The Best AR-15 We Could Build for $720 – Aero Precision M4E1 Review
Can a Premium Quality AR-15 Be Built on a $700 Budget (Optic Included?)
Today we’re going to build an AR-15 on a budget and prove that with a little patience and elbow grease, you can build a competitive shooting sports worthy rifle on a very tight budget. To be clear, this isn’t budget build isn’t the only way to skin the cat, but its a great example of what kind of quality you can get on a tight budget in this era of affordable gun parts.
Most of the parts in this build are primarily going to be Aero Precision / Ballistic Advantage parts, so big thanks to Aero Precision and Ballistic Advantage for making great quality rifle part at a price anyone can afford.
Complete AR-15 Build List Summary
Aero Precision LPK w/o trigger, guard, and grip
- M4E1 doesn’t need a trigger guard, so this is the cheapest way to go if you want a custom trigger
B5 Systems Bravo Stock
- Honestly, the best stock we’ve ever used, nothing else really comes close
Ballistic Advantage Premium Match Stainless Steel Barrel
- Stainless steel is the best barrel material for accuracy
Aero Precision Quantum Handguard
- A rock solid, light, budget handguard
Lower Receiver – M4E1 (MSRP $106, I paid $80 on sale)
The lower receiver is the part of the rifle that requires a background check, so if you buy this part online you’ll have to have it shipped to your local FFL. There most likely will be additional transfer fees going this route (usually between $15 to $40 on the high end). My local range has an awesome benefit to members in that FFL transfers are completely free. However, you will need to factor the fees into your decision as you can often buy a stripped lower at MSRP directly from an FFL. This may be cheaper than going the online sale route.
Aero Precision M4E1 Stripped Lower Receiver
The M4E1 is our favorite stripped lower receiver. With flared magwell, forged trigger guard, and clean machining, the Aero Precision M4E1 is the best bang for your buck lower that money can buy.
Buffer Tube – Aero Precision Heavy Buffer Kit (MSRP $59.99, purchase on sale for $40)
Because this is a competitive shooting build, I chose a heavy buffer kit, as a heavier buffer can reduce felt recoil, although it can affect the timing of the gun. The aero precision kit is great as it makes the rifle quite a bit more pleasant to shoot.
Aero Precision Buffer Kit
The highest quality you can get while on a budget, the Aero buffer kit offers buffers in pretty much any configuration, custom tailored to your build.
Lower Parts Kit (Aero Precision w/o Fire Control Group MSRP $34.99)
Because this is a competitive shooting build, we’ll want to pick out our trigger separately. Lower parts kits that don’t include the fire control group tend to be cheaper since it includes mainly the bare essentials to construct the lower without the trigger mechanism. We were able to save some money here rather than buying the full kit with mil spec trigger and throwing the mil spec trigger in a tool box later.
Aero Precision Lower Parts Kit without Trigger and Grip
Buying with the trigger and trigger guard (trigger guard not neccessarily on M4E1 Lower), as well as without the grip will allow you to save money and buy exactly what you want.
Stock – B5 Systems Bravo – MSRP ~$50
The B5 systems stock is my favorite because of its solid construction and solid cheek weld. This is the more budget version of their B5 Systems SOPMOD stock, which is used by the US Special Forces.
This stock only cuts corners in that it is a little shorter and does not contain a spare battery compartment, features that don’t matter for a competitive shooting build.
The sling attachment points on this stock are one of the huge benefits, you can loop your sling through the stock in a way that is incredibly comfortable and intuitive, that never snags. This is important whether the rifle is being used for duty, or in our context, competitive shooting.
Overall, the B5 stock is my favorite and it is the stock that ends up on pretty much all of my rifles. It isn’t the cheapest option, but the money is extremely well spent here.
B5 Systems Bravo
This is out favorite stock for the AR-15, and to be honest, really for any rifle. It is usually cheapest at Brownells, with the widest selection of colors.
Trigger – Aim Surplus SSTAT Trigger – $80
For this build, I wanted a single stage trigger since for competitive shooting, specifically 2 Gun and 3 Gun, targets generally aren’t more than 100-200 yards away, so its less about precision and more about speed. There are definitely better triggers on the market, and to be honest, if I could do this over I would have just gone with a Schmid single stage performance trigger for $65, with upgrade springs. This would have been a better way to go.
If I wanted to go 2 stage, the LaRue MBT-2 is hard to beat.
Regardless the AimSurplus SSTAT trigger is pretty close to the Rise Armament 140 in terms of quality, so at this price point, its not a bad option.
AIM Surplus SSTAT
Similar to perhaps the Rise Armament 140, the Aim Surplus SSTAT is good for the budget. Single stage makes sense for competitive shooting, but if we could do it over we might do a Schmid Single Stage Trigger
Grip – Magpul MOE+ $20
For the grip, I purchased the Magepul MOE+. I love the rubbarized grip as it is very comfortable for shooting, and it just fits my hand naturally and well.
Magpul MOE+ Grip
We like this grip because of the rubberized grip. It makes it very comfortable to grip, even while wearing gloves.
Upper – Aero Precision M4E1 Upper (Slick Side) – MSRP $115
I chose the Aero Precision M4E1 upper because this is an incredibly high quality upper for the price. It fits perfectly with the M4E1 lower and it looks great. Not having a frankenstein of a rifle will help with resale value should I ever choose to sell this build.
