Ok so I like this thread. I’ve shot knights, LMT, BCM, built guns that compete with these in the quality class, and aero, and friends PSA and Anderson.

So while you absolutely get nice shooting rifles with the Knights, LMT and the slightly lower BCM class guns is the engineering, manufacturing, and quality control in higher levels. As someone that works and manufacturing and also has relationships shooting for some folks in the industry. People don’t realize how much T&E companies like knights and LMT does in house companies like BCM do some but also use support from pro staff type shooters to get what they do. They also know their bread and butter isn’t innovating and they stick with more proven products.
When your dealing with PSA and Anderson they are doing some but you can bet the farm it’s nothing like hat LMT and knights do. This is testing before something even hit production and their in house QC does material testing and process control testing and dimensional testing. People don’t understand what goes on in house to make a professional level weapon.
While companies like BCM aren’t making everything in-house they are also going through the steps to make sure their suppliers are manufacturing to their specs they hold their suppliers accountable.
So here we are at lower tier like Anderson and PSA. PSA uses FN barrels in their rifles. But just because FN is the maker that doesn’t mean they are made and held to the same specs as the barrels FN makes for their own weapons. I’ve seen at so many shooting matchs the rifles that have gone down and the QC issues that slip through. As soon as the guys put a moderate round count on their rifles they start to see malfunctions. Lots of these rifles are over gassed and when educated guys like me tear take them apart to upgrade them for friends you see improper torque. Parts not staked, parts out of spec. How are they selling their parts so cheap? They have to skimp on something.

When I shot knights guns that friends have was it some life changing event. No they ran as smooth as rifles I’ve put together myself using top tier parts manufacturers. When I shot my LMT was it rainbows and unicorns? No it runs and shoots well though.
My rifles I assembled that I believe match the quality of the knights and LMT cost me $1900+ to build. I also invested in over $800+ in tools to be able to properly build my rifles. I had to do extensive research to make sure the parts I picked were compatible with one another and occasionally would find out they weren’t once I got them. Then I had to put thousands of rounds through them to prove they were reliable enough to use for defensive purposes and competitive shooting. I build relationships with a lot of the employees of companies so I could ask them questions and it’s paid off. So I’ve spent tons of money in time and countless hours of research how do I put a monetary value on that? And the tools and gages needed? The technical know how to check tolerances and tolerance stacking and to diagnose the issues in the AR platform. So when your buying LMT, Knights, BCM, and the likes you are buying more than the physical product. I wish I could put some of the pictures of my rifles I’ve built after testing. Going 4K rounds with only adding lube and pulling a bore snake through.
If I was to do it all over again I’d be hard pressed to justify the time and money I have put into building. And not just buy a set JP enterprises rifles for competition and a set of knights or LMT or BCM or SOLGW rifles for social work.