I posted this in the "Best deal you've ever gotten on a used gun" thread, and thought that I'd copy and paste over into my own thread. This was the rifle that infected me with the Black Rifle Syndrome.

I'll have to dig through old photo albums to try to find a pic.

Summer of 2002, I was 16 and working part time at furniture store making whatever the fuck OH minimum wage was back in 2002, probably $5-6/hr. Anyways, on my lunch breaks I'd go across the street to the pawn shop and look around. Sometimes I'd find something cool, most days not so much. Then one Friday I saw her...

She was an AR, made by Sendra (I didn't know shit about AR manufacturers at the time). 20" pencil barrel, didn't know what twist rate, triangle handguards, A1 upper, and the lower was marked:

SENDRA
M16A1
CAL 223

SAFE
FIRE

$400 even. I asked and the guy behind the counter let me handle it, and that was it. I had to have her. Problem was I was a 16 year old making $6 an hour. So, I plead my case to my Dad, and after a little bit of masterful negotiating (at least I thought so) we agreed on an arrangement. I'd pony up $200, and he'd pay for the other half, and then I'd owe him the $200, plus an additional $100 for his trouble. We shook on it, and that Sunday she was all mine.

She came with a sling and a 20 round mag. I knew exactly jack and shit about the AR-15, so I took to the internet to learn everything I could. I bought an old SMCT, an M16A1 sight tool and a cleaning kit at the surplus store to aid me in my endeavor to figure how to properly use the rifle. I decided that I didn't like the 20 round mag, so I bought 30s wherever I could find them (this was during the AWB) surplus stores, gun shows, even a garage sale. Then I decided that I wasn't a fan of the A1 aperture, so I bought an A2 aperture, Rapidex windage knob and a 3x carry handle scope from the Cheaper Than Dirt catalog. Wrapped the stock and handguard in OD 100mph tape to give it that camo effect. Hose clamped a Mini-Maglite to the barrel at the gas block, because it seemed like a good idea.

I put I don't know how many rounds through that rifle, humped it throughout all the woods of NE Ohio hanging out with buddies camping on the weekends in the rain, mud and snow. I sold it to my little brother in 2007 when I got home from my first deployment. He ended up selling it a few years after that.

I miss that rifle.

Full auto M16A1.  Came with a free haircut.

Bushmaster XM15-E2S, 2005 manufacture, before the Freedom Group buyout. Bought it for cash, gave the cash to the seller and they gave me a duffel bag with the rifle, loaded mag inserted.

God bless America.

Bushmaster patrolman's carbine.  Bought around 2007.

A Ruger 556E.

Perfectly reliable, but it handled like a railroad tie. Turned me off of piston ARs completely.

My second rifle was a shitty 3rd burst M16A2. It also came with a free haircut, so at least there's that.

"If you want to be one of the boys, you're in the wrong place"

Edit: USMC poster on barber shop wall at MCRD San Diego CA.

An Essential Arms XM-177 style back in the late eighties, I want to say it was like $375 or so.  I wish I still had it (low shelf and a RDIAS and LL both ran like tops in it- yes, they were registered; no, they weren't mine) but I got offered something obscene for it during the ban years.

Armalite ar10b.  Jam-o-matic. Once I made it run the accuracy was abysmal. But I persevered.

pre ban Bushy CAR15 during the ban years was my first AR15.  However, on a technicality, my AR180 was my first AR.

BCI Defense M4 clone that I assembled myself in a class at their site in December of '17.
They had monthly "Build Your Own AR" classes or called something like that.  I worked one block north of their foundry and on a cold Saturday morning put it together from pieces in about 4 hours.  They test fired everyone's builds, we did the paperwork, they ran the NICS check, and we all went home with our brand new weapons.  Two of the guys in the class were BCI foundry employees and this was an anniversary gift from BCI to them.  IIRC there were six of us in the class.
That was all it took for BRD to kick in.  I've build more than a couple since then and am still looking at more.

