Billet or forged? Need a rifle

bulletman

bulletman

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Besides cosmetic, is there any advantage using billet receivers over forged?

I sold my rifle and now in the market again. Debating on if the billet is worth the extra money. I never had a problem with my billet black rain. Also never had any problems with my rock river.

Save money and go forged and get a better trigger? Or go billet and jp trigger?

Looking at either a jp Rifle or just a jp upper and build a whoever lower with nice trigger.

Lastly or go with a 1200 Rifle like dpms or RRA 3g or stage 3g. And then get a Vortex scope... What's your input?

I have a new in the box eotech I'll be using for now. We shoot mainly pistol bays and out to 75 yards.
 
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Billet can offer a bunch of advantages. Ambi controls, bigger magwells, winter trigger guard, more robust in case you ever have a kaboom like I did once, receiver sets are a lot tighter. With that said if you have any sort of other needs like scope or trigger which it sound like you do. I'd save the $, go forged and finish out your kit.

Rhino Arms is coming out with a badass $1400-1500 forged 3Gun ready option soon. It will be taking the best bang for the buck title from the Stag 3G.
 
I don't like the ambi controls. (personal preference) MagPul makes a winter trigger guard. The one thing you can get with billet that could be an advantage IMO is the magwell. Question then becomes, is the magwell worth the extra cost. Sounds like you are on a budget. If that's the case I'd go forged and spend the extra cash were it counts more. Barrel, trigger, or optic.
 
Thanks guys for your input. I agree if I have a set budget I can go further with the forged. Looks like forged it is. :)
 
I had a billet lower for a couple months and realized it wasn't worth the extra price, I sold it and got 2 forged lowers.
 
Jesse Tischauser said:
Billet can offer a bunch of advantages. Ambi controls, bigger magwells, winter trigger guard, more robust in case you ever have a kaboom like I did once, receiver sets are a lot tighter. With that said if you have any sort of other needs like scope or trigger which it sound like you do. I'd save the $, go forged and finish out your kit.

Rhino Arms is coming out with a badass $1400-1500 forged 3Gun ready option soon. It will be taking the best bang for the buck title from the Stag 3G.
Click to expand...
lol! So who's your new rifle sponsor now?
 
Armalite has a couple of really sweet 3 gun rifles coming out this year at a decent price. I shot the short one (16 inch with comp pinned) at SHOT and it felt awesome. It comes stock with a 3-pound Timney trigger and has an MSRP of $1,599. They have an 18-inch version that is similar, with the same MSRP.
 
I've only ran stock controls before. What's this 45 or 90 degree safety I see on brownells? Will any ambi safety work or is there fitting? I do like the looks of the billet. I'm a c class shooter. So I know one won't be any better then the other. I want a nice Rifle so I may see how much money I can scrounge and see what's out there.

Low mass buffer worth the money?
 
Safeties don't need fitting on ARs in my experience, but I've only installed five. Any ambi will work. I feel that 45 and 60 degree safeties are retarded. Low mass buffer is great when you use a low mass bolt carrier.
 
I was planning to use a jp low mass bolt carrier and the jp low mass buffer and spring. I was also going to add a adjustable gas block which I've never had. And have no clue how to tune it. Hopefully it'll come with instructions or someone can school me in how to tune the rifle to my ammo.

The gun shop lady is a doll, I ended up getting a billet lower. It was 50 more then a forged lower and trigger guard After tax.

Guy at the shop said don't spend the money on a jp buffer. He said just take the weights out of the stock buffer and receipt install the end. I'm not sure about this... So I was like thanks for the input. Is that true? Or is the jp the better way to go?
 
I can't say whether the JP is better or not, but I've been running a stock buffer with weights removed for at least 2 years now in my 3 gun rifle.
 
That's it nothing in place of it? So basically you just made your own version of it.

But by doing that. Is it's best to run a adjustable gas block and low mass bcg to get the most benefit. I mean just by removing weights the stock bcg and non adjustable gas block. there wouldn't be much benefit would there?
 
I use a low mass BCG, but standard rifle length gas block.
I can definitely tell a huge difference when I put a full weight BCG and buffer in.
 
Sounds good. Only reason I ask is I'm not all that familiar with how to set them up and such. If it's just a matter of removing weights and & $20 over $50 I don't have nothing to loose. I just didn't want my first part thrown together Rifle be one of these things where I'm buying parts twice. I'm sorry if I'm asking alot of dumb questions. I figured you all have alot more experience. I've only owned store bought factory rifles. Just a regular Rifle spring or does it need to be a fancy polished or extra power one?
 
Matt I was looking at the Titan if I do a normal upper. If I do the jp upper build thing it comes with a comp. But not sure how they do. I don't see any jp Rifles at our local matches.
 
Only thing that scares me about building the whole upper is I have no idea how.

Seems I can't find a good barrel thats not a million dollars. I don't know how to head space it. I don't have any gunsmith tools for a AR. I also don't know if there's anything weird about lining up a gas block.

If I can figure it out I'm not opposed to trying to build the upper.

What do you think a 18" upper build will cost ballpark with a long hand guard?
 
bulletman said:
Sounds good. Only reason I ask is I'm not all that familiar with how to set them up and such. If it's just a matter of removing weights and & $20 over $50 I don't have nothing to loose. I just didn't want my first part thrown together Rifle be one of these things where I'm buying parts twice. I'm sorry if I'm asking alot of dumb questions. I figured you all have alot more experience. I've only owned store bought factory rifles. Just a regular Rifle spring or does it need to be a fancy polished or extra power one?
Click to expand...
Regular rifle spring.
bulletman said:
Matt I was looking at the Titan if I do a normal upper. If I do the jp upper build thing it comes with a comp. But not sure how they do. I don't see any jp Rifles at our local matches.
Click to expand...
The JP comp will do just fine.
 
bulletman said:
Only thing that scares me about building the whole upper is I have no idea how.
Seems I can't find a good barrel thats not a million dollars. I don't know how to head space it. I don't have any gunsmith tools for a AR. I also don't know if there's anything weird about lining up a gas block.
If I can figure it out I'm not opposed to trying to build the upper.
What do you think a 18" upper build will cost ballpark with a long hand guard?
Click to expand...
Don't worry about the headspace, that will line itself up when tightening the barrel nut.
The barrel nut has grooves that the gas tube has to fit between to go into the upper. Lining the gas block up properly is moy el importante, so take your time to make sure it's centered on top of the barrel.
The cost of building an upper depends on the parts you use, especially the barrel. It can go from $300ish all the way up past $1k.

Click the Brownell link on the homepage here and look on their website for how to videos. I'm pretty sure they have a few of them dedicated to building an AR15
 
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