Quick Bushmaster ACR Update

I'm up to 1110 rounds through the ACR with no lubrication, and without cleaning the action.  The manual says that no lubrication is necessary, so I've been running it completely dry.  It doesn't seem to be doing any harm.  I have cleaned the bore and chamber though, hoping to squeeze a little more accuracy out of it.

I've tried a bunch of "match" loads through it, trying to get a decent group, but the best groups I've gotten have been around 2" at 100 yards.  These same loads have been around .9" to 1 1/8" out of my LMT M4.  I tried removing and reinstalling the barrel, and really snugging down the barrel nut.  I tried supporting the handguard at the middle, and back toward the magazine well.  I checked to make sure my rifle rest was solidly locked down and screwed together tight.  Getting a really good group out of the ACR is proving to be frustrating.  My best load to date through the LMT has been a round with a Midway 55gr varmint bullet, which the ACR puts into sloppy 3 inch groups.  Maybe some of the lighter MatchKing or Hornady bullets will do a little better from the ACR, fingers crossed.

I'm not sure if the 1:7" twist barrels are available yet.  They have been extremely slow introducing barrels for the civilian market, which kind of makes the "A" for adaptive kind of a joke.  Mine is a 1:9" twist.  I was told that 1:9" twist barrels will sometimes shoot heavy bullets just fine, so I tried some.  The Nosler 77gr Custom Competition bullets just sort of sprayed.  I actually couldn't keep them all on a 14x14" target.  It was really that bad.  75gr Hornady match bullets did very much better, but still didn't produce anything resembling an impressive group.  69 grain MatchKings were good, but still not impressive.

But at least it runs.  It's chewed through the softest shooting ammo that I could find, and obviously has no problem with hot 5.56mm spec ammo.  Steel case ammo has not yet posed a problem, at least not with the ACR.

It does have magazine preferances, but then most rifles do, to some extent.  A Fusil steel magazine or two have seemed to lock in, and pass the pull test, only to fall back out when a shot is fired (embarrasing).  A couple of my old English SA80 steel magazines lock in well, but then you have to really mash the magazine release to get them back out again.  But the ACR chugs along happily with G.I. aluminum magazines, PMags of various generations and capacities, TangoDown, C Products stainless steel, Lancer and Troy magazines.  I'm not sure if Fusil is even still making magazines, and I suspect that a lot of the old English steel SA80 magazines have been crushed, scrapped, or trashed, as 3 of the 5 that I bought in 2002 have proven to be sub-par.

Oh, and I dumped the trigger that came with the rifle.  I bought a Geissele SSA-Enhanced AR-15 trigger on sale from Palmetto State Armory, and installed it with the ACR hammer spring, which doubles as the selector detent spring.  Soooo much better.  I run an SSA in my main AR-15, and I've got another with a 15-minute trigger job.  The ACR trigger really sucked compared to both, and couldn't even compete with a Tapco AK trigger.  I usually take 2 rifles with me when I got to shoot, and the ACR always came in 2nd place because the trigger pull was always heavier than whatever else I took.  Just unpleasantly heavy if you have anything to compare it to.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so quick an update.

TulAmmo .223Rem Fail

Tula "White Box" 55 grain, and Tula "Black Box" 55 grain .223 Remington

I bought 5 boxes of 20 rounds of Tula "White Box" .223 Remington at a gun show a few months ago and shot them through my 16" LMT M4, tax stamp LMT 10.5", and Bushmaster ACR.  Those, I had no problems with.  So, I purchased a 500 round spam can of TulAmmo "Black Box" .223 Remington sealed up in a "spam can."  Working the coupons and deals for The Sportsmans's Guide, I got a pretty good price on the can.

Today I took a bagful of loaded mags, and the 10.5" LMT and the ACR, out to the indoor range.  I put a few mags through the ACR, including a couple mags of Tula, with no issues before switching over to the LMT shorty.  I loaded up the LMT with a Troy Battlemag full of Tula, dropped the bolt, and flipped off the safety.  BANG!  Dead trigger.  After the first round, the bolt came back and ejected the steel case, pushed the next round maybe a half inch, and stopped.  I thought that was weird, because I had no problem with the "White Box" ammo.  I haven't run the Troy mags much, so I grabbed a PMag full of Tula.  The exact same thing happened.  I pulled back the bolt, and let it fly, chambering a round.  BANG!  Dead trigger.  Short-stroking.

