I was out at the range today, zeroing in my new 16" PSA AR9. That all went fairly well.
Then I got my Bushmaster CAR15 Lightweight 16" 5.56 out to make sure that it still remembers how and where to shoot. After 4 rounds, I laid the rifle on my table, and walked the 40 yards to my target. As I was marking the target, a stout gust of wind caught my shooting table and blew it over, throwing my rifle on the ground. When I returned and picked the rifle up, the stock and buffer tube came off in my hand. As I was inspecting it to see why, I found the problem.
The top of the tube threads on the polymer lower has broken. Well crap! Plus, I never was able to find the takedown pin spring that disappeared. Luckily, thats about it, so now I just need a new stripped lower and one spring. Slightly annoying, but not the end of the world.
Thank you for the offer. I truly appreciate that, but I’ll just pick one up from my LGS. I also need to start gathering extra parts for this exact reason.
I would imagine that any gun buy back will require more than a broken, stripped lower. I’m sure not going to give anyone the LPK in it.
I don’t think that there’s anything special that I need to do. I’ll probably cut it up and dispose of it (after a respectful ceremony).
While a gun buy back may well be another version of justice served, there’s a BATFE legal way of disposing of the serialized part. Bring it to a gunsmith, that’s a FFL licensee. They have the procedure from BATFE on where and how to cut it. Don’t do it yourself . You can end up in a lot of Federal legal trouble for going it alone.
Just my humble $.02
Ablediver out
I’ve seen aluminum lowers crack there too, so its not just a polymer issue. GIs are hard on their gear, and using the buttstock to help dive into the ground is how we were trained. It kept the rifle out of the mud, but softened your impact. One of my teammates cracked his lower in the same spot as this, and the drills were worried if it could be repaired etc…It was, and sent back to the unit.
Polymer advancements have come a very long way since these were designed, although this is also the reason the KP-15 lower uses an integrated stock and buffer tube. the threaded buffer tube system feels sketchy enough in aluminum as it is.
