One observation I made on the AR system is it will function with all manner of out of spec, sub par, items and do so reasonably well and sgill shoot accurately. I have an old bushmaster(fine example of shit ars) that has run for years narry an issue, granted the entire ass end has been replaced with milspec parts, front sight post has been replaced to zero it, gas key staked(am planning on swapping carrier at some point really) and other things. It works fed it garbage ammo, it fires, with decent shit it groups shockingly well.
However, from the factory it had a carbine buffer, and this is one of those corners that if a company is cutting these days I have to question them, and while it functioned beside my first BCM it kicked like a bitch. Was a middy gas system just that much better in reducing felt recoil from even the lowly 5.56? No it wasn't really, $20 buffer and the bushy was tamed down and much more plesant to shoot, the BCM is still softer shooting but not "OMG feel that" soft now. Another issue, and revalation to the tolerance of the system to shoddy shit was that I found that the buffer spring in the rifle was a rifle and not carbine length spring. A head scratcher to be sure, but it ran. Front sight base was none f marked and too short to properly zero, an $8 part to fix that. Then we get into the minutia, the finish sucks, of all my rifles, while not been run exceptionally hard, it has finish having flaked off. The bolt carrier also has a nice ledge that when manually racking if you are not all the way bavk will catch on the bolt catch and make you assume it is locked back when it isn't, a fun thing when loading that first round sometimes if you are being gentle, and while it can be chaulked up to training issue, it is an oddity for the rifle. The bolt carrier itself with several thousand rounds on it is also still rougher feeling in hand than my BCM carriers though both have a park finish.
The point being here while it has worked, it really has, and I trust it, though I am continiously changing parts out to proper spec stuff from more trusted manufacturers, there are a number of small details that were ignored, over looked, considered good enough, or just plain cut. Sure it was as a base cheaper than my BCMs, all things being equal. But, to fix the issues I've had to put another $150 ish into it changing out the entire back end from commerical demensions, buffer, springs, front site, and front site is more of a bandaid then a fix. It also doesn't take into cost of a carrier since the current one does have the afformentioned ledge that catches and I consider it to be out of spec. So while it hasn't given any issues, in the long run is has not truly been any cheaper. And I akso bet with enough rounds side by side the chrome moly barrel gives up the ghost before the chromelined BCM ones so there is yet another cost.
There are ways to save, be patient, watch for sales, or don't buy shit that isn't needed, "do you really need the gucci zero laser shifting rail when you not running a laser?" And you can save money. Trying to bring up a rifle to spec might get you there, but it gonna cost time and if you start needing to replace parts if likely going to at best end up costing you the same amount in the long run if you are lucky.