Fortunately, I had brought a couple mags full of PMC Bronze .223 to try, and I had a few mags of my almost 5.56mm NATO spec ammo to shoot through the LMT, and the ACR chewed through the mags full of Tula.  Although I keep a few different recoil buffers in the rifle bag, the one in the LMT 10.5" carbine was already a standard carbine buffer, and I don't have anything lighter, if there even is anything lighter.

I know the problem isn't the steel-cases.  They are Boxer-primed, and I've reloaded hundreds of Wolf and Tula steel-cases and run the reloads through the same LMT without issue.  My loads were approaching 5.56mm NATO pressures though.

So, the ACR is proving to be capable of digesting anything I can fit into the magazines.  But what does it say about the Tula ammo?  Did I get a "vodka special" batch?  The "White Box" ammo, and the "Black Box" ammo should be the same, but obviously what I got wasn't the same.  I suppose this would explain the mixed reviews on Tula ammo.  Luck of the draw?  You get what you pay for, perhaps?

White Box Manufactured: 07/09 (I'm not sure if that's European for September, 2007, or if it's July, 2009)
Lot: 7Q5 4

I think this is the lot for the Black Box ammo, but I don't know how to read it.

ACR Review, Part 3

Previous Entries
Some Bushmaster ACR Observations (Part 1)
Bushmaster ACR Observations, Part 2

(I updated them, so that you can blow the photos up to fill the screen with a click.  PITA, because Blogger still isn't user friendly when you try to post photos with captions.  The line-spacing goes all wonky.)

Rapid Fire Testing
I've had the ACR out for a couple of rapid fire sessions.  The rifle continues to impress me.

The first session, I had the ACR out along with my WASR (7.62x39mm Romanian AK).  The ACR definitely has less recoil than the 7.62mm AK, even though the AK has a recoil buffer and muzzle brake.  The second session, I had the ACR out along with my LMT M4, with both rifles having essentially the same barrel profile and flash hider.  I still don't think that the recoil of ACR is different enough to even be noticeable when compared to a similarly equipped AR.

The heat-shielded polymer handguards seem to do a really good job.  After a 3 magazines, the gas block was HOT, but I could only feel a little warmth coming through the handguards.  There is a Magpul MVG mounted on the handguard of the rifle I'm testing, as well as a Magpul MOE short rail for mounting a weapon light.  I still think the handguard is a bit short, but it's significantly better than a 7" AR handguard.

The Recall
The rifle did double on me, once.  I was shooting Wolf steel-cased ammo, and this particular ACR hasn't been sent in for the recall service yet.  I have noticed that the primers aren't seated as deeply in the steel cases as they usually are in brass cases, which I believe is part of the problem.  I've put several hundred rounds of brass-cased ammo through the ACR without any issues whatsoever.

I had said that the issue that caused the recall was likely not due to the firing pin.  As it turns out, I was wrong.  Return spring or not, for whatever reason, the firing pin seems to be the issue.  There were several reports of Acres slam-firing in the days prior to the recall.  The original firing pin/return spring combo will leave a fairly significant dent in the primer after chambering a round; even more of a dent than a AR-15/M-16 will leave.  I guess I was wrong about the Lancer Magazines, and I was wrong about the ACR firing pin.

Magazines
Although I have primarily used PMags, I've run a couple more D&H brand G.I. aluminum mags (with Magpul followers), and the ACR continues to run just fine.  I even loaded the G.I. magazines to the full 30-round capacity, and was able to get the magazine locked in, and the bolt stripped the top round with zero hesitation, both of which are sometimes an issue with AR rifles.  The magazine well is fairly loose and everything is dropping free.

