMETTO STATE ARMORY G3-10 AR-10 .308 USED GUNS
$1,499.99
Guns.com Used Guns
-
ECOM00341545
See more results
for Palmetto State Armory AR on Wikiarms.com
Powered by Wikiarms.com
I will be testing out a Saber upper in the near future and testing it for performance, assembly, quality control, all of that sort of stuff as well, but from what I've heard so far the Saber lineup does provide you really high value, a little bit higher price category, because they're using higher quality components, quality control processes, so on and so forth, but still providing a very high value at a good price, on top of that, they're more budget stuff, you can get a complete AR from Palmetto State Army right now for the low 300-dollar range, which is fantastic value you for something that comes with a lifetime warranty, and at least decent parts, not going to be the best parts out there for that price, but if you're somebody who was like me a couple years ago, just trying to get into the AR platform as cheap as possible, just trying to get your foot in the door so to speak.
It is basically impossible to beat Palmetto State Armory from a value perspective or even from a performance per dollar. Low 300$ for a complete AR is absolutely insane, especially one that comes with a lifetime warranty and at least a decent set of parts. You can upgrade as mix and match, as you go on, so on and so forth, as I did with my budget ARS as well, and you can spend a little bit more money, they have mid-range options, you can go anywhere from low 300s to mid 500s, probably all the way up to around a thousand dollars in the AR platform, and to be getting a very high level of performance per dollar at every single price category that they offer.
They are not a perfect company by any means, you are still going to run into more issues with components, assembly, quality control, all of that sort of stuff that is going to be indicative of the price category. Fortunately, Palmetto State Armory does have good customer service, the two issues that I've had with their products they resolved fairly quickly, now, of course, it's better to not have those issues in the first place, but if you do have issues it is good that they take care of you, they stand behind their product. Basically everything that they build comes with a lifetime warranty unless you do something catastrophically stupid. So, when it comes down to just being budget-minded, value oriented, how much am I getting, for how much I'm spending, it's basically impossible to beat Palmetto State Armory.
If you're into a little bit higher end parts, a little bit different feature sets that like Aero Precision, Ballistic Advantage bring to the table, then you might value that a little bit more than just variety and just purely being cheap and you might want to spend a little bit more money, so for you, Aero Precision, Ballistic Advantage might be number one, Palmetto State Armory might be number two or something else might be a number two. This is just based off of my personal experiences, what I've used with all of them and focusing more on the value aspect of things beinga top five budget list.
