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professional ordnance carbon-15 rifle???

brian64x

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Sep 21, 2006
176
2
44
Ellsworth, Kansas
Anybody have any experences with a C-15 rifle? A guy I know has one NIB he wants to sell, price is right, and its light @ about 4 lbs. Basicly I just want to know if they are a hunk o' junk or are they ok. Thanks, Brian
 
Re: professional ordnance carbon-15 rifle???

the original PO ones were sketchy on reliability--some ran like a raped ape some were jam o matics. Bushmaster bought them out and still make them, as far as I know thye have been great--I have thought about picking one up as a truck gun. You can call bushmaster and see if they service PO marked carbon -15's in case you have a problem.
 
Re: professional ordnance carbon-15 rifle???

Pro-Ord guns were made to a different spec and regular ar parts did not interchange. Bushmaster changed that and BM carbon 15's can use regular AR parts. The biggest issue was with the bolts breaking at the pin.

I believe that a bolt can be machined to fit or a newer barrel installed, but i am not 100% on that.

I would buy if it were a smoking deal, like $450 or the like but not much more than that. That is just me though.
 
Re: professional ordnance carbon-15 rifle???

It's a crapshoot as to whether a NIB PO C-15 is gonna be a reliable shooter or a POS. I'm not a gambler. You might get stuck with something that you can't get repaired.
 
Re: professional ordnance carbon-15 rifle???

I had one... would suggest looking at something else. I had the bolt break at the cam pin. Bushmaster took care of me and a little after $400 later I had a new bolt and barrel in the rifle. Problem was that even if you could get someone to machine a new bolt to fit, PO was so inconsistent with their tolerances that you almost had to replace both the barrel and bolt for the gun to work reliably anyway. If you like the rifle that much I would get the one stamped Bushmaster not PO.
 
Re: professional ordnance carbon-15 rifle???

Well the price was $500 and I figured with what might happen to the evil black rifles in the future that I should just buy it and see if it was a POS or not, but insted I'll think I'll keep looking for a cheap AR with a better reputation. Thanks guys
 
Anyone figured out a bolt fix yet? I have a bunch of Bushmaster Carbon 15's and even some super rare "Lady" models bought for the girls ( they only made 200 and Jim the head gunsmith at Bushmaster said over half were bought up by employees ) The Bushmasters have been flawless and all after Tubbs Final Finish are sub-MOA until you heat up the thin barrel. Makes a great hunting / carrying gun not a SHTF rifle. My brothers just bought two Professional Ordinances and the first one just broke the bolt at the pin. The lugs are radiused so regular bolt won't fit. One forum said you could change the barrel extension then a regular bolt would work. Those barrels were pressed in and located with a pin so I don't know. If anybody knows it will be here. Thanks for any help converting this back from now a boat anchor.
 
All the bad reports I have ever seen on the Carbon 15 are on PO ones. I would pass on it. If your sold on a Carbon 15 i'd look for the BushMaster ones.
 
All of mine are Bushmasters but my brothers already bought two of the PO's so we're stuck with them. There was a thread on AR15.com that Kurt's Kustom Guns would modify your mil-spec bolt to fit for $60 including shipping back to you, then I searched for his contact and found he was killed in a motorcycle crash, I'm sorry for them. So I guess it can be done and the guy that had it done to his bolt said it ran great. I'll just keep looking, hate to scrap them and the wives and daughters just love them if we can get them running again.
 
All the bad reports I have ever seen on the Carbon 15 are on PO ones. I would pass on it. If your sold on a Carbon 15 i'd look for the BushMaster ones.

I've rebuilt the Bushmaster models once the rail came loose for my neighbor. It wasn't strong enough to handle the pressure that a EO tech magnifier required to lock and unlock into place. The upper and lower were rebuilt with aluminum recievers and a new barrel nut. The rail was only held in place by 2 screws/rivets, attaching a metal rail to the polymer frame. Not a rugged design by any stretch of the imagination.

And the Bushmasters use a special barrel nut and different takedown pins. They are not directly compatable with standard AR parts.

I've handled the PO's as well. I'd just pass on the whole idea of a poly AR. They are problems looking for a solution.
 
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