If you are going to build an AR the firs thing you need to do is set your budget. You can end up with a rifle that you have sunk a small fortune into.
IF you are planning on on using this for hunting, regardless of of cal., accuracy is going to be of upmost concern.
I have built a number of AR's. Next week I am placing my order for the optics and little bells and whistles for my LMT build.
I have heard DPMS, Rock River, Oly and Bushmaster mentioned. I am not going to knock any of those but I will say they are "mid range" offerings as far as quality at best. Sorry if I have offended anyone but thats my opinion. And you have already mentioned POF, if you can afford that, you can afford anything the below manf. produce.
Your upper reciever is where you want to spend the bulk of your $. Take a look at:
www.noveskerifleworks.comwww.laruetactical.com (the stealth products)
www.bravocompanyusa.comwww.lewismachine.netThe Noveske rifles use the same material that is used in the M249 SAW barrels and thier barrels are a polygonal rifling like H&K uses. The "7.5 diplomat barrel in 6.8spc is shooting just over 1moa and the 5.56 is at 1moa. Keep in mind barrel legth when choosing your cal. the 6.8 does better on a "16 pipe and the 5.56 is best at about "20.
Larue's stealth products are amazing pieces of gear. the Larue OSR in .308 is getting SUB-MOA. With point accuracy out to 900yrds. You can get the same upper minus all the real hot rod stuff "somewhat" reasonably.
Bravo Co. is more of a combat tool but the longer barrels produce some serious accuracy.
LMT's monolithic rail platfrom is another piece of amazing gear. One very nice thing is, that it along with the Noveske VIS systems allow you to do fast barrel changes. 2 bolts hold it in place. You can have multiple barrels and swap what you want out for the desired job.
With all of these co.'s the important things are included in the cost of the rifle and not "options". Chrome lined barrel, staked gas keys, shot peened bolts, etc etc etc. Are included in the price where with other manf., they want you to cough up extra cash to make thier rifle "comparable". The rock river, oly, bushey etc are good "entry" rifles for the new enthusiast. they however, wont compete with the quality of these above mentioned places.
Now Oly is making some serious wild cat stuff. A good friend of mine is using one of thier 25wssm's and its a real shooter. However, something like that requires ALOT of specialty gear just to operate the rifle. And ammo is not near readily available as other cal.'s. now if you havea full reloading set up, that isnt so much of a worry.
I took my LMT out for its first zero on monday with Magpul MBUS (irons). The very first 3 rounds out of it could have been covered with a dime with poop ammo. I have yet to ever have a RR,oly or dpms do that.
Once you have decided on a good upper, you can save alot of money on lowers. A lower, is a lower, is a lower. Some are produced to better tollerances and some are prettier than others but they are essentially the same. I usually run a MEGA Machine lower. I have found that for the price the quality is very good. I have never had mag sticking issues or or alignment problems when installing trigger groups.
If you want to see a work of art of a lower, look at the Larue stealth billet lowers. Only downside to those is that the only way to get one is to buy a complete upper.
After making those 2 choices, the sky is pretty much the limit as far as options. Like the old saying goes "The M4 SOPMOD, its like barbie for men".
