A couple of weeks ago I got he itch for a black rifle. So I bought a Bushmaster M4 Patrol rifle.
Now I'm not a stranger to the AR platform and it seems to be a well built rifle, but after reading some of the post on here I now feel like a bought a POS. I compared it with other AR Platforms at the store DPMS Daniel Defence witch was way to $$$ Ruger all though its was piston driven and a few others. They all looked about the same to me fit and finnish was the
same. I paid 1108.00 for it. So tell me did I make a bad buy??
500 grains why do you not like the bushmaster?? You stated in a thread that you would not rely on the Bushmaster for a surival gun. Why??

I would recommend you lube the rifle up properly with Break Free, and shoot a couple of hundred rounds through it.

Then get back to us.

As mentioned earlier, kind of tough to judge a rifle until it has been used a bit. Bushmaster makes some quality firearms and has been around for a long time. There are some very expensive AR15's on the market today compared to the BM, but I am not so sure all of that expense is required to attain a quality, reliable 15. Same goes for the piston driven versions, I don't see the value of it in normal circumstances. Other than military, LE useage, and if the BM is kept "wet" w/ CLP, the less expensive 15's will do just fine. Might want to suggest the MagPull magazines for the rifle, but there are others out there that will work as well. You have a quality firearm and BM builds a fair amount of non civilian armaments which lots of folks depend on as we speak. Might add that I have found their after sales service has always been good as well. JMO

Thanks MFD

Paleo, you seem to have two concerns:
1. Did I pay too much for the rifle.
2. Is the rifle any good?
For the first one, go to gunbroker.com, enter the make and model and look at closed auctions to see what these sold for, and what they did NOT sell for. You say you bought it recently? Good, because a lot of folks bought at the height of the "Obama" scare. These are the same folks sitting on $60 boxes of primers! CDNN has some good prices on AR15 clones: around $800 for some models.
For the second, several things:
1. 500 grains has "left the building".
2. Go to AR15.com and see what they have to say about Bushmasters.
3. I have owned two, a Bullpup and a Carbon 15. Bought for specific reasons and both were (are, I still have the Carbon 15) good guns.
3. Bill Rogers who owns Rogers Shooting School supplies his students with Bushmasters.
4. Why did you buy your gun? Were you:
1.Going to hold off Russian Armored brigades invading across the Mexican border with your AR15?
2 Going to shoot your neighbors who would want to steal your food after the nuclear war that's coming?
3. Thinking that it looked cool, after all it is a "battle rifle"?
4 Going to use it for hunting?
5. Gong to use if for IPSC 3 gun matches?
6. Going to use it to plink at cans, mike jugs etc?
7. Going to use it for NRA matches?
While I am being partly facetious here, there is a point I am trying to make. For some of these, you could use a Mini 14 which is notoriously reliable and notoriously inaccurate (for match shooting). I have one.
The Bushmaster is, I believe, a reliable gun, so the main question is: Does it suit your needs?
I would not worry about gas versus piston, because I think that unless you are going to hold off the aforementioned armored brigades you will not need that feature. Typically guns go from the safe to the gun case to the range and back the same way again. That is not what happens in Afganistan!
Hope this helps, Peter.
Postscript. I would not worry too much about whether you paid too much for the gun. While this may be true, what is far more important is whether the gun you have is suitable for the purpose.

While not a tier 1 AR Bushy's are usually very reliable rifles. One area of weakness, as with many AR's is the staking of the gas key. Very easy to do yourself and only takes a few minutes. Every so often a stock front sight post will be canted. Other than that keep it clean and wet and you should be good to go. Barrels are usually pretty accurate as well.

For a bit I did trust my life on patrol to Bushy and have a few of them. All will eat the dirty crappy WOLF ammo. Wouldnt keep any non-tight chamber AR that wouldnt function w WOLF.

I now run LMT MRP for duty.

I currently have a Bushmaster M4 through which I have run about 1500 rounds of various manufacture. No issues.

Excellent observations and response by Peter, BTW.

I've got four bushmasters and couldn't be happier. They all function flawlessly and shoot great groups at the range.

