I'm looking at a Bushmaster AR-15 .223 Rem. It has the handrail and is in very nice shape. It was built during the ban so it has the pinned stock and brake vs the birdcage.

What's this worth??

I have 3 freinds that have bushmaster AR's. There's are the varmint version with bull barrels. I also had one but they couldn't get it right the 3 times I had to send it back. I had a horrible expiriance with them, but my buddies love there's and they shoot excellent. I would still recomed them to someone because they acctually do make nice black rifles. I just dealt with the wrong person.

Lars

Dan I'm assuming by the word "handrail" you are refering to the permenant carry handle model with intergral iron sites. These in "AR-ese" are called A2 models. I picked up a used Bushy A2 in great shape built around the same time. My is a 16" heavy barrel with no brake or flash suppressor but a target crown instead in 5.56 chambering. Paid 600 bucks for that one. One nice thing about Bushies is that chambers and bores are chrome lined. That makes them easy to clean and resistant to rust. Sometimes they sacrifice a little accuracy over a chrome-moly barrel but worth it in durablity. I have had no malfunctions with mine in over 1500 rounds including a lot of Wolf Brand ammo. With handloads it will still shoot 1/2 - 3/4 " at 100 yards. Prices have gone up since election but if price is right they are solid performers. You can mount scopes on carry handle but the bases are subject to loosen as they are designed for quick removal.
I like the A3 flat top variety if you are only going to have one black rifle. That way you can mount a carry handle or scope or red dot sight depending on application. And switching back and forth is easy with minimial point of impact variation if you get good mounts. Another nice thing about AR's is they are modular. For a guy like you with mechanical skills modifying with a new barrel, accessary rails, stock, ect is easy. My second Ar was a Armlite upper on a Del Ton A3 Lower. It has a chrome moly bore with .223 chambering ( a little tighter than 5.56) and "MY WHAT A SHOOTER" with 69gr match bullets. Anyway these things are the ultimate tinkerer's toy. What out they are addictive.

Hey Dan,
The best advice for you is to send you to
http://www.ar15.com
If you look around and maybe go to the equipment exchange or the industry sponsor area and do a little looking and reading you may get a good idea on current prices being paid.
I dont know about the rest of the shooting industry ,but black rifles and all good gadgets that go with them including ammo have been getting purchased waaaay faster than it can be produced and most every one dealing with black rifles and acc.is backordered beyond belief,this makes prices stupider.
I can tell you that I happened to put together a pair of ar 15 rifles about 6 or 8 months ago,
basic A2 M4gergy with fixed carry handle
I did not do the uppers,had a local guy tune the uppers and polish the triggers a little.....I had $675.00 in each complete rifle....not cadillacs but definately solid rifles that shoot straight and are reliable.I sold one to a friend and kept the other for my collection(till I lost them all in a tragic boating accident but that is another story).Currently I ordered a dedicated upper in .22lr with a match grade lothar walther barrel and have a couple billet machined lowers ordered and parts kits etc,and when I get this .22 tack driver done I will have a grand in it easily.The same amount as I spent putting together some name brand components and made a heavy barreled free floated tack driver 2 years ago,now that rifle would probably be another $500.00 easily in this political atmosphere.
I have been waiting a couple months for the pieces and parts of my dedicated .22lr ar15 to show up.I know of a group of guys in Iowa who did a group buy and were told basically a minimum of 6 months wait for all the components.
A little long winded on my reply but you basically have to gamble with the political atmosphere on wether to buy what you have and can get in hand and pay inflated prices or maybe wait till panic buying slows a little and supply catches up to demand and prices settle out a little.If no ban shows up and the economic crunch gets worse,I would expect a lot of the "elmer fudd" types that are doing most of the ar15 panic buying will be needing to get some of that cash back from those rifles and some bargains will be there to buy.Just mt $2.00 worth,inflation and all.
dorson
Forgot to add you may need to decide on what barrel twist you want ,newer stuff is 1x7 or 1x8 or 1x9 as these will stabilize from 50 to 75 grain bullets,there is a difference between .223 rem and 5.56 nato chamber.The 5.56 will shoot both cartridges but you may have trouble with mil surp ammo in .223 rem chamber.
There is also a "wylde chamber" that shoots both cartridges also.
Good luck with that BRD.

as stated above the black rifles are bringin top dollar now, i would guess that the bushie is probalby going to bring around 850-1000 now. bushies are good rifles, most lowers are pretty much the same the differneces are the barrels, triggers ect. I have 4 custom built ones now by D-TECH and noveske and they are extremely accuarate. You might wait and take the chance that they wont be banned and wait for the prices to come down or pay premium for it now

I would agree with kunas on price range. could be a little more or less depending on how crazy it is in your area. I bought a dpms last july for 750. sold it last month for 1400.

With the way people are buying right now you either pay more and have it or hope there isn't a ban and prices will drop eventually.

So...for a OTD price of $805 this would not be a bad deal?? I would like to add a ".300 Fireball" flat top upper from Olympic Arms down the road.

Now...will this lower work with only the .223 (5.56) case head variations or could it also be swapped to use the .308 Win case head cartridges?

In this market I don't think 805 is too bad. And if they do ban them it will be down right cheap.

Should work with any upper except some of the colts. they have a different size hole for the front frame pin.

I would like to get a 300 whisper for mine

skinner....thanks. I must admit...this is a "pre-potential-gun-ban-buy". I've never been interested in black rifles but for some reason now I just gotta get one.

The .300 Fireball...AKA Whisper...would be sweet! The Olympic Arms upper is a 1-8" twist. It will surely be a consideration once I get some more cash on hand or the mad "ban rush" is over. If the .308 Win uppers will work then I'll just get that.

I plan on doing more research once it's in my hands. It's already on hold for me...will likely bring it home on Monday.

I have one in DCM version. A new Bushmaster here is going for !9ish +/- model differences. I think you can still get a used one (they usually aren't used much) for ~7ish if you;re lucky. I bought teh Bushmaster varmint version,which was a flat top with 26" stainless heavy barrle, then upgraded trigger, and added match front and Palma rear for DCM matches. If I do my part it will shoot 98-100 all day at 2 and 300 yeards. I don't shoot it full course 600 cuz it it's twist is only 1:9 and won;t stablize teh 80gr slugs.

Dan the .308 win uppers will not fit on an ar-15 lower. The AR-10 was designed to handle the the .308. Frames and uppers look the same except they are slightly larger. They do share some common parts with the AR-15 The AR-10 platform can handle any of the .308 case family. There is also a Magnum version that will handle the .308 Remington short mag giving you near 308 win mag velocities out of semi-auto ar platform.
The ar-10s are another step up in price range and more difficult to find. A version of the AR-10 design has just recently replaced the Remington 700 (M40) as the Armies Dedicated Marksmen
(sniper is so politically incorrect) rifle.