I bought an A-3 upper with forward assist, and ejection port cover off of ebay awhile back to replace the A-2 on my postban Colt 6601.The seller claims it is a Bushmaster part.What I would like to know is if Bushmaster puts any kind of markings on their upper so they can be identified.My A-2 upper has C MB on the top righthand side but the A-3 has no markings at all.Any help would be great.

Try here:

[url]http://www.biggerhammer.net/ar15/[/url]

And welcome to AR15.com!! [beer]

Thanks for the info..

I also recently bought what was claimed to be a Bushmaster flat top upper online.  My upper however has a few markings that I've never heard of on Bushies.  On the right side of the upper, behind the brass deflector there is a marking that looks like a keyhole.  Also, the even slots are numbered 2 through 14, from the rear going forward.  They are not white however, like others I've seen.  Biggerhammer.net does seem to mention the keyhole marking.  Anybody have any ideas?

I remember seeing a few topics about that, try a search.

Keep in mind most of the markings on your uppers are from the people who forged them, not finished.

For instance if you hav an upper witha splintered "A" that was forged from the Anchor Harvey plany (I think it's in WA)

I have a Bushmaster A3 carry handel that was from the A.H. pland then Bushmaster puts a "B" right next to the thier splintered "A"

FYI, from the Bushmaster FAQ site under "questions regarding upper recievers":

Q: I bought what I thought was a Bushmaster at a gun show. It has a lot of problems, and I think I got taken. How can I be sure of buying a Bushmaster?

A: We have seen this happen many times here. We get rifles all the time for warranty service that have our lower receiver, but every other part is a gun show special. Before purchasing, look things over carefully. You are about to lay down a sizeable chunk of money, so take a minute to be sure of what you are buying.
Bushmaster's identifying marks are:
1. On the barrel, in front of the front sight, it will be stamped:
"B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9 H BAR" (exactly that way). On some barrels, it may be under the handguard, but it will still say that exact thing. The only difference might be a 1/7 instead of a 1/9 . This denotes the rifling twist.
2. Our front sights are held on by two taper pins, one through each of the bands of the front sight. We do not use hollow roll pins, never have - never will.
3. Our handguards have aluminum heat shields in them.
4. Our barrels have the correct gray/green manganese phosphate finish, not black.
5. Our tele-stocks have a small roll pin holding the nut on under the sliding latch. If it's not pinned, it's not ours.
6. Our hammers and triggers have polished contact surfaces.
7. Our bolt carriers have the gas key staked on by 4 V-shaped stamps.
8. We always use aluminum delta rings to retain the handguards.
9. Our buffers have a gold-colored finish on them, which is easy to see inside the stock.
10. Our aluminum parts all have the mil. spec hard anodized flat or matte finish to them, not shiny. This includes the receivers, the charging handle, and the delta ring. However, oil on the surface might make the normally flat or matte finish appear shiny.
The best insurance is to always buy from a local dealer, someone you can go back to if you have any problems. Most of them are reputable, and will at least help you contact the factory for service problems.

Does anyone else out there have any upper's with no I.D. marks on it? The only thing I changed on my Colt 6601 was the A-2 receiver to an A-3, it still has the Colt bolt and carrier, barrel, delta ring, gas tube,and front sight.Just swapped parts to other receiver.

To my knowlege, Colt is the only manufacturer that has consistently marked its ' uppers with an identifying mark. On A1 and A2 uppers, the recess under the rear sight has the forge letter plus a "C".  Also, if you look at the front, over and just ahead of the ejection port there's a really small triangle.

The aftermarket is another story. Bushmaster, Rock River,DPMS  and to a certain extent even Colt are now using the same forges, and generally all the mark on the part tells you is who the forge was that turned out the blank.  Incidentally, the note above that said that Bushie puts a B after the forge mark is not particularly correct. Bushie put a load of contract overrun A3 top units out recently that all have the split A forge mark and either a 1 or a 2 after it; no B.

The keyhole forge mark has been showing up quite a bit lately, if notes on this board are any indication. I recall reading that both Rock River and Bushie pieces have shown up with it; possibly one or two other suppliers that have slipped my mind. Can't recall that anyone has been able to ID the forge yet.

Colt also has been known to not mark their uppers. I have seen a few A1 and A2 uppers that were not marked in any way, but they were from factory Colt upper receiver assemblies from NIB rifles. I haven't seen any A3's that aren't marked in some way from Colt except for the 6700 series (big hole flattop) and about half of those seem to be marked and half aren't.

One way to see if its possibly a Colt or a BM is to look and see if the inside of the upper has the grey Dry Film coating on the inside.

I purchased an A2 and A3 BM upper years ago from another board member.  The A2 had the LK markings.  The A3 had none.  Both had the same matte black finish characteristic of Bushmaster at that time.  IIRC, all the other vendors had a smoother and shinier black finish.  I know this is not the case these days.

Great info on this thread it should be tacked!

BTW I also saw mention on this board about the DPMS M4 flat top uppers being sold by CMMG.

It's suppose to have a splintered A marking and have the Colt M4 feed ramps on them!

I see some mention of Bushmaster uppers bing marked with a splintered A.  Now, according to BiggerHammer the splintered A is for Olympic Arms. [>:/]  So what's the real deal here?

I might be wrong but I believe this is a close up of the DPMS upper I mentioned.  Is that mark the splintered A or is it something else?

[img]http://www.cmmginc.com/cmmg_images/tbl_images/uppers_images/A3_Receiver.jpg[/img]

Yojimbo,


I have one of the same Uppers you have. Like I said, it most likely came from the Anchor Harvey plant.

I am pretty sure DPMS puts the M4 feedramps on all thier uppers.