SRH78:
That is a sweet looking rifle! Thanks for the story. Part of the reason I am doing this is to help myself build discipline and patience, and I intend to be very patient. My plan is to have it built by the time I am 30. I am turning 27 in a few months.
Plus there are at least two other (much cheaper) firearms I intend to get in that same timeframe. So not even all my "gun money" will go towards the AR necessarily. Right now my only rifle is a great shooting 8MM. It is a good gun but expensive to shoot; even reloading components are a bear to find were I live (only Cabela's carries the right bullets and only occasionally are they in stock) unless you are willing to pay excessive shipping. So I will almost certainly make a .22LR rifle of some flavor my next "big" purchase.
Part of my plan is to sell off some stuff I don't need anymore to help finance AR parts. So if say, I successfully sell off my beat-up old shotgun I'll grab myself some lower parts. On my next work bonus I might try to grab that Colt upper mentioned above. Not sure how a Colt upper will look hooked to a PSA lower but oh well.
Thinking about it, I bet I could have all the parts by the end of next year if I budgeted correctly: $630-ish for the upper, $50-$100 for the stripped lower, $60 for a trigger, $40-60 for a LPK, probably another $100 on the buttstock and buffer. (this last part is what I feel I understand the least about so far)
Of course this kit from
Armalite is out there too.
The problem I am finding with AR's is that there might actually be too many choices!