Bushmaster AR-15A2 Heavy Barrel - what to do?

[Chief_Rick]

Digging through a box, I came across a pre-Remington (early 2000s) Bushmaster AR-15A2 heavy barrel upper, missing the front sight, gas tube and hand guards. It did still have the BCG and CH.

I also came across a stripped flat-top upper receiver.

Thinking of re-purposing the barrel to see what it'll do.

What would you run for a handguard? I'm thinking a low(er) profile with adjustable gas block, at least 15 inches.

Waste of time/money?

 

[Hobo Hilton]

If it were mine I would piece together an upper using what you have in the photo and take it out to the range.
There has to be reasons it was parted out.
Just see if the barrel will shoot.

 

[Chief_Rick]

If it were mine I would piece together an upper using what you have in the photo and take it out to the range.
There has to be reasons it was parted out.
Just see if the barrel will shoot.

I bought this in the early 2000s from a USMC range in Norfolk, VA. When my eyes were still good, I used this to qualify USN Expert.

I don't remember when or why I took the front sight & handguards off, or where they are.

I think I switched out the complete upper with a 16" lightweight.

This 20" heavy barrel is a beast.

 

[msgriff]

I'm not sure why you would need an AGB. If you can go non-adjustable, they make 1.9" long set screw low-pro blocks for~$25, which will cover the unfinished forward part of the journal. If you don't have any criteria other than length for the handguard, I'd buy used, clearance, or wait for a sale like Black Friday.

 

[Trigger Monkey]

I'm sort of in a similar boat, I have a 20" barrel sitting upstairs and a flat top upper so I'm weighing what to do with it also. Part of me wants to just slap a free float tube on it and turn it into basically like a 20" predator upper like the Fulton Armory upper below:

However, then I'd have another scoped upper and it'd be redundant to the other three I have so I'm leaning towards an A4-like upper with a carry handle and fixed front sight.

 

[LRRPF52]

Now that Windham Weaponry is done, and old Bushmaster hasn’t been a thing since they sold to Freedom Group, this might actually be somewhat of a collector’s item.

I had a ban-era 16” heavy CLGS pipe take-off from one of my brother’s AR’s I tricked-out for him with a threaded pipe, JP handguard, etc.

I had it re-profiled, fluted and dimpled, cut to 14.5” and threaded, made it lightweight. Shot really well even with 55gr fodder.

One thing about Bushmaster is that they had their barrel metallurgy and chrome-lining down really well. The other parts were mostly sub-standard non-spec VISMOD imitations, but the barrels were good.

I always wanted a 14.5” fluted H-BAR, but never got one. Got a 16” H-BAR fluted back in the 2000s.

I sold a lot of their ban-era carbines with the Y-Comps and fixed M4 waffle stocks, and some of those guns came back with loose gas keys. If you were going to shoot them high-volume, you really had to go over them and replace a lot of components to get them up-to-task. They tended to be accurate though.

The biggest lesson about Bushmaster is how important brand recognition is. That name and the logo were the highest-selling "AR-15” SKUs in the 1990s-2000s. When he sold to Freedom Group, they cut the Windham facility production and sourced parts from DPMS’s chain, which they also bought. You can distinguish between these rifles by looking at the snake logo to see if the Bushmaster ARM assault rifle/pistol bullpup is in the logo or not.

Then Freedom Group bankrupted their Bushmaster brand, the DPMS brand, the Remington brand, and sold the scraps off.

If you can find that FSB, handguard cap, A2 handguards, and install a rifle length gas tube properly to put it back into original configuration, I would consider that. Probably isn’t worth the effort now, but might be down the road.

If you want a short-term fix, sell the A2 upper to someone into Retro builds so they can do a 727 carbine, or M16A2. There are a lot of kids out there with imitation M16A2s built on M4 uppers with detachable carry handles.

 

[Chief_Rick]

I'm sort of in a similar boat, I have a 20" barrel sitting upstairs and a flat top upper so I'm weighing what to do with it also. Part of me wants to just slap a free float tube on it and turn it into basically like a 20" predator upper like the Fulton Armory upper below:

View attachment 8233715

However, then I'd have another scoped upper and it'd be redundant to the other three I have so I'm leaning towards an A4-like upper with a carry handle and fixed front sight.

This is along the same line I was thinking, but with a longer handguard.

I don't care for the design, but something like this 17.5" Odin handguard.

 

[AMGtuned]

Now that Windham Weaponry is done, and old Bushmaster hasn’t been a thing since they sold to Freedom Group, this might actually be somewhat of a collector’s item.

I had a ban-era 16” heavy CLGS pipe take-off from one of my brother’s AR’s I tricked-out for him with a threaded pipe, JP handguard, etc.

I had it re-profiled, fluted and dimpled, cut to 14.5” and threaded, made it lightweight. Shot really well even with 55gr fodder.

One thing about Bushmaster is that they had their barrel metallurgy and chrome-lining down really well. The other parts were mostly sub-standard non-spec VISMOD imitations, but the barrels were good.

I always wanted a 14.5” fluted H-BAR, but never got one. Got a 16” H-BAR fluted back in the 2000s.

I sold a lot of their ban-era carbines with the Y-Comps and fixed M4 waffle stocks, and some of those guns came back with loose gas keys. If you were going to shoot them high-volume, you really had to go over them and replace a lot of components to get them up-to-task. They tended to be accurate though.

The biggest lesson about Bushmaster is how important brand recognition is. That name and the logo were the highest-selling "AR-15” SKUs in the 1990s-2000s. When he sold to Freedom Group, they cut the Windham facility production and sourced parts from DPMS’s chain, which they also bought. You can distinguish between these rifles by looking at the snake logo to see if the Bushmaster ARM assault rifle/pistol bullpup is in the logo or not.

Then Freedom Group bankrupted their Bushmaster brand, the DPMS brand, the Remington brand, and sold the scraps off.

If you can find that FSB, handguard cap, A2 handguards, and install a rifle length gas tube properly to put it back into original configuration, I would consider that. Probably isn’t worth the effort now, but might be down the road.

If you want a short-term fix, sell the A2 upper to someone into Retro builds so they can do a 727 carbine, or M16A2. There are a lot of kids out there with imitation M16A2s built on M4 uppers with detachable carry handles.

It's not QUITE over yet...

https://keenanauction.com/list.cgi?...rRoVUyiM4T9BziF3wItw401wfq2PlgoHybAyVgQe0djP4

Wish I had the dough for the whole enchilada . Still going to try and get in on the bidding when the list is done.

 

[45-90]

I had a Colt H bar...dont like the A2 style, so I stripped it out for parts ...the heavy barrel was cut to 16.5", fluted, opened the gas port, and repurposed to a flattop ...the rifle length gas port and ultra light bolt carrier made for a fast & soft shooting auto loader.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

Agree with @LRRP52.

Restore it to a2 configuration and build/buy an a2 lower. Everyone should have an m16a2 clone ( and an a1 and xm177 and m4a1 and m16a4 and Block 2 ect ext ect)