45shutr
Don't worry too much about a question being dumb or not. It seems as though there are so many manufacturers and each has their own modification.
How else are you going to learn if you don't ask? Everyone that posts here has been in that situation at one time or another. Thats the great thing about this site and chances are someone has made the modification or has changed out that same part that you are thinking of changing. There is a wealth of expertise to tap into here and great people willing to share their knowledge.

Thanks M4bangr, I think one reason I enjoy participating in this site is that no matter how many times I've seen a question come up, there always seems to be someone with enough patience to answer it yet again.

[beer]

I recently purchased a complete upper from Bushmaster.  It has the unmilled firing pin ramp.  Do I have a rarity?  [:D]

Only for the next few months, until Bushie sells some more of their rifles w/the unmilled ramps.[:D]

It's really interesting how Colt, even with it's loss of emminence as the premier AR manufacturer, still makes the "rules" that the other guys follow. All these years just about all the aftermarket guys put the ramp in, because Colt ARs had the ramp. The darn thig was an unnecessary and aggravating add on to the design, but Colt did it, so everybody else did too.

Now, to save a few cents in costs, Colt drops the ramp, and so is everybody else.  Pete in NH proudly announces Rock River's "New and Improvrd" carrier, and everybody else quietly starts doing the same thing.

Don't tell me colt doesn't still, in some ways at least, control the AR market[:D]

When the AR-10 was down sized to .222 Special one of the top priorities was to bring down the weight.  The bolt on the AR-15 is quite small, and is of the Johnson multi lug type.  Arguably the bolt could not have been made smaller, but sure could have been quite a bit larger.  Note the experiences of manufactures opening the bolt face for larger calibers.  Because of the size of the bolt and the pressures involved with the cartridge it’s proper manufacture is critical to prevent premature failure.  Without such careful attention to proper manufacture such failures as this can be found in Brand X bolts:

[IMG]http://www.photobucket.com/albums/0603/Ekie12091941/3b1be968.jpg[/IMG]

Because of this when shopping for a bolt  I am much more concerned with the integrity of said component then I am with price, how pretty the machining is, or how much force the extractor set up can generate.  So for me, I will stick with Colt’s, though H&R, Hydromatic, and FNMI will do in a pinch.

Is that a DPMS bolt?

Yeah what maker is that bolt?????
10 to 1 says its a leapers import!
LMAO
No really who is the maker?

I have no clue who made the bolt/carrier group in the M16 I carried with the 101st operating in the mighty Ashau.

When the monsoon came, it got plenty dirty and wet and sometimes you had to open the bolt to make sure the water was out and while the bolt was back you grabbed the white juice from the rubber band around your steel pot and gave it a shot before chambering the next round.

But it always worked, always.

What brand?  Well it is a Brand X.  Guess you want more details, I never asked, not that curious myself.  It was a friend of Sixtygunner (of the M14 boards) that busted that one, and Sixtygunner is a wee bit hostile on the whole subject matter of AR-15s, but I could ask him.

Along the same line of thought here being that DevL brought it up, there have been a few civilian school instructors that have seen one particular Brand X bolt (DPMS)do that way more often then the others.

Man i have a bolt that is well around or over 20 years old came in a PWA over 8 years ago and even at that age it runs fine.I have only replaced the extractor insert and spring once.
But after seeing that i will be updating soon for sure.

No bang for my buck like the one above though.
Thank goodness for that heh.

Yup; and precisely the reason why ALL my ARs, have MPC marked bolts in them[:D], and all but one has a Colt carrier.  I'd rather have the Viet Nam era GI surp bolts I've got, than the newest of any other brand. You don't have to spend the bucks for a new one either.  They're so well made and heat treated that even the GI surplus jobs I bought a couple of years back, which I'm sure had tens of thousands of rounds use, showed essentially zero wear on the lugs.

All I did was put in Wolff extractor springs, and put 'em back to work[:D]