Building an AR or AK thread

[Topgunben]

Hey Gents.

I’ve been wanting to build a tactical rifle of some sorts. I’ve been toying with the idea for several years, but now I’m going to pull the trigger and do it. My budget is anywhere from $450 to $850, which is why I want to build vs buy complete as I feel I can get a better deal assembling it myself.

I like the AK platform because of its robustness and common cheap parts. I also like the bigger diameter round of the AK because it’s got more stopping power and I think it would be a decent hunting rifle if I ever needed to use it in a pinch. I have heard that AKs aren’t nearly as easy to build, some things I have read said you’ll need thousands of dollars of tools to assemble them, but I’m not sure. It also seems like the price to buy a kit on these is higher than an AR, but to buy them complete they are cheaper.... strange.

The AR platform seems to be the easiest to assemble, price is the cheapest (thinking about buying a PSA kit) and I like the way they look and feel, but there are a couple things I’m not so sure about. One is the .223 is a smaller round, still very powerful, but doesn’t seem to have the stopping power of the bigger AK round. The 2nd is that some of the buttons and selectors seem to be prone to jamming/clogging with cold or dirty conditions. For instance the mag release push button or the fire/safety selector aren’t built with leverage in mind. With that said, I am leaning towards this option because ammo seems cheapest for .223 and AR mods and parts are ez to come by.

Last is the AR 10. Price is high, but man it would be awesome to have a semi auto .308. I feel like this would be the ultimate rifle, but parts and ammo are a lot more expensive and much harder to come by.

So I’m hoping some of you can shed some light and give your options on what you think is best. Maybe your rifle of choice isn’t on my list, so feel free to share.