AR deals... what is rock bottom?

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I do believe we have an unprecedented market saturation though.

While this is absolutely correct - more people have more AR’s than ever in the past - there are still > 10,000 Americans born every day, and about 1/3 of them will become gun owners. Statistically, AR’s make up about 2% of US gun ownership (~7m AR’s among ~390m firearms owned in the US), but are currently accounting for about 10% of US firearms sales, such around 330 AR’s can be sold every day to newly minted 18 year old Americans.
 
The only way these things are getting significantly cheaper at this point is large scale off-shore production, which hopefully doesn't happen. Norinco makes clones for other markets. Even then, the Janes article I saw showed military contract prices close to $200 (which is less than half of FN) and we know the Chinese don't mind losing some money to gain influence.
 
I honestly hope we haven't hit bottom yet. Maybe just maybe they will get cheaper.
As much as I like saving money, I hope the businesses make enough to keep their doors open.
$400 for an entry level AR15 seems about right to me.
If we get too much lower, quality will go to pieces.
 
I just sent an order off to CDNN this morning for 5, 40 round Bulgarian AK magazines. $9.99 each. I just got shipping confirmation. Fed Ex will deliver them Friday. The sales continue.
 
No idea. Is cost your main priority?

About the ATI, a "budget AR": a retired US Army Lt. Col. buddy bought one brand-new (retail) about two-three years ago.
He had constant malfunctions and never bothered sending it to the manufacturer, because he simply wasn't interested in bothering, and seldom touches any gun except for his eighty muskets (1700s-1800s).

Who knows, maybe ATI has improved their quality control and consistency?
 
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My budget builds on PSA lowers work great. PSA also realized the folly of staying in the AR only market and introduced several new guns at SHOT, a folding, bufferless AR, an AK-103 clone, the MP-5 clone which will be out later, and a nifty striker fired "Glock" sort-of that MSRPs for $299. PSA gets way too much of my money, according to my wife.
 
About the ATI, a "budget AR": a retired US Army Lt. Col. buddy bought one brand-new (retail) about two-three years ago.
He had constant malfunctions and never bothered sending it to the manufacturer, because he simply wasn't interested in bothering, and seldom touches any gun

This is an unfortunately common paradigm. People who don’t really care enough to spend much on a product will buy something cheap, then when it has issues, they remain apathetic and don’t have it fixed - but unfortunately they’ll often take the blanket opinion, “thank God I didn’t pay more for a more expensive piece of crap.” The misbehaving product - the AR in this particular iteration of the same old story - either gets sold to another cheapskate, or closeted to collect dust, instead of getting the needed attention, either from the OEM or an aftermarket gunsmith.
 
My budget builds on PSA lowers work great. PSA also realized the folly of staying in the AR only market and introduced several new guns at SHOT, a folding, bufferless AR, an AK-103 clone, the MP-5 clone which will be out later, and a nifty striker fired "Glock" sort-of that MSRPs for $299. PSA gets way too much of my money, according to my wife.
PSA stands for "Please Send it All...
I think we are at the bottom price wise without major quality shifts. The cheapest rifles have parts built thousands at a time. Economy of scale has been mastered in the ar15, and other that small sales we have stable prices. Heck my last lower almost cost me more in tax and transfer than the lower did....
 
Does anybody really want to find out, what "rock bottom" is, the hard way ? Isn't there a point, where a proper firearm's mechanical integrity has a certain
monetary value of it's own ?
Yes, but there is no reason price has to impact quality at the levels we are seeing.

Much of the cost of AR15s is still in overhead and to some extent in middlemen. I would not be surprised if the factory cost of a common AR was well under $100 for low end ARs.
 
Varminterror: That neighbor with the near-useless ATI AR told me that he never bothers to go online if he buys a modern gun.

He has collected about eighty muskets, US, British, French, dated about 1750 through the Civil War (I've seen them), which is his only actual gun interest.
 
Varminterror: That neighbor with the near-useless ATI AR told me that he never bothers to go online if he buys a modern gun.

He has collected about eighty muskets, US, British, French, dated about 1750 through the Civil War (I've seen them), which is his only actual gun interest.
 
Varminterror: That neighbor with the near-useless ATI AR told me that he never bothers to go online if he buys a modern gun.

He has collected about eighty muskets, US, British, French, dated about 1750 through the Civil War (I've seen them), which is his only actual gun interest.
 
Varminterror: That neighbor with the near-useless ATI AR told me that he never bothers to go online if he buys a modern gun.

He has collected about eighty muskets, US, British, French, dated about 1750 through the Civil War (I've seen them), which is his only actual gun interest.
 
Varminterror: That neighbor with the near-useless ATI AR told me that he never bothers to go online if he buys a modern gun.

He has collected about eighty muskets, US, British, French, dated about 1750 through the Civil War (I've seen them), which is his only actual gun interest.
 
That neighbor with the near-useless ATI AR told me that he never bothers to go online if he buys a modern gun.

While it seems to bear repeating 6x, I don’t understand any logic behind this “defense.” It’s a lame excuse from where I see it - if a person has enough interest to spend any money, and follows through with a purchase, then at minimum, that resolve should be carried forward to at least ensure they get what they pay for, which in this case, is a functional rifle.
 
If anyone knows of others looking to throw away money on non-functional rifles I’d be happy to box up one of my project parts boxes. Let me know how much they have to waste and I’ll try to oblige with a commensurate amount of junk.

As for neighbors who only shoot muskets my guess is he follows the old adage about keeping his powder dry? His BCG in that ATI likely suffers from a cross-contamination of thought. A good neighbor might run him out to the range and bring a spritz or 12 of CLP along to help diagnose.
 
Yes, but there is no reason price has to impact quality at the levels we are seeing.

Much of the cost of AR15s is still in overhead and to some extent in middlemen. I would not be surprised if the factory cost of a common AR was well under $100 for low end ARs.

... and when it's time for somebody to get paid, as a middleman, or pay overhead, VS making a safe gun, while they are slashing prices further,
do you think they are going to :
A-take the money and run
B-give a rodent's patootie about your safety ?
 
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