9mm Bushmaster Carbon-15 Blew Up

J

johhny12gauge

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So I had an issue with a used modified Bushmaster Carbon-15 9mm 16" Barrel I bought off the EE. The gun never ran right and it's been with a gunsmith for the last 3 months. It was firing burst, not at all, or sometimes single. It was all over the place. I spent months on my own trying to figure out what what wrong with it before it went to the smith. I had previously owned 2 7.25" 9mm Bushmaster Carbon-15s and was familiar with the design. They both ran perfect. Even the gunsmith wasn't sure what was wrong with it. So I get a call last night saying the gun went full and a brass ruptured causing the entire gun to be destroyed. I don't believe anyone was hurt so that's great news. My question is should I even bother contacting Bushmaster or am I just wasting my time? The previous seller I don't even recall his name at this point and I don't want to bother playing the blame game with him. Would Bushmaster do anything for me in your opinion?

Thanks for your input
 
How old is the gun? Bushmaster is owned by Remington now, so you are probably SOL....they are not really known for giving a #### north of the border.
Plus being used probably doesn't help with warranty...
If it was doing that with different fire controls then I suspect the trigger pin holes were out of spec causing the sear to slip. I hope between you and the gunsmith these were changed out to see if that was the cause?
If it is the original trigger group then it could have been some home trigger job as the culprit. But that should have been the first thing swapped out once the problem started
 
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Okay thanks for the input thus far. It was reloaded ammo used but as anyone (myself included) who fires thousands a year reloads nowadays I'm not suspecting the ammo. I'm not sure how to post pics but they can be emailed next week when I pick up the pieces from the smith.
 
johhny12gauge said:
Okay thanks for the input thus far. It was reloaded ammo used but as anyone (myself included) who fires thousands a year reloads nowadays I'm not suspecting the ammo. I'm not sure how to post pics but they can be emailed next week when I pick up the pieces from the smith.
Click to expand...

Use a file hosting service such as photobucket, then you should see an option to "copy image location" or "direct link" that will allow you to get the http://www.whatever.com/something.jpg• or something along those lines. paste that into a CGN post with [img•] and [/img•] tags without the •.
 
mississaugagunnut haha, well 9mm ARs are awesome when they run right. I'm down the cost of the gun but no one got hurt so it's peanuts. Out of all the toys i've owned, a few going south isn't the end of the world.

I'm not sure of the guns age. I do not believe the pins were changed, they were factory anyway (or looked that way). 9mm ARs are pretty simple so again myself and the smith never figured out what exactly was the reason behind the failures. I did try various ammo, reaming the barrel, various triggers (factory one it was bought with was in it when it went kaboom), the headspace was checked, months of trying things.
 
I would try to contact bushmaster anyway. There is absolutely nothing to loose in doing this. I often times just leave out the fact that I may be the 2nd owner. Honestly, it shouldn't matter. If the gun has obviously never been modified I would think a company that manufactures guns would want to know about a failure bad enough to destroy the whole gun and I would assume they would take this situation seriously.
Especially if it was a gun smith who had it happen AND it was, at least, in part, due to it going full auto for no reason.
If you get a customers service person who wont treat you right, demand to speak to someone higher up. Let them know your a member of the largest gun owners forum in canada and have no hesitations about letting everyone know about your VERY serious safety issues and poor customer service.
 
The gun was modified, when I say this I mean a new forend, stock, grip. Basic modifications, nothing other than a barrel ream to change the factory configuration. The gun had all factory internal parts. I will contact Bushmaster Monday (and the CFC).

Thanks
 
Have the smith measure the pin holes, it's possible (probable?) that the pin holes were either worn larger, or out of round, allowing things to move around. This would let the hammer follow and cause the issue you had.
 
So I talked to my smith and he said only the upper carbon fiber receiver is blown. So i'll contact Bushmaster and see if somehow I can get a replacement. He also said the trigger is not the issue as to why it was going burst. The ammo was factory Blazer.

I just checked the Bushmaster website and they no longer sell 9mm Carbon 15 models.
 
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This story smells!

There is no way that a 9mm has enough power to "destroy" an upper receiver, even a plastic one. The gun runs FA intermittently but the "smith" claims it is not a trigger problem? And in a previous post you mention the barrel was "reamed" as if that is a standard modification.

The AR15 is designed so that the round cannot be fired without the bolt being fully forward. If the thing firing, not firing or firing FA is not a trigger problem then what is the problem? IMO this is entirely a trigger problem. AR's just don't fire FA for no reason. One thing I have seen cause intermittent FA is if the disconnect spring is missing.

Why was the barrel "reamed" and what was done?

The first thing you should do is get the entire gun back from the "smith" and have a look at it. AR15's are pretty simply devices so it shouldn't be too difficult to diagnose and fix the problem.
 
The barrel was reamed because I've found some barrels are a little tight to run reloads reliably through (CZ Shadow, Lone Wolf Glocks, etc). It was done to rule out any ammo issue. The gun had similar issues regardless of factory ammo or reloads. The gun didn't always go burst, it sometimes didn't even fire when the trigger was pulled yet the bolt was fully forward, sometimes it ran single shot. It was erratic. I can tell you and you can do a little google searching to see that the Carbon series has known issues, the 9mm uppers crack. I have yet to touch or see the gun, I am going from conversations with my smith and his description of only being able to find 2 pieces of the upper.

As for the trigger issue, the smith said he looked at it and it was not doing anything out of the ordinary, I suggested he swap it from the start as I had put in 3 triggers and all had similar results. One was a Timney 4lbs #670 which Timney told me specifically to use on 9mm's. At the time of the accident the trigger in the gun was the factory one (or at least what was in the gun when I bought it). The smith said it wasn't the issue, I do not know enough to counter that.

I spent months on the gun problem solving and couldn't find an answer. Again my knowledge base is limited. So I than sent it the smiths way and now this situation. I am game to keep trying and any advice towards what parts to replace and what will/won't work is greatly appreciated. No gun has ever frustrated me like this before.
 
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I plan to order a new Aero Precision upper to try to get this running. Now I'm game to replace the trigger too, can anyone offer advice as to what trigger I need? I'm thinking RRA 2 Stage NM, would this be heavy enough?
 
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