hey everyone this is my first time on the site ive owned guns in jersey for a little over a year now and started this build in october before i found this site. i think this thread that i started on xdtalk.com is probably better suited here so ive transplanted it here. Ive recently started looking into my first AR since hearing obama and romney agree my right to own a scary looking rifle (but in orwellian double speak an "assault" weapon) gets to be decided by the congress. ive been doing some research but havent found a whole lot of info on lowers so im having some trouble getting started. But just today I got an email from my usual FFL transfer guy that he has some spikes tactical stripped lowers for $110.00. i just emailed back to find out what the price out the door would be. i think if its just tax and 16 bucks for a background check the price should be like 133. How is spikes tactical, anybody have any complaints? is this a good price for the lower or should i keep a lookout for something better? also i was looking at this website and found some pretty reasonable prices. RGUNS - AR-15 Lower Receivers - 5.56mm: RGUNS, Stripped has anybody done any business with this site or any of these lowers? im looking specifically at the Delaware Machinery lower for $65, $110 after transfer fee and shipping or the one right above that one the Rguns nickel boron finish for $125, $170 after transfer and shipping. theres not much of a difference in price and im not sure a nickel boron finish is worth all that extra money im leaning towards spikes any advice from the AR 15 veterans out there? update 10-25-12: well i decided to just go with the spikes tactical with my ffl guy and i picked up my brand new lower today! 133 out the door, now i have to save up some cash to buy myself a christmas present.... maybe a thanksgiving present as well. heres the pics, i prefer it without the coloring but it still looks fine with it. now im pretty sure ill be getting a lower parts kit next, anybody have suggestions for that? like i said im new to all of this so its hard for me to see the differences in these just reading descriptions on store websites, but i would like to go for quality i dont want to put in pieces im going to want to upgrade a few months after putting them in. Another update 11/15/12: Well im moving on with my build i couldnt hold back anymore!!! i just ordered a spikes enhanced tactical LPK i figured with all the stuff it comes with and the piece of mind of spikes quality and lifetime warranty it was all worth it. and with the exception of the anti roll pins i was going to have almost the same setup anyway. I ordered from delta3tactical .com, although i had trouble finding a lot of feedback on them i found enough to take a shot. it seemed legit, plus i used my cc with the fraud protections and alerts instead of my debit in case its a scam. anybody have any experience with this site it would help take any worries off my mind. updated 12/02/12: I finally got my lpk in the mail yesterday! i ordered it from delta3tactical .com i wasnt overly impressed with them. after two weeks of not hearing anything about it being shipped i decided to call and see what was up and it turned out they were out of stock (would be nice to put that on the website or get an email about that) but said he could build the kit with the separate spikes tactical parts he had there and it will be the same thing and that he would ship that day. these kits are sold out everywhere and i needed me some spikes enhanced loving so i went along with it. well i got it yesterday so for those looking for a review of the site its not a scam you'll get your stuff it just seems the shop isn't run as efficient as it could be. everything is in the kit that should be there so im happy. it took me a couple of hours thanks to my internet crapping out only letting me watch the video walk through at 15 seconds at a time before freezing again.... i used this walk through
which was really good even though it wasnt the same lpk. after going through it all i think i could probably do it again in like 30 min. well here are the pics: pretty sweet huh? by the way this is the FDE version Update 3/6/13 Man its been a while since I've even thought about adding another piece thanks to all these crazy prices. I've figured being that I live in jersey that I'll just go with a fixed stock so I dont have to pin anything. I've chosen the magpul moe rifle stock and when I move to a free state I'll upgrade to a ubr. Only problem is I can't find ANY buffer tubes in stock anywhere let alone the rifle a2 sized ones. Anybody know of some secret site where they have these in stock that won't break the bank? This weekend I'm going to a PA gun show to see if I can find anything there as a last resort. Update 3/26/13 well there has been a change of plans. i didn't have time for the gun show but got a pretty sweet deal from joeboboutfitters.com for a spikes tactical carbine buffer tube (with the upgraded T2 buffer) for $60 and seeing as ive seen them going on ebay for about 120 nowadays, the deal was just too good to pass up. anyway the shipping was fast about 2 days to NJ and ive recently slapped it on so here are the pics. Right: Left: and the sick looking buffer engraving: so i essentially have a working lower just need to find an upper for a non outrageous price..... that may take a while. in the mean time i will be looking for a new stock, now that i went and bought the carbine length buffer tube i no longer have the option of the magpul MOE fixed rifle stock which was the original plan. i still don't want to pin a stock especially not into this pretty/expensive of a buffer tube. right now im just waiting for magpuls MOE coming soon stock here: STOCKS - MOE® Fixed Carbine Stock ? Mil-Spec Model and for only $50 too. any news on when it actually comes out? the most specific i can find is spring 2013. ive seen others like the battle ax but besides being kind of ugly which i could deal with, they're over a hundred dollars... id rather just put the tube against my shoulder. so if anyone has any recommendations for a fixed carbine length stock please help out a brother behind enemy lines!
Update 6-13-13 Well im back, and this time with a hot off the presses Magpul MOE fixed carbine stock! got a tip from a comment in a gun blog that they started shipping to dealers and only found one website with them ready to ship at that time and that would be http://pkfirearms.com/ i ordered Sunday night and got it in today (thursday). here it is right out of the box:
it came with to collars one that sits right up against the receiver for flat end-plate(?idk what its called) the other is for magpul's ASAP sling mount end-plate (and others like it). it seems to have a pressure design that uses friction to hold the stock in place with the final safety of the collar and a screw holding the two together, to keep it from coming off. giving it a few good tugs it seems pretty solid, its not going anywhere. overall im happy, here are some glamour shots of my work in progress so far.
Left:
Right:
well now im up to the complicated/expensive part. the upper..... i was previously thinking i would just buy a complete upper but with prices still pretty high and my inability to give up 6,7, or 800 dollars in one shot and still need to buy optics is keeping me on the sidelines and im thinking about just putting the whole thing together myself over time. anybody have experience with this? would it really be to much for an AR noob like me to figure out? so what do you think? should i just keep saving? or start buying up my parts now?