Thread: New toy (Bushmaster)

My son made the honour role at school. We have been working hard the past semester on getting the grades up. So there just happen to be a gun show in town today so we went for a visit. One of the local dealers had a deal I could not pass up. Picked up a new Bushmaster M4A2 heavy barrel. Tore it down and cleaned it up this evening. We may put a few hundred rounds down range tomorrow. He is only 11, the M4 stock brings him right up to the correct LOP and I can open it up for me. Any advice from the more experienced AR users. I have a dozen or two other weapons but this is the first AR platform. I wanted to keep it simple, no rail, no junk hanging everywhere, clean and efficient.

nice looking hardware, cant be of much help on the subject, just need to remember not to stop at your place unannouced on my way to spring mount this summer, lol

for an 11 year old a BB gun might be a good starting weapon.Thats what i had at that age.But if you do decide to let him shoot it iam sure you are going to help him hold it while he pulls the trigger so he doesnt end up on his butt!!

At some point you'll probably wish you had a flatop upper reciever. The short sight radius makes long shooting with iron sights very challenging! Thus the need to mount optics on a flatop reciever that aren't uncomfortably mounted to high above the comb of the stock.

Other than that nice basic CAR15. If the price was that good changing to a flattop may be an option.

Nessmuck wrote: "...you are going to help him hold it while he pulls the trigger so he doesnt end up on his butt!!"

Nessmuck, you have obviously never shot anything in the AR15/M16 family. There is no percieved recoil. There is a large buffer spring in the stock that soaks up all the kick. In basic training they had a Drill firing it with the butt on his chin and his...shall we say his private parts, with no injury or pain!

Excellent Choice. Several years ago I bought the Smith & Wesson 15T which is an excellent rifle. However looking back I think I would like the plain M4 style better. I am thinking of putting a scope on the 15T and gettiang a Bushmaster like yours for alarms and excusions.

As for recoil knocking someone down. When I was 13 back in 1959 my uncle bought a British .303 Jungle Carbine through the mail. Paid $13.95 for it and .303 ammo was cheap. My cousin and I would do farm and yard work all week long and buy up ammo and shoot that rifle all day long. Years later I read that the Brits put a hard rubber recoil pad on the rifle because of the "punishing recoil", of the powerful .303 cartridge. I was a very slight built youth at 13 and had no trouble handling the .303. My cousin and I got a good laugh about the recoil.

Their is a secret to handling recoil and even very small people can be taught to shoot powerfull weapons. I have found out in teaching hundreds of people to shoot that muzzle blast is more of a problem than recoil.

Enjoy shooting with your son. Some of the best days of my life were spent with my Dad plinking away with a .22.
I would have loved to have had a Bushmaste back then.

Beautiful rifle, I'm sure you and your son will make some long lasting memories shooting it over the years. I agree on keeping it clean and basic you might lose some functionality but the look and simplicity are hard to beat. As for recoil I've hear of kids half your son's age shooting more powerful rifles and as you say you have over a dozen other guns I doubt thus will be the first gun your son has fired and he will be more than capable of handling it well.

This is far from his first rodeo. He as been shooting a Henry lever 22 that I modified to fit his small frame for a couple years. He has his own 20 gauge auto loader that he shoots trap and sporting clays with. I was a registered clays shooter and he would shoot a set in my competition O/U 12 now and then so I got him something more manageable that he can shoot an entire round with. He has been shooting my 223 varmint rifle for a while has has fed more than a few mags to my Kalashnikov without issue so the recoil from the 5.56 will not be an issue. Most of the ammo is 5.56 surplus trimmed to 223 length and loaded for my varmint rifle. Just in case anyone thinks a 5.56 is a civilian 223, they are not. The Bushmaster is made to take NATO 5.56 or the less potent 223. I have been reloading for around 20 years.

I thought about the A3 which has the removable hand rail so you can flat-top it but he did not have any for the the asking price I could not let it go. I have other rifles for long range work and this one will probably rarely see anything beyond the 100 yard mark so iron sights are not an issue. I can always put a scope on it and replace the stock stock with an adjustable cheek to get the head higher in the sight plain. Then again, that gives me an excuse to get another rifle at some other time.

I started with an old Stephens rolling block around 36 years ago so it is far from my first rifle. Just looking for any tips on gotcha's that I may come across on the platform.

Honestly, Cannon, it's hard to do better than the simple, austere CAR15. The ONLY way I would attempt to improve the rifle would be with a holo-sight. They are VERY fast acquisition, and some of the upper-end models can feature an adjustable reticle (larger/smaller dot for CQC or intermediate battle ranges). That said, you may be able to find a turret rear sight that can directly swap out with the factory peep, which will essentially accomplish the same function by means of a larger/smaller aperture for varying combat/shoosting distances. By the way, I've got similar background with the loudenboomer military arms. My grandpappy loved his M1, and loved to teach his grandson to shoot with it. .30'06 Sprg can be a little brutal to a youth, but 5.56mm is far less potent. My first rifle I purchased was a Remington M91, and the Bulgarian 7.62x54R heavy ball surplus was down right nasty. Many, many rounds downrange made for a few tender shoulders, I promise you. However, I could shoot my buddy's M-4gery all day with only minimal discomfort. Your son should have no problems from the Bushmaster, especially if he's bangin' away with a 20ga. autoloader.

I've been getting the AR itch myself, lately. Shooting something so mild in recoil, yet so proven in combat can give a lot of confidence and enjoyment on range day. Also, pulling 1" groups from a combat rifle in the standing position ain't too shabby...

Just get to the store and load up on all the 62gr 5.56 you can afford/carry/store. Words to live by: "Buy it cheap; stack it deep."

Good choice. You may want to look at the rails that attaches to the carry handle so you can use both optics and irons without change. I've got my m4 wearing full Magpul furniture and with the above mentioned sights, but that's personal taste. I'll post pictures soon. Congrats on the buy and your sons a lucky kid.

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Devilpup

You can't go wrong with a straight up AR, especially with the adjustability of the M4 stock. Eventually you may want to pick up some of the little rubber wedges that fit between the upper and lower. It's a bushmaster so there shouldn't be much slop there but if some develop, the wedges are cheap and handy.

I'm cheap, so I tend to stick with .22's when I'm out at the range. It's fun trying to keep 5 shot groups within 1/4-1/2 inch at 50yds.