this is not an add... Last week I went shooting with the fam after thanksgiving. The gun store/gun range had several 'bare-bones' ARs priced at $300 for black friday. It had sight rails and an adjustible stock- thats it. I forget the brand, but they were new in box. Obviously they're not going to be high quality weapons... but $300?? Did the semi-auto rifle market just tank or is demand skyrocketing innovation?
Base-model ARs have been $400-500 for some time. The one in the ad you found is probably a polymer-lower hybrid. Not sure I'd want to do 2 tours in Afghanistan with it, but it's probably OK for most normal use. Everyone and their brother makes an AR - competition raises quality and lowers consumer cost.
Could be the store is shutting down and is having financial problems, when I was an FFL, my wholesale price was 40% off retail one up. So they could be liquidating stock at a loss to pay off what they have on credit, which many wholesalers offer to a quantity buyer.
The rest of their stuff was pretty normally priced. They didn't appear to be having financial problems.
Loss leader. They offer an AR at break even to get you in there knowing you'll pick up some overpriced ammo, targets, extra magazines, etc.
Most certainly. But still, breaking even at $300 is impressive. That brings the manufacturing cost pretty damn close to that of an AK. Used to be that the AK was considered the 'pickup truck' of rifles while the AR was the 'formula 1 racecar' of the industry and it was estimated that you could arm 10 men with AK's for the cost of one with an AR. Now I'm guessing its closer to 2 and 1.
With their poor sales figures maybe Dicks Sporting Goods decided to unload the ars instead of destroying them.
PSA is actually pretty good quality. Some of their materials are FN military contract overruns. The customer service at PSA is really good.
I am not sure about others, but the AR platform is like an erector set to me. Nearly every part has been swapped over time... trigger group, BCG, sights, stock, buffer spring, fore grip, and etc and used with the three uppers I acquire for different roles. How many just buy one out of the box and do little more with them? I suppose I could say the same about Glocks.
the first one I bought was a basic 9mm carbine that uses Glock Magazines. Turned out it worked better than the Two Rock River PCCs I had. SO I bought my son one. Then when they started having post Trump election sales, I bought several of their lowers. Slapped Velocity or CMC or Timney triggers in them and had match grade rifles for under a K with their Wylde Chambered uppers. Bought a 9mm Lower on sale, have a Elftman trigger for it-bought an upper a couple weeks later. total cost less than the two 9mm rifles I bought earlier. Shot a steel event which was 8 shots on 4 plates with a reload in under 4 seconds. Great PCC. Have a C-more railway red dot 4 MOA on it
I bull mine from the ground up - add barrels to upper recievers, install gas blocks and tube pins, etc. I think everyone who wants to know how they work should assemble a lower receiver; it's amazing to see how all the little parts come together to work.
This is what I did. Paid less than $250 for an upper with a "blemish" that I could never find. If I hadn't dressed it in Magpul, the entire build would have been under $400.
Good job. Yeah I heard the "blemish" on most of these are very hard to see but I have not seen them in person. That is a nice weapon for a great price