So a friend on the forum brings in a BM Carbon 15 (that is owned by a friend of his) for a new gas tube. The top of the GT (closest to the top of the charging handle) is smashed and crimped downward. I looked at it and was like how Da F*Q did that happen??
So as I push out the roll pin on the GT and look at the the GT hole in the upper receiver. It is pushed all the way to the side (touching the wall). Hmm, that’s interesting. I wonder if the FSB wasn’t installed straight (canted) and is causing it. So I pull the upper out of the vice and look at it. Sure enough, the the FSB is canted. Ugh.
I remove the GT and then remove the barrel nut. As I am turning the barrel nut, I feel the entire barrel turn slightly. After removing the barrel nut, I see that the alignment pin in the barrel extension had pushed its way through the plastic of the upper receiver during installation (most likely from over tightening). Double Ugh.
The best part is the owners contacted BM for help and they blew them off.
In my neck of the woods, rednecks pick these things up in pistol format like candy at the local gun shows. Someone usually remarks how awesome it is because it is made of “carbon fiber” and then their buddy comes over to verify it, and then promptly proclaims something to the effect of “yup, its bad ass, carbon fiber is so much lighter than those heavy and overpriced Colts…” :bad:
I saw one recently that had the receiver extension improperly installed. It was 1 turn too short and allowed the buffer retainer pin to pop out and lock up the gun. It was a factory installed RE.
When I worked at our cities airport as a LEO, we had about 15 BM flattop carbines in the unit. Guys were wondering how come when zeroing the irons, the front sight posts were so high some looked like they were ready to pop out…They had flat top uppers, but the front sights were not F stamped…Unit commander didn’t like my comment about buying Colts not shrubmasters…
Ahah I got in an argument on another forum yesterday with a guy telling me how much better quality bushmaster and Olympic are than PSA.at least palmetto rifles don’t have this happen lol
I hope he gets it all sorted out with bushmaster.the least they could do is warranty it as they were nice enough to sell the guy a plastic gun
I have done quite a few barrel/handguard w/proprietary barrel nut swaps on ARs with polymer uppers for guys and every one makes me cringe as I can see the upper FLEX while torquing the barrel nut down. You couldn’t give me one of those.
Poly uppers only work for .22 Builds in my opinion. Buddy built a lightweight .22 out of a New Frontier lower, a Hesse Upper, and a CMMG .22 barrel. Works like a charm. For a 5.56 build… never.
