Info needed on Carbon-15 rifle: any good?

[fatelk]

A friend called me yesterday, is looking at buying a Carbon-15 rifle. It is used but looks like new. The asking price is $600 and it comes with half a dozen mags.

Any opinions on this rifle? I don't know anything about them. Accuracy? Reliability? Is this a good price? He asked me also if I knew if there was any way to attach iron sights.

Any information will be appreciated.

 

[Slugless]

You should be able to attach after-market iron sights. Your front sight may need to come from Bushmaster if it's an optics ready carbine.

http://www.bushmaster.com/catalog_xm15_BCWVMF16M4ORC.asp

 

[starpuss]

not sure if this may help you

 

[LeibstandarteAdH]

holy **** that pitiful such a thing has to exist!! i mean come on just get somebody to buy you something in another state isnt **** you already have granfathered in? wow thats like worse then canada even if so.

 

[Slugless]

That's the top loading one shown above.

It sounds to me like the plump ungulate is referring to an Optics Ready Carbine, MSRP $1085 although a gun show will have significantly lower prices.

California is crazed. But at least someone's making a legal carbine for them.

They love their public policy, a paradox of libertines controlling other peoples behavior. A friend who went to Stanford says it sucked. You can't have a conversation for more than 10 - 15 minutes without the subject becoming public policy.

It's enough to make a man

 

[atblis]

Hmm

I wonder how hard it would be to open up the bottom of that magwell? Dremel Anybody?

 

[fatelk]

I should have been more specific. I now realize that there are more than one model of Carbon-15.

http://www.gunshopfinder.com/bushmaster/bushmastertype97rifle.asp

I think this is more like what he is looking at, though he says the buttstock is a little different. I don't see any option for iron sights at all.

 

[GunTech]

IIRC, the Carbon-15 does use some unique parts in it's design, and is not completely interchangeable with a standard AR-15. I haven't heard anything, good or bad, regarding the rifle. IMO, there are better ways to beuild a superlight AR.

 

[LeibstandarteAdH]

Is it much diffrent from just an ar-15 built with the all carbon stripped lower and upper then add your m4 parts? Ive never handled one of those but i cant stand the "rattle" or gap between the upper and lower on some of the cheaper aluminum m4gereys.

 

[Slugless]

Fat Elk,

Go to Bushmaster's website. They specifically discuss iron sight options for the optics ready carbine.

 

[CWL]

Is this one made by Bushmaster, or was it made by Professional Ordnance? The ones made by ProOrd before they went bankrupt (2003?) had quite a bad reputation regarding quality.

Bushmaster purchased ProOrd after they went belly-up and seemed to have fixed the desgn/operational problems with the Carbon-15.

Your biggest problem will be if you ever need to service it because of the high-number of custom parts used in the Carbon-15. These are not the same as used on the standardized AR15/M4 design.

 

[Pigspitter]

Ah, the shameless castration of a perfectly good battle rifle so the hippies in California will be happy. Tell them to shove it and buy a NFA M16A2.

 

[TODD3465]

Do not get the thing unless it's the newer Bushmaster with the normal bolt carrier, recoil buffer, stock assembly and gas block/sight assembly.

I had one of the POS CARBON-15's. The recoil buffer fell apart and looking it over it was best just to replace it with a normal CAR buttstock assembly and bolt carrier. I still had some perfomance issues as too much gas leaked out between the gas block and barrel boss.

What was sad about it is that it was a tack driver, when it worked.

 

[atblis]

Yeah

They are really freaking light though. That was the thing that amazed me (yeah I know they're supposed to be but...).

Personally, I'd probably pass. You should be able to get a normal carbine for a tad more. The mags are most likely worth less than $10 each.

Wasn't there an issue with bullets hitting the upper receiver and gouging a hole into it, and eventually developing feed problems? I was thinking Bushmaster addressed that. Can't remember.

 

[fatelk]

Go to Bushmaster's website. They specifically discuss iron sight options for the optics ready carbine.

See post #7. It's not an optics ready carbine, nor is it that California abomination. Without having it here to look at, we figure it's a type 97 or type 21 (I can't tell the difference from the photos online) that someone added an ACE SOCOM buttstock to.

I told him it sounds like a fair deal if it's what he wants. If he gets 8 mags with it worth $10 each, and the upgraded buttstock, and he said the guy would come down a little, I don't think he will do bad at all. Sounds like he may be sleeping on the couch for a while though.