Ergonomics
I still think the stock and pistol grip feel a bit small, but when I actually shoot the rifle, I don't notice it.  I have the same issue with the finger grooves on the Glock 19; just holding it, it feels a bit off, but I don't notice it when actually using the pistol.  I'm going to call this a non-issue, on both cases.

Price and Model Availability Update
Pricewise, there have been some new developments.  Bushmaster has lowered the retail prices for the ACRs, and I'm hearing that you can find the basic model for as low as $1500 if you look around.  The price from Cheaper Than Dirt is somewhere around $1800, if memory serves.

Not sure if the ACR is available yet with the basic polymer handguard and folding/collapsing stock yet, but this configuration is shown in the new Bushmaster catalog.  Bushmaster reps are telling people that 10.5", 14.5", and 18" barrels should be available by the end of the year, along with 1 turn in 7" twist barrels also.

What's Next
Next up for my ACR testing is some 100 yard accuracy tests, but that will take a little while.  I'll try out some 75 and 77 grain bullets to see how the 1 in 9" twist barrel will do with those.

Bushmaster ACR Recall

Bushmaster is realling all ACR rifles.  Some problem with doubling or firing multiple rounds with a single trigger pull, which is something that the BATFE does't like one bit.

Link to PDF file with details on the recall.  It is a smallish file.

Bushmaster Firearms Intentional, LLC has become aware of a possible firearms performance issue that may develop with a small number of ACR rifles and we are requesting you discontinue the use of this rifle immediately, and contact us at your earliest convenience so that we can make the necessary arrangements to have the rifle returned to us for inspection and update if necessary.

All Bushmaster produced ACR rifles are impacted by this notification.

Since the ACR has a firing pin return-spring, I don't think this is a slam-fire issue.  I imagine it is a trigger group issue.  The lower being an unserialized part, unlike an AR-15 lower, this would make things a little easier.

UPDATE:  It should make things easier, but they still want the whole rifle returned for the recall service.

Bushmaster ACR Observations, Part 2

Other ACR Entries:
Some Bushmaster ACR Observations (Part 1)
ACR Review, Part 3

I had the ACR out for some more live fire.  I discovered that the Bushmaster-branded Flambeau case that the rifle comes in is big enough to hold the ACR with a Millet DMS scope mounted, and a WASR-10 with a Primary Arms Micro red dot sight mounted on an Ultimak gas tube.

I noticed it the first time, but confirmed it this week; there’s no change in sound when the bolt locks open on an empty magazine.

Speaking of magazines, I’ve still not had any form of malfunction.  I was switching off between one of the windowed PMags that my AR-15s don’t like, and a D&H brand aluminum G.I. magazine with an orange (Gen 1?  Gen 2?) Magpul follower.  The bolt has locked back every time when the magazines are empty.  The bolt catch seem to be breaking in a bit, and is not quite as hard to release as it used to be.

I even tried some odds-and-ends reloads, some pretty soft-shooting ammo, and still couldn’t get the rifle to choke or short-stroke.

Trigger
I pulled out the Lyman digital trigger gauge to check the trigger pull.  In the center of the trigger, I get about eight pounds.  At the tip of the trigger, it takes about six and a half.  The pull is pretty smooth, and there is minimal overtravel, but definitely some creep and slack.  For a service rifle trigger, it’s not too bad, but it’s not a target trigger by any stretch of the imagination.

Grip
I moaned when I found out that the ACR was being released with a one-size-fits-some integral pistol grip.  I have Magpul MIAD modular grips on my ARs and I like them, and I find it odd that the Magpul rifle has no modular grip.  I guess it would have made the mold for the lower more complicated, but I would have liked to have the ACR lower compatible with MIAD interchangeable backstraps.

CR123A Battery Core, Batteries Not Included

That said, I guess I can live with the lower as is.  I wear a man’s size large glove.  With a good grip, my index finger hits the trigger just past the first joint, the “power crease.”

Stock
I guess most of you have little interest in the fixed stock of the Basic model, but this may be of some interest to those of you in states with “assault weapon” bans.  I measure the length of pull, the distance between the center of the trigger and the center of the butt pad, to be 12 3/8”.  I would have probably adjusted it longer if I could have, but I never had the rear sight smack me in the face under recoil or anything, so I guess I can live with that too.  I’ve read several places that there are spacers available to increase the length of pull of the fixed stock, but I tried to find them on the Bushmaster and Magpul websites, and came up with nothing.

