Bushmaster XM15 E2S 25k vs others, reliability/durability

[BFI]

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Attachment 5906hey guys, i have a Bushmaster right now, that has at a minimum 25k rounds through it, and still works great...i did replace springs, and some other high wear parts recently and feel confident that it is good to go. but this last weekend i decided i need another, so i called a few friends around who have different "high quality" AR's. a DD, RRA, LWRC, and a BCM upper on a Bushy lower. we were shooting and my gun wasnt missing a beat but the others were jamming machines (except the LWRC)...i know the owners take great care of their equipment, so i guess my question is are the "high quality" AR's worth the extra cash or is it all a lot of brand loyalty and logo purchasing?

[Palmguy]

Attachment 5904

Attachment 5905

Attachment 5906hey guys, i have a Bushmaster right now, that has at a minimum 25k rounds through it, and still works great...i did replace springs, and some other high wear parts recently and feel confident that it is good to go. but this last weekend i decided i need another, so i called a few friends around who have different "high quality" AR's. a DD, RRA, LWRC, and a BCM upper on a Bushy lower. we were shooting and my gun wasnt missing a beat but the others were jamming machines (except the LWRC)...i know the owners take great care of their equipment, so i guess my question is are the "high quality" AR's worth the extra cash or is it all a lot of brand loyalty and logo purchasing?

Sample sizes of one are insufficient to answer the question you've posed at the end of your post. The short answer is there are quantifiable and objective differences in certain weapons that make them preferable for hard/duty use. Some of these differences include material selection (i.e. barrel steel, receiver extension aluminum, etc), assembly procedures (staking, loctite or lack thereof, proper torque, proper alignment, etc), and design (barrel twist, gas port size, chamber dimensions, feed ramps, receiver extension geometry (goes along with material), correct FSB etc), among others...the things I mentioned were not an exhaustive list. There is a reason these things are done, and that is because they are proven to work.

RRA and Bushmaster generally do not fall on that list. If yours works fine, rock on.

If you legitimately want to discover the answer to your question, the information is here. Start digging through the tech forums.

[Iraqgunz]

Have you replaced the barrel?

Attachment 5904

Attachment 5905

Attachment 5906hey guys, i have a Bushmaster right now, that has at a minimum 25k rounds through it, and still works great...i did replace springs, and some other high wear parts recently and feel confident that it is good to go. but this last weekend i decided i need another, so i called a few friends around who have different "high quality" AR's. a DD, RRA, LWRC, and a BCM upper on a Bushy lower. we were shooting and my gun wasnt missing a beat but the others were jamming machines (except the LWRC)...i know the owners take great care of their equipment, so i guess my question is are the "high quality" AR's worth the extra cash or is it all a lot of brand loyalty and logo purchasing?

[hitman1012]

OH NO! A Bushmaster with 25k rds! BLASPHEMY I tell you! Not that I do not believe you, there are some on here that will not though. I can already tell you that what you will hear is, one good gun does not make Bushmaster a good firearm. When I told of a close friend who is a very good and known 3-gunner that shoots DPMS and has over 30k rds through his with only a barrel replaced, that is exactly the response I got.

My point is the same as yours. I am not saying that Bushmaster or DPMS are better than other brands but I am saying they are obviously not as bad as everyone likes to believe. Otherwise this type thing would never occur. I do not even own a DPMS .308 anymore or a Bushmaster or RRA, just saying there are other fish in the sea that do work just fine.

The other argument, which I actually partially agree with is: other brands are really not that much more expensive, so why roll the dice. A Colt or BCM will not run much more than those brands mentioned above. I only go custom, so I can build them like I want vs. off the shelf guns.

[Iraqgunz]

The problem is not that you or the OP couldn't have had a good rifle. It's that they cannot CONSISTENTLY produce a weapon that will run.

Many shortcomings can be fixed, correct extractor spring/insert, staking the castle nut, bolt carrier key screws, etc...

Things you cannot fix w/o replacing parts, overgassed guns, bolts that are not HP/MPI tested, barrels made from 4140, etc...

I personally would rather wait a couple of months to save the additional funding to get one that is up to spec.

OH NO! A Bushmaster with 25k rds! BLASPHEMY I tell you! Not that I do not believe you, there are some on here that will not though. I can already tell you that what you will hear is, one good gun does not make Bushmaster a good firearm. When I told of a close friend who is a very good and known 3-gunner that shoots DPMS and has over 30k rds through his with only a barrel replaced, that is exactly the response I got.

My point is the same as yours. I am not saying that Bushmaster or DPMS are better than other brands but I am saying they are obviously not as bad as everyone likes to believe. Otherwise this type thing would never occur. I do not even own a DPMS .308 anymore or a Bushmaster or RRA, just saying there are other fish in the sea that do work just fine.

The other argument, which I actually partially agree with is: other brands are really not that much more expensive, so why roll the dice. A Colt or BCM will not run much more than those brands mentioned above. I only go custom, so I can build them like I want vs. off the shelf guns.

[Crow Hunter]

As someone who has owned both Bushmaster and Colt.

As someone who has taken both apart and compared parts side by side.

As someone who has experience as both a manufacturing engineer and a design engineer.

There IS a difference between them. I am not just talking about the stuff on Rob's Chart. If you know what you are looking at/for, it will become apparent there is a difference.

How that stacks up with durability, mean rounds between failures, etc. I don't know. I don't have any experience with that.

Out of the 4 Bushmasters that I have owned, one couldn't get through a full magazine without a failure to feed/nasty double feed and another had to go back due to a horribly machined upper that looked like a cutter broke during finishing the ejection port but was sent on through production.

Of the 5 Colts that I now own, I have never had a single problem that wasn't operator related. Don't get grease on the firing pin in sub zero weather.

So in "MY" experience, Bushmaster has a 50% failure rate and Colt has a 100%. Looking at the parts, I can see why.

To the OP, next time you are out with your friends. Get them to take out their bolts and pull off the extractor. Take a real close comparitive look at the extractor. I think you will be suprised and what you see...

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

ETA: I forgot the one Bushmaster AR that I was going to buy and I asked to take out the BCG so that I could look it over, neither myself, nor the gun shop guy could push in the rear takedown pin, he finally resorted to using a brass punch and whacked it several times very forcefully, not tapping mind you, WHACKING IT. Then, of course, it wouldn't go back in... I thought it was funny, when he asked me, do you still want it? Ummm...... no......

I don't have a clue how they got it together at the factory.

[Mega]

I'm one of those people who got a good Bushmaster several years ago.
It has given me excellent service for years. But... I'm also a tinkerer.

This rifle has been apart and upgraded a number of time over the years, to the extent that the only factory Bushmaster parts left, are the upper housing and the lower receiver.

Does that still make it a Bushmaster?

The version that you see in these photos is still wearing its 16" barrel, but once my Form 1 returns with its tax stamp, she will once again be modified, this time with a 12.5" barrel.

Are they ever really "done"?

[BFI]

Have you replaced the barrel?

no need, still shoots great...

[liaisons]

...
please ignore/delete

[BFI]

very nice, i have had nothing but great experiences with mine so im not sure what people are talking about when they say they arent quality, i think its a lot of brand myopism
Are they ever really "done"?