POTD: A Bittersweet Rifle
The Bushmaster/Remington ACR is, at least in my experience, a really enjoyable rifle to shoot. But the downside, for consumers at least, is that neither Remington, who own the design, or Magpul, who designed it and who receive royalties on each ACR sold, are not developing aftermarket upgrades for it. It was supposed to be a multi-platform and multi-caliber rifle system. TFB reader Luke is still keeping the faith, but only just. He writes …
Hey guys, long time reader and (unfortunately?) an ACR owner. If you ever want a photograph of something that’s been both a joy and an utter and complete pit of disappointment to own, well, here it is. It absolutely destroys me to think that Bushmaster/Remington has seemingly all but abandoned any support for this rifle. No caliber change kits, no replacement barrel kits, no hand guard replacements, and limited to no parts availability. Just broken promises, missed deadlines, and corporate mumbo jumbo. The aftermarket doesn’t even seem to want to touch this thing either for some reason. Hell, other owners are getting desperate enough for parts that a number of them are finding ways to modify airsoft parts for it. C’mon, Bushmaster!
Bushmaster began selling a DMR version of the ACR earlier this year, but are not selling the DMR barrels or stocks so that existing owners can upgrade.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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So I glad I got the FN SCAR instead.
I'll admit I bought into the ACR platform about 6 months after release. I'd been waiting since the Masada display at SHOT several years ago. I still find it a shame that MagPul couldn't or wouldn't make the production investment to push the Masada to bot the Military markets and civilian markets. I get why, but talk about a seriously missed opportunity.
Anyway, started having FTE issues with my ACR about 2 range trips in. I happened to be running a fresh batch of LC M193 and M885. The M885 worked fairly well though accuracy beyond 100m suffered for some reason. Swapped over to the 193 and had tons of FTE issues, averaging 1 FTE for just about every 3rd round.
So I though I might be having over pressure issues, replaced the piston selector and spring (recalled items anyway) and still had the same issues. Called Bushy and the armorer I finally spoke to after pitching a fit with the call center manager finally admitted that 193 is too high pressured for the ACR and that I just should use other ammo.
Needless to say, my long awaited ACR was sold along with the advice not to use M193 ammo.