My friend is on deployment right now. He has a Bushmaster M4 style carbine, model XM15-ES2, he is storing at my house while he is gone and I was thinking of doing some upgrades on it for him before he gets back.
It has a flat top upper, 16.4" barrel with A2 birdcage. Its stamped on top of the barrel " B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9", and the barrel is pencil thin, throughout the entire profile.
It has an M4 barrel extension as far as I can tell but the ramps do not continue onto the receiver. I was under the impression that 5.56 carbines were 1/7 twist, not 1/9. Is this a cheap setup, I know its a Bushmaster and not a KAC or DD, but it seems like they used a rifle barrel and just put an M4 extension on it and threw it all together without adding M4 feed ramps to the receiver. Am I correct in thinking this?
Should I replace the barrel with a standard M4 Govt Profile with 1/7 twist? Or would it just be better to replace the entire upper?
In its defense it does have an amazing factory trigger in it, no over travel or creep and very very little reset.
I think the chances he will see a problem due to the 1/9 twist are slim and if he does have a problem it will almost certainly be on the range, not in a shoot-out. I don’t think I would replace the barrel on this issue alone. Why don’t you buy him a nice optic?
Some food for thought; The rifle may have sentimental value to him that he has not articulated to you, he would probably appreciate the upgrade but it would no longer be ‘his.’
Can you provide a zoomed-in pic of the feedramps? It appears that the ramps may not be proper. It’s permissible to have ramps in the barrel extension and NOT the receiver. But if the receiver’s ramps are lower and expose a flat edge of the barrel extension, that is a recipe for trouble and should be corrected by a new upper, regardless of sentimental value of this one.
If the barrel is an issue for you, the price difference between buying a new barrel and entirely new upper is negligible. In that case, just buy a new upper from DD, BCM, etc.
Aside from that issue, a BCM SopMod bolt upgrade kit (new extractor, spring, insert, and black donut), an H or H2 buffer, and a BCM buffer spring would be some cost efficient and meaningful upgrades that would serve to enhance reliability and increase his shooting pleasure.
pretty standard for Bushmaster. this is their “Rifle” feedramp profile. it’s OK.
but I second (third?) the statements that I wouldn’t mess with a man’s gun unless you had specific knowledge or permission. the optics are something everyone would appreciate, however…
he has made statements in the past about replacing it because it seems flimsy due to its thin profile, his brother originally gave it to him as a gift and when it was ordered it was supposed to have the standard govt profile with the 203 notch but his came with the cheap pencil barrel.
Ole Tim hit the X ring, get him an optic, don’t mess with his gun.
Have you thought about taking up a collection from his friends and family…you could get him a complete good to go rifle.
Please don’t take my posts negatively, what you want to do for him is great…and I appreciate that you are doing it for someone that is currently deployed. If we ever meet each other the rounds and beer are on me.
It’s just so easy to get butt hurt when talking about improving one’s rifle…with the advice coming from someone else.
This pencil barrel is not thin to save production cost, it is thin to save weight.
Not everyone is fanatical about having a “top tier” rifle. I’m not. I have a couple of Bushmasters and they work fine. Yes, I would rather they were LMTs or some such but they are not and it ain’t that big of a deal to me. They work and if and when they break, I’ll fix them. I’ve been getting by with “second tier” stuff all my life. Ruger revolvers instead of Colts, Ruger rifles instead of Winchesters, Remington shotgun instead of a Parker, Shimano instead of Campagnolo, cars, canoes, tents, lawnmowers, cameras, on and on and on.
I question the economics of upgrading a “second tier” rifle. I think it makes more sense to buy or build “top tier” outright and sell the lesser rifle or keep it as a spare.
Similarly, I’ve been getting by with second tier stuff all my life too.
Take my wife for example. I love her. But let’s assume for the sake of arguement that she’s 2nd tier. Let’s assume that she is also one of my brothers old girlfriends from high school. Let another man provide her with plastic surgery or some such thing while I’m gone and I will be very unhappy -no matter how good the upgrade supposedly is.
(I know. I’m just repeating what others have already said.)
I got my wife a tummy tuck, it never occurred to me that I might get some other dude to pay for it. My wife is top tier, 100%, finest kind, a 10+ at least, top of the line, better than all the rest. And if she wasn’t I would lie and say she was.
Not to pile on here but I agree with most of the other posters. There a lot of cool things you can do to upgrade his weapon but I’d advise against doing anything that can’t be easily un-done. Especially with the barrel.
I’ve had two of those Bushmaster pencil thin barrels for a long time. I bought them long before thin was in and I love the way they handle and shoot. Both are cut to 14.7 and pinned. One of them is a 1/7 twist and the other 1/9. I wouldn’t sell either of them.
I question the economics of upgrading a “second tier” rifle. I think it makes more sense to buy or build “top tier” outright and sell the lesser rifle or keep it as a spare.
This is very much so…with the way things are, upgrading a lower quality rifle makes no financial sense.
It’s just like shotguns…if you’ve got a 26" barrel field shotgun, it’s cheaper to sell it and buy a dedicated defensive shotgun with extension, ghost rings, and short bbl from the factory instead of trying to buy a short barrel, buy an extension and have GR sights installed.
I just replaced an M4 profile barrel with one of those “cheap” pencil barrels. Had one of those flimsy things on a Colt years ago and much preferred it to the M203 contour. Sometimes less is more.
A decent optic is a nice thing and doesn’t make a permanent change to the weapon.