Basic Stock Details, Sling Mounting Points

The Basic stock has sling loops on the top and bottom.  For single point slings, there is a rectangular ring on the left side of the stock, just behind the receiver.  It looks like the single point sling loop could be moved to the right side for lefties.

There is a single QD sling swivel socket in the top rear of the left side of the stock, which can be moved to the left side, if desired.  I’m pretty sure that the ambi socket kit for the Magpul UBR could also be used to put a second QD socket on the other side.  The Magpul and ACR swivels do not have any stops to prevent the swivel from rotating all the way around and tangling up your sling.

The cheekpiece is easy to adjust.  Just pull it back to unlock it, and then you can lift the front end and push it forward again to lock it in place.  I have it adjusted all the way up for use with the MBus sights and the DMS scope on an AR-15 mount.

There is no place to store anything in the Basic stock.

Grip
The pistol grip is textured on the sides, but not on the front or back, or on the bottom of the trigger guard.  The grip is compatible with MIAD grip cores, and comes with a core made to hold two CR123A batteries.

Handguard
I actually like the plastic Basic handguard better than the Enhanced quad-rail handguard.  I’d still like the polymer handguard to be a few inches longer, but it is a couple inches longer than the Enhanced handguard.  The Basic handguard is compatible with the rails and other accessories available to fit the Magpul MOE AR-15 handguards.  The Enhanced handguard has a forward sling swivel, but the Basic handguard does not.

Top/Inside View of Basic Polymer Handguard

I'd prefer one of the longer polymer handguard seen on the ACR designated rifleman prototype rifles.

Room For Improvement
I’d like to see magazine funnels available in a couple different sizes, a medium size for defense/duty use, and a larger one for 3-gun competition.  An ACR equivalent of the AR-15 ASAP plate, an ambidextrous single point sling loop would be an obvious accessory.  It looks like Remington is offering their ACR with an aluminum lower that accepts AR-15 pistol grips, which may add some to the already fairly heavy weight of the ACR but would allow tailoring the length of pull of the pistol grip.  I like the 12” handguards on a couple of my AR-15 uppers, and I consider both of the Bushmaster handguards currently available to be too short.  The QD sling swivel sockets should have stops to keep slings from getting tangled.

A lot of this stuff are things that Magpul has already offered for AR-type rifles.  Sort of aggravating that a $2000 Magpul rifle still needs some improvement.

Some Bushmaster ACR Observations

Other ACR Entries

Bushmaster ACR Obervations, Part 2
ACR Review, Part 3

ACR Basic, Photo Borrowed From Bushmaster ACR Manual

I’ve been fiddling with, and doing a little shooting of a Bushmaster Basic ACR. Here are some of the things that I haven’t seen mentioned in other reviews:

The Bushmaster is a modern rifle of unique design, borrowing some aspects of designs that proceeded it.

The bolt is much like an AR-15 bolt, and the trigger group is mostly AR-15 compatible, but other than that, there’s not that much in common with an AR-15. The upper and lower receivers are held together with AR-15 type captive pins; okay that’s one more thing in common.

Geissele SSA and JP AR-15 triggers have been successfully installed into ACR trigger packs.

The ACR bolt carrier rides on rails, sort of like the bolt carrier of a Kalashnikov variant rifle. The gas piston system is more like a FAL.

The ACR’s stock and handguards can be removed by pushing their own take-down pins.  Unlike a HK G3 or MP5-type firearm, the pins are captive.

Even the plastic handguard of the ACR basic model leaves the barrel free-floating.  Unlike an AK or FAL, there’s really no contact at all between the barrel and upper receivers, except where the two parts are coupled at the trunnion.  The gas piston of the ACR is shrouded by the upper receiver, but they don’t seem to touch.  The gas piston is not otherwise housed in a tube or anything.