I chose the slick side upper to reduce weight in this area, but also to save a little money on not needing a full upper completion kit. For competitive shooting, the Forward assist really isn’t needed. With quality ammo and a quality build, I’ve never even had to use the forward assist on any rifle.
Aero Precision M4E1 Slickside Upper
With modern ammo and high quality parts, a forward assist is extremely unlikely to be used, especially since this is not a duty rifle. We can save money by going slick side with no forward assist, plus it saves weight.
Bolt Carrier Group – Palmetto State Armory Nitride BCG – MSRP $119 – $60 on sale
There’s no need to get fancy here. Sure, lighter, smoother bolt carrier groups exist, but we’re trying to keep the price of this rifle very low. As such, the PSA BCG is a hard value to beat. These bolt carrier groups have been proven to last for tens of thousands of rounds. I know the eye rolls people will give when we call budget brands like PSA “Just as good” but in the case of the bolt carrier group, this is a very proven part by PSA so you can’t go wrong here.
PSA Bolt Carrier Group
Simple bolt carrier group that has been proven to be reliable for tens of thousands of rounds.
Charging Handle – Radian Raptor BLEM – On Sale $65
Your rifle is only as good as the quality of your charging handle if you have a failure / stoppage. Most charging handles that come with cheap rifles you can bend in half with your arms, so I don’t trust them to perform in competition if there is a failure of any kind.
I don’t skim on the charging handle on any of my builds, and a nice charging handle is really just a great quality of life thing. Cosmetically Blem Radian raptors can be had for pretty cheap, so it is worth spending money here in my opinion.
Radian Raptor Charging Handle
The Radian Raptor is smooth as glass. It is also rock solid and will not fail. because the charging handle is used for clearing malfunctions, you do not want to skimp here.
Barrel – Ballistic Advantage Stainless Steel Match Grade Barrel MSRP $175 – ($137.50 – On Sale)
The barrel is where you really want to spend your money. It’s also where you can lose your entire budget if you go too crazy. I waited, waited, and waited. Finally a coupon code came up on Arftac.com for 20% off and I pulled the trigger on this already on sale barrel. I got this $175 stainless steel barrel for a steal at $137.50 shipped with no tax.
Stainless steel is important and it provides the best accuracy and consistency. Its important to note that it does wear faster, but we’re still talking after tens of thousands of rounds. If we’re building a rifle for primarily competitive shooting, but we also may want to use it for precision rifle matches, stainless steel is absolutely the way to go.
Ballistic Advantage Premium Match Stainless Steel Barrel
For competitive shooting ,we value accuracy above all. A stainless steel barrel is ideal for getting that competitive edge.
Gas Block and Gas Tube – Aero Precision MSRP $30
Because my budget didn’t allow, I went cheap with a basic gas tube and gas block for $30. If I could redo this, I would have spent less on the trigger above (going with Schmid) and would have spent the extra money here, on an adjustable gas block to really tune the rifle for my ammo.
Aero Precision Gas Tube
High Quality gas tube at a very affordable price
Aero Precision Gas Block
Top notch quality gas block at an incredible price.
Handguard – Aero Precision Quantum – On Sale $100
I chose the aero precision quantum because it the cheapest, basic but solid, 15″ handguard available for this price. This handguard is very basic, but it is very solid. I don’t plan to attach anything to the handguard as this is a build mainly for competitive shooting, however, it does have many m-lok attachment points. More importantly, the handguard allows the barrel to free float, which is incredibly important for precision shooting, and moreover, the 15″ length allows me to brace the rifle against barriers without impacting the barrel harmonics.
The BAR barrel nut can be a pain to time, but it is rock solid when it comes to mounting. Overall, this is a basic handguard but it does everything that it needs to for a competition rifle build.
Aero Precision Quantum Handguard
Lightweight, sturdy, and free floating, the Aero Precision quantum is ideal for a competitive shooting build on a budget
Muzzle Device – VG6 Epsilon MSRP $89.99 – On Sale $34.99
I got this muzzle device for a steal price at $34.99. The VG6 is awesome. It’s an incredibly high quality muzzle device and it does a great job of mitigating felt recoil. I have a full review of the VG6 Epsilon here.
VG6 Epsilon
The Do it all compensator that is part flash supressor, compensator, and muzzle brake. For competitive shooting, we want performance. We don’t need to worry about annoying other people on the firing line.
Final Build Cost $720
So overall we have a rifle that can perform on par with premium, $1200+ AR-15s, but for a price that comes in cheaper than an off the shelf Smith and Wesson M&P Sport or the Ruger 556.
We have an incredibly smooth shooting, reliable, and accurate AR-15 that shoots 1MOA all day long.
With Optic, we’re at less than $1,000
Optic – Vortex Diamondback HP 4-16X – On Sale $250
I chose the Vortex Diamondback HP 4-16x, vs say, a lower end LPVO (at the time the flavor of the day was the Sig Tango MSR for $300), mainly because I figured there is a high chance I would want to also use this rifle for mid range shooting matches. I wanted descent quality class that could really reach out if need be.
However looking back, and now that Primary Arms has released their Nova LPVO, I might have reconsidered this choice.
Vortex Diamondback HP 4-16X
An excellent scope that can be used at 4x for close ranges, but can easily reach out to medium long distances at 16x, making it ideal for competitive shooting
Optic Mount – Leupold Mark Cantilever Scope Mount – On Sale $50
Lastly, I chose the Leupold Mark cantilever scope mount, mainly because I got an incredibly good deal on it for $50. This is a very basic, but very sturdy scope mount, perfect for competitive shooting.
