I've built so many. Lots of different variations.
I've seen your pictures. You've probably got ARs lying around that you have forgotten existed!
Or do both. Have the "coolest" rifle on the range and be skilled with it.
I fall into this 'demographic' by virtue of age myself and at the time all rifles had wood stocks, wheelguns were the norm and about the only semi auto pistols I thought about were 1911s & High Powers. While I was beginning to see the introduction of more SA pistols and a few SA rifles I didn't give much thought to it at the time as I was involved in a lot of hunting (varmint & big game) and that was my preference even while still in my teens & early 20s. Point is I did have limited buying power but what I did buy was few and quality over quantity and cheap.
Depends on where you want to go? Expensive to me means more accurate. If not
Reliability is expected even in a cheap build. You can put a WOA
Over time, I carried M16A1's made Hydra-Matic, Colt, General Motors Corp, and even Mattel (yes, the toy company unicorn I chuckle over when reading about them on the interwebs).... all of them were batch-lots from the lowest bidder, most were "two-tone" uppers/uppers, some were "Colt grey", some were deep rich black, but mostly the finish was worn from all the leading edges and high spots, but they all got the job done effectively.
My point being, put your money into a good free-float barrel assembly, that's where "the money" is on the AR platform. "Cool guy" roll-marks on receivers (BTW- there's nothing wrong with those) made by only a handful of forges doesn't make them inherently "more gooder" than Joe-Bob's kit made by Anderson, nor will it make you a "super-shooter".
That's the one. Take a break and watch something else.
Like an aluminum documentary.