ACR Barrel/Gas Piston Assembly (Borrowed From Bushmaster ACR Manual

Front End Details

The barrel is pretty tightly fitted to the trunnion. The barrel nut is pretty easy to remove with the attached lever, but actually getting the barrel out of the upper takes a little bit of wiggling.  The manual says to depress the barrel plunger, but doesn't show or tell you what that is.  See picture above.

The gas piston is a little hard to remove.  When you remove the gas plug, it doesn’t pop out, and there’s nothing to grab hold of.  Removing the handguard doesn’t help.  The piston has to be pushed out of the upper with a cleaning rod from the breech end. That, or you could remove the whole barrel assembly from the upper.

The ACR’s charging handle is an odd duck.  To be honest, I haven’t figured out how it works yet.  When the charging handle is locked forward, it is disconnected from the bolt carrier, and that’s what makes it non-reciprocating.  If you pull back on that charging handle, it connects with the bolt carrier.  If you pull back that charging handle, when trying to field strip the rifle, you won’t be able to remove the bolt carrier.  The two parts are connected, and you’ll have to lock the handle forward, and hook the carrier with your finger from the bottom of the upper, and then pull it out.

ACR Bolt Group

The new-production ACR that I’ve been fondling has a solid steel pin retaining the firing pin and firing pin return spring.  The ACR’s firing pin retainer is held in place with an o-ring.

The bolt cam pin is an ACR specific part that is fitted into the left side of the bolt carrier.  The cam only goes into the bolt one way, so you can’t install the bolt into the carrier the wrong way accidentally.  The cam pin does not quite pass all the way through the bolt.

Bolt Comparison

The head of the ACR bolt is almost identical to an AR-15 bolt.  I didn’t leave the AR-15 bolt to make any kind of point, I just haven’t gotten around to cleaning it yet.

Currently, ACRs are only available with a rifling twist of 1 turn in 9 inches.  “Common knowledge” says that a 1:9” twist will not stabilize 75 and 77 grain bullets, however I’ve heard from several ACR owners that these heavier bullets print decent groups.  Jeff Quinn got a sub-MOA group from Buffalo Bore 77 grain Sniper HP ammo with the ACR he tested for GunBlast.  I intend to find out myself, but haven’t gotten that far yet.

There have been some complaints that ACRs won’t lock back after the last round with certain types of magazines.  I’ve tried a D&H aluminum GI mag, a Lancer L5 30-round magazine, one of those Israeli countdown mags, and a 20-round PMag.  I even tried a new-revision PMag with windows that won’t reliably lock back the bolt carrier of either of my AR-15s.  I tried the stubborn PMag two or three times.  I’ve not yet had any problems at all, although the round count is still pretty low.

The safety (selector) easily snicks on and off.  The bolt catch however, gives no leverage assist, and is still stiff on the new rifle I’ve been working with.

There have been complaints that the support-side safety (selector) lever hits the trigger finger of some users when switching the safety off.  It really doesn’t bother me that much.  I trimmed the support-side lever of the ambi safety on my AR (not shown in picture linked below), but the ACR safety I would leave alone.  The ACR safety levers are pretty small, and made of plastic, and I’m not sure how much you can do with them anyway.  I’ve seen military ACRs with no safety lever on the right-side.  I expect there to be a cap or smaller lever available to replace the right-side lever available from Bushmaster or Magpul at some time in the future.

There’s been some comments on the relative recoil of the ACR.  I went from shooting my LMT/Stag AR-15 to the Basic ACR.  My AR has a 16” M4 barrel with carbine length gas system, standard M-16 bolt carrier, an A2 flash hider, and an H buffer.  I can’t say that I noticed any significant difference in recoil.  I do know that a 7.62x39mm AK has more recoil that my AR, and a 5.45x39mm AK has less recoil, but there’s just not that much difference between my AR and the ACR.  I expected the piston-op ACR to have a little more recoil, but that doesn’t seem to be.

Official Bushmaster ACR Home Page

Bushmaster ACR Review on AR15.com

Link to thread, ACR Observations.

Some new information and detail photos.  Interesting.


Another thread, by Ghetto.  Link is to page 5, where he actually gets the rifle, the first 5 pages are pretty worthless.