My first was a home build with a 20" heavy barrel and a quadrail.  She's a heavy bitch but I still love it.

Colt SP1 back in 1982.  It was my 8th grade graduation gift from my folks.

1990, EA Arms 20” A1 Franken-AR, with triangle handguards $325

I've never bought a complete factory AR.  

I built my first one in 2002-2003 using advice from the tech forums here.  Mega machine lower and mixed parts.

Stripped OLL in CA, when that was a thing.  Forget the manufacturer, may have been MEGA, marked 6.8SPC.  Moved out of state a few months later.  Bought a .223 Del Ton kit with a 16” chrome lined HBAR.  Did my first build from instructions on here.  Marred up the lower in the process, but learned how the thing works.  Shot the piss out of it for a few years, before selling it.

Some of you folks had cool parents.

RRA standard A4 20”. Was a sweet gun.

SP1 Carbine, never shot it. Traded it and $$$ for an SP1 Rifle about 6 months later.

I’ve bought one - a S&W M&P15 Sport II.  I’ve never shot it as a complete rifle, and the upper from it is still in the parts bin.

Must have been.

Bushmaster 20" ban model.

Colt R6500 back in 1985.

I bought it to start shooting 3-Gun matches 37 years ago.

CMMG ar-15. Worst piece of shit I've ever owned.


I had a similar experience with an M16A4.

1976 issued a well used colt.
Haircut and a shave no bueno.

Ban era Bushmaster A2 HB carbine.

From what I've been able to gather, Sendra didn't make complete rifles, only lowers. So I probably bought someone else's Franken Fifteen.

A crappy ass Bushmaster A2 carbine with an A2 stock and no flash suppressor or other evil features

So if took you 19 years to find ar15.com, gmafb.

My first AR was an Armalite AR10A4, purchased in 2003. I sold it long ago.

My first AR-15 was a Colt 6920 purchased in 2007. I still have that.

ETA: Looks like this now.

'07 for me, but this.

And it looks like this now.

RRA Entry Tactical

It's no longer in that configuration.

Bushmaster M17 in 2001?  Some modifications a couple of years later.  Could have been a good bullpup if designed a little further.

Attached File

Late bloomer, I started with a PSA M4gery

Changed a few parts over the years and have others now but never got rid of it. Most often used with a CMMG .22 conversion for new shooters nowdays.

Christmas 1999 my Dad for me a 16 inch A2 DPMS.  I still have to lower but it has a old Bushmaster A3 upper on it now.

When I was doing my early AR research, I looked at tons of sites - The Firing Line, Assault Web, The High Road off the top of my head. There was a firearms specific board on the File Front Gaming Forums... Probably early Arfcom too.

Is it bad that I was on M4C long before I came here?

M16 A1 was the first one I shot. Colt match Target II was the first AR I owned.

Same

RRA 16" w/quad rail.  Also got an EoTech.  Had that gun for years... did Frontsite and Pat Rogers' class with it.  Traded it to an outfitter friend years later to cover an elk trip.  Worth it, he smoked a coyote with it on that trip, but I do miss that gun.

Amen Brother...

Bushmaster M4gery, early 2002. Came with the non collapsible stock and the loud ass mini Y comp.

A great rifle, which later got un banned. I still have it.

Bushmaster in 1997 at a gun show, NIB. This was configured as a “during the ban” rifle, so no dangerous/evil flash supressor.

BUSHMASTER
AND FUCK EVERYBODY THAT HATES ME BECAUSE OF IT!!!
I got a Bushnell Holosite (Civi Eotech) on it too.

RRA upper on a S&W lower. Super accurate with handloads. Sold it to a member here.

Shitty Olympic naked-muzzle fixed-CAR-stock 16” A2-upper, bought deep in the bad old days of AWB.

I literally have no idea what became of it.  Might still be some of the parts floating around in my current rifles.

Rock River Arms 20” varmint bull barrel.

Had a red dot on it.

Sold it. Ended up building one 3 years later.

Attached File


It was stolen in 2015.