michaelmew Wrote:I had in my notes that this could all be done for around $700
You can build a basic, servicable M4 or A2 grendel with a licensed barrel/bolt for right at $700: Buy a J&T basic kit for $615 (really $640'ish with shipping), and add a cheap lower to it. That would put you under $700 assuming you bought your lower locally, etc. Mag would be another $11.
You'd have serviceable components in a grendel M4gery, but probably not mil-spec. All of the J&T kit's I've seen/built have been great shooters, and a good value. And work out of the box. But there would be differences- Plain shaw barrel vs SS. Forged sight vs pictany/folding. Generic furniture vs MOE, plain ramps vs M4.
The biggest tangible difference will be in the LPK... J&T has probably better than average quality for generic, but it's nowhere near as nice as the Daniel Defense LPK for the same money. Same for the barrel... the forum AA SS deal is hard to beat, and for a non-premium barrel mine is shooting very well. You could probably knock a bit off my formula by using generic commercial stock (vs mil-spec), forged FSB, generic handguard, etc.
But with the J&T kit you would not have to assemble the upper and it will work, no fiddling. I like building uppers, and have the tools, so it's a non-issue for me. It just depends on what you want to do.
From there the sky is the limit, you can certainly spend much more. :-)