Autopsy of a Rifle: DPMS Oracle

[MaryB]

If the upper and lower fit without slop and all the components fit properly there is no difference between a low end DPMS and some high dollar rifle. Barrel and BCG are the 2 really critical items. Dust cover doesn't do much unless you are crawling in a jungle or desert. FA is another item I can live without. If I get a bad feed I either eject it or figure out why instead of cramming the round in. Hunting there is always a round in the chamber already with safety on...

[Tronster]

If you take a consumer grade AR, then replace the barrel, BCG, and RE with higher quality parts made of the best materials/coatings/machined and hardened properly/staked correctly/HPT and MPI tested, you have now spent as much as a higher quality AR. True the barrel and BCG are the two most critical parts, and it's not wrong to upgrade an AR, but you're not saving yourself any money doing it that way.

When I was putting my light weight carbine together last year I decided save myself any headaches and use only higher quality stuff from MEGA, BCM, Colt, Daniel Defense, ALG, BAD, and Magpul.

I put $1400 into it and then the AR market bottomed out, so it would probably cost $1100-1200 to build it today. That's considerably less than most high end custom AR's but it's built exactly how I want it with no compromises in quality.

[Hmac]

If the upper and lower fit without slop and all the components fit properly there is no difference between a low end DPMS and some high dollar rifle. Barrel and BCG are the 2 really critical items. Dust cover doesn't do much unless you are crawling in a jungle or desert. FA is another item I can live without. If I get a bad feed I either eject it or figure out why instead of cramming the round in. Hunting there is always a round in the chamber already with safety on...

That's a critical "if". Additionally, your assertion presumes that the component parts are made out of good quality materials

Even if you're willing to roll the dice, save a few bucks and get on off-brand budget plinker hoping that the one YOU got is built in spec, it still ignores the other aspects of manufacturer's corner cutting, such as getting component parts made of substandard materials imported from "off-shore" countries (China).