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?

that is the old snake.  They stopped using it several years ago.

I believe the "L" means that the lower came from Lauer .

wow... sounds like I got a N-very-O-S complete lower

It looks like the old snake is laughing at you...perhaps it knows.
Oh, and at the Nations Gun Show in Chantilly, VA tonight, a stripped RRA lower was going for $380.

the complete bushmasters that i bought a few months ago have the "BFI123456" sn prefix and the more elaborate rollmark (second pic). i have a few stripped lowers coming in by monday or tuesday so i'll be able to compare but i doubt it'll be different.

The lower with the BFI serial number was machined in-house, at Bushmaster Firearms Inc.

The lower with the L serial number was outsourced, I believe to LAR Mfg.

It is my understanding that both variants are current production and are regularly found on the market.