detachable carry handle, fully adjustable, mil-spec, two-aperture rear sight, Bushmaster’s, “Shorty” Carbine, American Spirit Arms Corp. Lightweight Flattop, Bushmaster, XM15-E2S, Super-Light Carbine, 5.56mm NATO/.223, $1020
There was a detachable carry handle that held the fully adjustable, mil-spec, two-aperture rear sight, and that handle added $90 to the Bushmaster’s price. This weapon was very similar to the “Shorty” Carbine we tested in June of this year, but its lighter stock, thinner barrel and short forend got the weight down to 6.1 pounds without sights. By comparison, the “Shorty” Carbine weighed 7.0 pounds without sights. With the carry handle attached, the weight of this Bushmaster rose to 6.7 pounds, which was our test weight. This Bushmaster also looked a lot like the American Spirit Arms Corp. Lightweight Flattop we tested in June. The Spirit weighed only 5.9 pounds without sights.
The short, vented forend helped keep weight down, as did the thin, unfluted 16-inch barrel. However, the huge brake added 2 inches and numerous ounces to the muzzle, and looked like it could have been made lighter. More on the brake later. In most cases, the traditional AR-15 design, even on this well-done version by Bushmaster, puts needless weight on the rifle, stuff we didn’t notice until we had the Carbon 15s in hand. That doesn’t make it all bad, but once you see how light and recoil-free these little rifles can be, you’re gonna be spoiled.
Everything about the Bushmaster was matte black. It was a compact and rugged version of the “black rifle” that appealed to us far more than most all-metal versions of this rifle we’ve seen and tested over the past few years. The Bushmaster’s barrel was marked 1:9 twist, and was very slim over the visible portion. The conventional action had the forward-assist button, mil-spec grip, non-ambi safety, and yes, the bottom of the guard could be opened for winter shooting, if desired.
The top rail of the action was only as long as the action. This meant a scope had to be mounted conventionally, not scout-style. However, the rear sight would not get in the way of scope mounting, because when you take off the carry handle you lose the rear sight. Conservative shooters will want some sort of iron sight on their rifles to back up the scope, at least when rugged field use is anticipated. With the Carbon 15 rifles you couldn’t get rid of the rear sight, and that might help you decide which to buy.
Sling mounting was achieved via front and rear sling rings, one hanging from the front-sight mount and the other screwed to the bottom of the butt plate. A mil-spec sling came with the rifle along with one 10-round magazine, the lot packaged in a hard-plastic padded carry case.
The trigger pull was 7.5 pounds, without creep. We would have liked it lighter, but lived with it as it was. Workmanship of the entire rifle was, overall, excellent. We couldn’t fault the Bushmaster’s manufacture or any of its function. It did all it was supposed to do, and was as fine an all-metal version of the AR-15 we’ve seen.
On the range, we were made painfully aware of the muzzle brake from the get-go. A strong wind blew rearward with each shot, and nearly tore the tape of our recording chronograph with each shot. The noise was bad, but the wind was worse. The Carbon 15 was also loud, but we didn’t get that big-wind effect and found it much more pleasant. Felt recoil was about like that of the Carbon 15 pair, very slight. The sight pictures of all three rifles were identical, and all excellent. We used the smaller aperture on all rifles for our test shooting.
We found the Bushmaster shot both types of Black Hills ammo very well. The 60-grain soft nose gave us the smallest three-shot group, just 0.5 inch at 100 yards. This beat the best Match ammo group very slightly, and averages with the 60-grain fodder lead us to believe a bit of load development would pay immense profits with this particular rifle. As expected, we got along with its stiff trigger very well off our machine rest, but a lighter trigger pull would have been welcome. The Bushmaster Super-light didn’t like the Russian ammo all that much, giving around 5-inch averages. Can’t have everything, we guess.
