I know that Bushmaster products are pretty much universally panned, but I was wondering if there was an era where they made good products. I have a barely used lower from 1999 and was wondering if it was worth building.
I know that Bushmaster products are pretty much universally panned, but I was wondering if there was an era where they made good products. I have a barely used lower from 1999 and was wondering if it was worth building.
My AR is built with a Bushmaster lower and a GI A2 upper, and it's gone over 1k rounds with nary a bobble. I've had it for years, I just rarely shoot it.
There's nothing wrong with a Bushy lower. I have one that I built a few years back and it is just fine.
lowers don't matter nearly as much as uppers in my experience. I still try to purchase known quantities but I would stress about it.
I have a Bushmaster lower from the early '90s with Daniel Defense upper parts, worked over by a Colt armorer, which holds 1 MOA at 100 yards. Nothing wrong there at all.
"Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman
This ^^^. As long as it is an aluminum lower and “in spec,” meaning the pin holes line up straight, are not oversized, mag well properly broached etc a lower is just a box to hold the mag and LPK in place.
The barrel and bolt are the heart of the gun. Most of the negatives about bushmaster related to guns being improperly assembled and barrels marked 5.56 actually having .223 chambers.
Is your 1999 lower stripped or complete ? If stripped build it out. If complete you may want to swap out the carbine buffer for an H or H2 and stake the castle nut as BM had the bad habit of securing them with red loctite.
Last edited by HCM; 03-31-2019 at 11:16 PM.
As long as it was in spec, I'd have no problem using a Bushmaster lower. I wouldn't want a complete rifle by them though.
In fact, I kinda want to get a Bushmaster lower because I've always liked their rollmark because the snake reminds me of cheap 80's action movies for some reason.
IIRC Bushmaster was sold in ~2006 give or take, and as far as I've seen, the ~2009+ ones when production was moved to NY are the ones to really worry about.
Years ago, back in the early 90's, Bushmaster was a very respected name in the AR game, right behind Colt. If your lower or a particular Bushmaster rifle that for sure was made in the '90's, it's almost certainly good to go.