BEWARE! I just found out that I am an owner of a FAKE BUSHMASTER made in the Philippines.

Ironically, I bought my unit at the Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) of the Philippine National Police. Due to its popularity in the USA, the BUSHMASTER rifle is being faked/forged and being passed off as original in the Philippines. I would like to warn all concerned to watch out and refrain from buying these fake Bushmaster rifles for safety reasons since the parts being used particularly the barrels, bolts, and receiver parts come from old M16 rifles. In the case of my friend's fake unit (purchased at the same time as mine), the barrel extension and the upper receiver exploded while firing the 2nd magazine. When we inspected the damage, we discovered that the barrel is an old thin barrel (1x12 rifling twist) and was converted into a fake bull barrel through a threaded sleeve to give the appearance of a barrel with a bigger outside diameter.

As a background, based on my research, no Bushmaster rifles have been imported legitimately into the Philippines for the last 8 years now, not to mention the very small quantities imported by the Philippine National Police. The original Bushmasters in the Philippines have a serial number that starts with Ll whereas the fake ones start with L9. It would appear that there is collusion between the faker/assembler company and the PNPFEO by licensing these fake Bushmasters under "license renewal" process. Here are some resources from Bushmaster that helped me identify my fake! http: //www.bushmaster.com/faqs /?f=2405 http://www.bushmaster.com/faqs/?f=1296 http: //www.bushmaster.com/faqs/?f=2444

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Below are pictures of MY FAKE BUSHMASTER versus an original Bushmaster (part of the serial numbers have been edited out for privacy).

Close up pictures on the next page. Page 2

(part of the serial numbers have been edited out for privacy)

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