It was not my intention to contribute to the Barracalypse, but that's what I get when going to a gun store under full sleep deprivation and watching people scramble for the scraps. They had stripped RRAs for $185 and Bushies for $220
and nobody was budging. I checked 3 other stores and found similar prices for DPMS and S&Ws, and after calling Bushy today found they had a 5-6 month lead time on stripped lowers
. So, I rubbed a little Vasilene on the cheeks, headed in and bought a $385 Bushy complete carbine, which hurt the butt a little less, and a $220 stripped (for a 20" project I never finished). At the counter I demanded a reacharound, and received good natured laughter instead. He didn't even tell me I was special.
So I get back, and notice something right off the bat. The complete lower is exactly as any other Bushy I've ever seen... "L123456" SN prefix, and the snake rollmark. But the stripped lower was quite different, "BFI123456" SN prefix, and a strikingly different snake.
Left:ORM, Right: NRM
The SN prefix seems simple enough to follow... L designates complete rifle and BFI designates a stripped lower (or so I assume). What about the snake? It's been a long time since I have bought a new EBR/lower. Did Bushmaster revamp the rollmark, and I have one ORM & one NRM, or do they have a special roll mark to designate stripped lowers?