I also like Compass lake, Douglas, and Lilja. My fave recce-style has Lilja barrel and it's stupid-accurate.
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Upper-for-upper standard pricing, the Douglas-barreled mid-length upper from Compass Lake and the SS upper from BCM is about the same (cause you add $50-$100 for assembly with Compass Lake). HOWEVER, right now BCM is having a sale that makes their SS mid-length uppers really hard to turn down. I would be happy with either but with BCMs sale, that's an optic, or ammo.
This is within your budget:
https://www.larue.com/products/larue...-15-upper-kit/
I got mine with the 16" Stealth Barrel and then sold the muzzle break for 85 bucks or so. You could sell off some of the other parts too to get your total cost even lower if you didn't need/want them for your build. It's a kit but they offer to assemble the upper for you. I didn't see that it addeny additional cost. I got mine unassembled as I wanted to build it.
Let's not all start ranting about California's stupid gun laws, but a complete rifle is a no-go for me... It's not just that I only need an upper, it's that I cannot buy a new lower anymore.
Jeez, that would suck... FWIW, I haven't read anywhere else about their barrels going away prematurely...
RE: White Oak. I think so, too...
Where? I'm not seeing it...
I'm in Germany, and Larue's website is blocked... Damn.
Here is pretty much how I received my kit. I got the 16" Stealth Barrel, this one looks like it may be 18" I got the 13" hand guard, and it's Black not FDE as that was an extra charge.
The website lists it for $792, I then sold the muzzle break (I could find my old listing to confirm) for around 80 bucks.
There are other good options as others have suggested but this is a pretty nice package and I went with it when I was trying to build a more precision orientated rifle on a budget. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...94c6361b8c.jpg
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