My best Sub-$1,000 AR-15.

[Hail Caesar]

It is a home brewed rifle. The following is the what and how much.

It started off with looking for a barrel. Samuse from this site PM'ed me with a offer for a very,very slightly used (200'ish rounds) 14.5 LW Middy barrel from Noveske. The barrel, pinned Vortex flash hider, FSB, gas tube, Magpul Moe guards, and nut were purchased for $230 shipped. (Thank you very much Sam)
The barrel group came off a factory Noveske Skinny Moe. I still haven't gotten around to stripping the paint off the lower Moe guard.

I had an upper and lower, but decided (what the heck) and got a Noveske matched upper and lower. $285.

I had a take off CTR stock that I had bought for $45 bucks.
A takeoff Ergo for $10.
A Colt BCG and FCG I bought for $125 unused.
A barely usedTLR-1 for $65.
A barely used Aimpoint H-1 with ADM mount....$375.

The following I just ordered from Brownell's;

A DSA tube and Magpul BUIS for $18 and $44.
BCM Gunfighter Medium for $41.
Moe trigger guard..$7
Moe rail...$5

Ambi Safety I had laying around and forgot when/where/how much.
Same with Forward Assist..but they run $10.
Other parts I have laying around in bins.

So for a total with out the light and Aimpoint is $820. (Hopefully I added it up right).
If I would have just used an regular upper and lower I could have easily knocked off $130 for a total of $690.

With the rifle, light, and Aimpoint........ $1260!

I guess the moral of the story is .....if you search around and buy RIGHT you can put together one hell of a rifle.

Carry around cash...and make offers on quality gear.