Carbon Bushmaster

[xbmxracerx]

Helping my local shop out here in PA grow his AR business and stopped by after his call to pick up parts (BAD ASS Safety: Magpul BAD Lever: BCM Mod 4 CH) that I'm putting on my local PD's Team Leaders gun and he needed help with this.

The guy that dropped it off was having problems installing the quad rail. Got it done for him but wanted to look in detail at this weapon. It was the Bushmaster Carbon 15. First time up close to see this. Hmmmmmm, idk call me [crazy]

All the internals seemed to be to spec but the upper and lower receiver were carbon. I could not see that huge of a weight savings between that and another "stock" AR in the shop.

Here's the rail I installed:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/emufreak1/f76cf663.jpg

Upper:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/emufreak1/6b23a09f.jpg

Lower:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/emufreak1/0c586b28.jpg

[Eric]

Do I undertand correctly that this is a duty weapon ? If that is the case, the user needs to be counseled on his poor decision to use sub-standard kit.

[ucrt]

.

If it is a duty weapon, a Bushmaster is bad, but a plastic Bushmaster... [crazy]
Sounds like there might be a "cultural" problem.

But maybe it's just me...

.

[MoxyDave]

Maybe I'm lucky but I've had good luck with the several Bushy uppers, lowers and barrels I've owned. Not sure about the carbon fiber, but I can't see why it would be a problem in a semi-only weapon. I think the heat of a full-auto gun might be trouble but otherwise, why not?

[lamarbrog]

When I worked at the gun store during high school, we did free installation of parts bought from us. I ended up doing many of the installations on AR stuff.

I refused to install free float rails on Carbon-15 uppers. I have seen plenty of aluminum upper receivers damaged at the threads due to over-torquing of the barrel nut. (Not at our shop, and certainly no work I did.) If I am not mistaken, this is also the source of the famous "front fell off" M4 picture. I took the position early on that I would not attempt to sell anyone on a gun I wouldn't trust my life to, or perform modifications that I would not trust. Personally, I see any work on a Carbon-15 that involves the barrel nut to extremely high risk- I wouldn't do it.

The Carbon-15 fills the same niche as the Olympic Arms Plinker Plus. They are range toys and attempts to use them for anything else is exceptionally ignorant, misguided, or stupid depending on the details of the situation. In addition, since it seems work has now been done involving the barrel nut I would consider the structural integrity of the already mediocre parts to be compromised.

My $.02, YMMV

[Eric]

I was at a class a few years ago and watched a guy with his new Carbon 15 trying to work his way through numerous malfunctions. It was a mess. Heck, I'd take a OA over one of those.