This is Post #250!!

UPDATE, 9/18/2010: ShooterReview comparison tests of Bushmaser ACR Basic, Robinson Arms XCR, and an Rock River Arms M4

Bushmaster Dropped a Bomb at SHOT Show!

Bushmaster has released the ACR rifles for sale.  Don't get too excited yet, though.  There's a catch.

Link to The Firearms Blog  Bushmaster ACR post.

Link to official Bushmaster site, ACR Launch page.

The basic model has a single top rail, and a fixed stock (yes, confirmed, fixed non-folding stock).  Retail price, $2,685.

The "Enhanced" model has a 3-rail handguard (in addition to the "monolithic" top rail), and the collapsable folding stock.  Retail price, $3,061!!!

Crap, dude!?!  What happened to $1,500!?!  I had expected that they'd sell for about that price for the first few months, but I expected the dealers and distributors would reap most of the profit, by marking up over the retail price.  I don't know how much room there's gonna be to mark up the price.

Bushmaster is pretty well known for poorly assembled rifles (check this out).  For those prices, these damn things had better be perfect.

Barrels are 1:9" twist, which limits you to bullets that weigh 69 grains or less (depending on the precision of the rifling twist to spec).  Not a good idea.  Many serious shooters prefer 1:7" twist for shooting 77 grain bullets including the U.S. Mk262 load.

EDIT: 1:7" twist barrels will be available.  It is unknown, at least to me at this point, whether it will be an extra cost upgrade, a no-extra-cost option, or a separate accessory barrel.  (Thanks for the reminder, Drew)


Barrels are hammer-forged with an "innovative coating," FWIW.  Not chrome lined.

Disappointing to say the least!

The Robinson Armament XCR is looking a lot better.  I've seen them at gun shows for about half the price of the basic model ACR, with most of the same features.  The FN SCAR is also quite expensive, but now available in black, by the way. (NOTE: SCAR article in the new issue of Guns Magazine, and may be available online already)

I'm thinking I'll upgrade a couple of my AR-15 uppers, and wait this one out.


Also from The Firearm Blog, Colt is releasing a civilian version of the Sub Compact Weapon (SCW), an AR-15 based, folding-stock rifle.  Full details unknown at this time.

Updates 11/14/09

I updated the AR-15 Magazines article with information on 9mm AR mags.

Lengthening the ejector for the M&P 9 Pro didn't change much. I was able to stretch it out 0.025", through heat and hammering. Chopping down the ejector, and working the extractor some seemed to have done the trick, but I wasn't able to test it too much. It got dark on me too quick today, and I didn't get a chance to do any more live-fire testing.

A while back, I reported that the Border Patrol wanted assisted-opening pocket knives to be classified as automatic knives (a.k.a. switchblades), and regulated as such (Article - Sigh. Pocket Knife Ban In The Works?). This legislation could have affected many one-hand-opening knives. This ban attempt has failed, either through common sense or the efforts of "Knife Guys" to get this killed.

I've noted in the Civilian ACR/Masada Coming Soon? thread that the Wikipedia ACR Article states that the suggested retail price for the semi-automatic ACR is anticipated to start around $1200. I wonder how long it will take for street prices to come down to the retail price. I would expect the first few thousand to sell for over $2000 easily judging by Gunbroker auction bids on the SCAR rifles when they first came out.

Oh, and I finally updated the Articles and Reviews list pages.

Civilian ACR/Magpul Masada Coming Soon?

Bushmaster has posted an update on the ACR (Advanced Combat Rifle, a.k.a. Magpul Masada). They are predicting a launch in the first half of 2010. Bushmaster is supposed to be marketing the carbine to civilians, with Remington going for the military contracts.

Pray that the November 2010 elections go better than the 2008 elections!

EDIT 11/14/09: The Wikipedia ACR Article states that the suggested retail price for the semi-automatic ACR is anticipated to start around $1200. I wonder how long it will take for street prices to come down to the retail price. I would expect the first few thousand to sell for over $2000 easily judging by Gunbroker auction bids on the SCAR rifles when they first came out.