I recently bought a Bushmaster XM15 from a friend, to good a deal to pass up. My thought is to use it as a base for a build. The gun has less than a 100 rounds through it, it has a 26" barrel,  fixed stock, and a new swift 669ma 6-18x44 scope. I gave $500.00 for it.  The scope itself list for around $220.00 on planet optical. Overall a pretty decent varmint setup.  But the thing is I don't varmint hunt. I was thing of using the upper and lower for a three gun build. Something along the lines of a 16" to 18" barrel,  collapsible stock, with a 1x4 optic, using mid-high range components.  Say  for example a Faxon  gunner barrel, BCM bolt, magpulled stock and pistol grip, new trigger etc.. These are just part types off the top of my head not sure of the exact components I would use. I have only shot a couple of 3 gun matches so far and need to do a lot of research before I pick exact parts. My thinking is I could then sell the removed parts. So finally to my question.  Is the bushmaster upper and lower good enough to use as a basis for this kind of build? Thanks for any input.

I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be. You got a smoking deal, but you know that. Start ripping it apart and selling the parts you don't want. I did something somilar with an M1A. When it was all said and done my M1A, which then had  a brand new chrome lined barrel and had been refinished, only cost me about $900. I made a ton of money selling off all the extra unwanted attachments and parts.

Specs for uppers and lowers are widely known and vary very little maker to maker; most are actually made in the same place and then engraved with the specific company's logo.  Bushmaster stuff will be totally fine to upgrade on.

Though, it sounds like the setup is already pretty solid as a precision build and you're talking about swapping out some of the most expensive parts.  I think you'd be better off just selling the upper complete and building a new one from scratch.  Even with the lower, if you're going to change the stock/buffer, grip, trigger, that only really leaves the stripped lower and LPK which you could get for less than $75 total if you know where to look.

You're talking about taking a ship, replacing every board and calling it the same ship.  You'll save a lot of time, money, and effort if you just sell the gun whole and build what you want.  But if you do that, you're kind of a dick for reselling a friends' gun after he gave you a 'friend' price.

Bushmaster is gtg. But its kinda like dismantling a top fuel drag car engine so u can use the block in a rebuild for a family sedan. Sell or trade and build/buy what you want, imo.

I agree with above. Although what you want to do will work with the bushmaster  I would flip it, make some money and start with a stripped receiver  set. My 3 gun rifle was about 1800 with a 1-6x optic and was built with a aero receiver set and then good quality components.

Bushmaster makes one of the better mil-spec lowers on the market.

Personally, I'd swap the stock on the lower for a good quality collapsible (purely for cosmetics, of course), change the trigger out for a good 2-stage match trigger unless one is already in there, then buy or build the upper you want for 3-gun.  Then you'll have both a varmint setup and a 3-gun setup.  No reason to take the old upper apart, IMHO.  If you eventually decide that you really don't want it, then you can sell the whole thing complete.

Thanks guys not sure what I'm going to do. But good food for thought.

Another possible option would be to chop, re-profile, and thread the existing barrel and using that as your 3 gun set up. I'm sure you can sell the scope and those funds would wash the cost or even come in less than what it costs to get that work done.

I haven't looked into how much that would run but, I would guess it would be less than buying a new quality barrel. I would see what kind of groups you get with it now just so you an accuracy baseline with what you have now. It may surprise you. Then, just add the rail of your choice and you have a new 3gun set up.


ETA: Just looked on ADCO's website and it's right around $200 to get that done. Not sure if it's worth doing or not but, it's an option nonetheless.