In my humble opinion the Bushy does a great job of getting r' done ----just my $.02 worth ----based on several thousand rounds of ammo down range------

Bushmaster is one of the few manufacturers that has actually supplied the US Government. Also, they've been bought by Remington. Neither of these organizations will buy something that isn't researched.

I have a bushy I love. Ten years ago many considered them the best in the business.

true they do sell to the us govt. bought by cebrus (spelling?) who also bought remington. due to difficulties w bushy fulfilling govt contracts cebrus then bought dpms to help w parts....

beware dpms if the rifle is for heavy use. nothin stellar prior to the purchase...would imagine they will be the first to go downhill once the obama ar boom is over.

keep that bolt wet with lube or it won't cycle properly. bushmasters are fine. i have a couple. i am not much on piston driven ar rifles.

quote:

Originally posted by citori:
Bushmaster is one of the few manufacturers that has actually supplied the US Government. Also, they've been bought by Remington. Neither of these organizations will buy something that isn't researched.

I have a bushy I love. Ten years ago many considered them the best in the business.

Bushmaster sold dozen rifles COTS to the military in the early 1990s but they do not build rifles to meet the M16Ax or M4 Technical Data Package. I am aware also of a major Federal Law enforcement contract for Bushmaster rifles that ended when the administrators of the agency in question made Bushmaster choke on their defective weapons and purchased Colts again to replace them. That was DOE OST.

That said, there are a few areas where your BFI weapon is out of spec. The twist rate is too slow, the bolt is suspect, the carrier is lightened/modified to prevent automatic fire and the receiver extension is out of spec. There will also be a number of small issues but those are inconsequential at this time. I would replace the bolt with a COLT, BCM or LMT part and stake the carrier key.

Is'nt the carrier key already staked on a BMC,LMY and Colt?? Its staked on my bushmaster stock rifle.When I was looking at AR rifles at a gunstore in Plano TX they had quite a few of them and all the 5.56 were 1:9 twist. I heard that this was just fine for up to 62 or so grs.

quote:

Originally posted by CARLOSTHEJACKAL:
I've got four bushmasters and couldn't be happier. They all function flawlessly and shoot great groups at the range.

These are my 5 Bushmasters, and I'll make the same claim as Carlos. All run like a Rolex, and will feed and shoot most any ammo or handloads reliabily. While AR-15.com has a lot of good information avaliable, you have to be really patient to sift through all the crap to find it. That sight has been overrun with 20 something mall ninjas that regurgitate everything they hear and read from these magazines and "trainers". It's been turned into a giant Colt commercial.

I also have 2 LWRC Piston guns, 2 Colts, and a Rock River Arms 9 MM LAR-9 Carbine. The Bushmasters are every bit as reliable and accurate as any of them. Bushmaster takes a lot of hits because most all of their guns come with 1 in 9" twist barrels. Both of my Colts, (a 6920 and a 6940 Monolith), have 1 in 7" twist barrels. With bullets up to and including 77 grain Sierra's, my Bushmasters are more accurate. The whole, "1 in 7" is better than 1 in 9" argument is nonsense as far as I'm concerned. I've proven that to myself. Go with a Bushy in the flavor of your choice and you'll be a happy AR-15 owner. Shop around because there is a big glut of AR-15's on the market now since it's collapsed after "Hussein fever" has finally petered out. Bill T.

The 7 vs 9 twist issue is more of one with those shooting XTC or 600yd Long Range matches and using heavier bullets, as in 69, 75, 77, or 80's. It is felt that one needs the faster twist to stabilize the heavy bullets at extended range. For most useage the 9 twist is a good compromise, but have observed shooters using the 9 twist barrels at long range and they are handicapped because of it. They can hit the 600 yard target, but the accuracy is just not there to be competetive. Personally I like the 8 twist for all around performance.

As some of you may recall, I bought one a few months ago and got some sighting in assistance.

I've since run about three hundred rounds through it, and it fucntions just fine. It's accurate, too. I like it.

I don't know where you've heard bad about Bushmaster. They've been around forever and have always had a good reputation. I've built 4 AR's on bushy kits. Chose them because they are known to go together well. All mine functioned flawlessly with no tweeking.