I wasnt able to vote because the poll is closed but I agree that there should have been a middle ground somewhere. I think Bushmaster makes a fine target/hunting rifle but I dont care for them as a defense/duty rifle..... and I carry one for duty.
I have owned 3 Bushmasters myself and all of them performed great. However, I never really ran them through a tough shooting session.
At work I carry a Bushy M4 style rifle. My department normally goes with Colts but at the time there was a huge back order from Colt and some political pressure to buy rifles now. So we ended up with 100 new Bushamster rifles.
To carry a rifle for my dept you go through a 4 day 40 hour course that shoots somewhere near 4k rounds. In that class my trigger group broke twice and my safety bound up so much it took a lot of force to switch from safe to fire. Almost every Bushmaster that the department bought has had issues.
Recently we were training with LC M193 5.56 instead of our usual American Eagle .223. Several of the Bushies went down due to popped primers. This was caused by excessive pressures because the Bshies many times dont have actual 5.56 chambers.
I also had to have a tall front sight post installed because I was unable to sight my rifle in with the Bushamster carry handle.
On the other hand the Colts
rarely have any problems. In fact I dont know a single officer with one that has had problems.
That being said my duty Bushy has never had a FTF or FTE and is a pretty accurate rifle. But I dont trust it and thats the reason I recently sold some other guns and spent the extra money to buy myself a Colt 6920 to switch over to.
I feel the Bushamsters are not made for the stresses that duty life can bring. If you plan on defending yourself with a rifle I would definitely look somewhere else.
For 700 - 800 bucks I think the Bushamster is a decent buy. Anything over that I believ you can do better.
