BCA problem barrel...

[Jimla]

I went through that song and dance three times before I just asked for my money back and went elsewhere.

Good luck!

I ask for a different model, hoping there whole line is not defective. I am looking for a complete 6.5 Grendel Upper, the higher the price the smaller the group size. Any recommendations for a BCA replacement?

[Randy99CL]

Odd you should mention this. I've received a couple of BCA shipments in BCA marked packaging, and both arrived with obvious signs of being subjected to violent treatment. It made me wonder if someone in UPS or USPS had an anti-firearm agenda. Fortunately, while the barrel arrived in a shipping tube which had Zero integrity left, it was quite unharmed.

I received my BCA upper 17 months ago and was frustrated by how poorly it was packed and handled. It had crushed the wimpy packing and was so loose in the box it was sliding back and forth probably 6 inches.
At some point it was dropped onto concrete so hard that it scarred the flash hider. First pic is the end of the box (where it cut through the cardboard), second is the hider.
I emailed the pics to BCA and they sent me a new hider within a few days, no charge.

My barrel was one of that batch that had an extremely short chamber. I'm lucky that I bought the gauge and checked it before I fired any ammo.
I jumped on a 20" Faxon group buy barrel and love it.
I still love the BCA side-charge receiver and the rest of the upper.
Box1a.JPG002a.JPG

[Jimla]

Got my replacement on the March 8th, a little over 4 weeks later, the replacement upper was worse chamber than the first one. Hornady O.A.L. tool and measured 2.1475"-2.1510". Easy way to test for bad BCA barrel, pick an area where gunpowder can be spilled all over for easy cleanup, take a long factory load like Hornady 123 SST, load a single round without firing it, try to eject it. In my case the bullet will get stuck in the lands and require the leverage of a screwdriver to pry open the bolt, sometimes the bullet will come out and you need a cleaning rod to tap it out. Will keep you update about warranty experience.

Got my 3rd replacement on March 29th, 3 weeks later. I asked for a 18" Grendel Upper hoping it would not have the problem of the first two 24" uppers had. The 18" upper also had a short chamber, high pressure signs on Hornady Black 123gr ELD-M factory ammo. All four rounds had major ejector marks, two with flatten primers, two with blown primers. See photo. Will keep you update about warranty experience, temped to keep on trying until I get an upper that can chamber Hornady factory ammo.

BCA_65grendel.jpg

[Rosecrans1]

I understand about wanting to keep trying them but in all honesty, with no quality control on their part, I would cut my time loses and move on. You are holding up to your face a piece of equipment that is suppose to "safely" contain an explosion each and every time you pull that trigger. I would trust another company to keep from losing my eyes and risking disfigurement or worse from this outfit. One time was enough with them on a short chamber, tool mark hieroglyphics throughout and lousy results. There are good stories here about nice shooting barrels from BCA but I would venture to say that the ratio of even adequate barrels to garbage is appalling at best.

[ported45]

I ask for a different model, hoping there whole line is not defective. I am looking for a complete 6.5 Grendel Upper, the higher the price the smaller the group size. Any recommendations for a BCA replacement?

I went through 3 hard-coated and one stainless; all in 20". The first coated was 0.010" short-throated and I wished that I would have tried it. The other two were SEVERELY short. I figured I would go with stainless the next time so that I could throat it myself if it was too short. It was right on the money, but after two powders and three different bullets the best it would throw was a 5" group at 100 yards. I took my refund and walked away.

Best of luck. You may stick it out and get a good one. Seems there are more reporting good ones than bad ones right now.

[Jimla]

I went through 3 hard-coated and one stainless; all in 20". The first coated was 0.010" short-throated and I wished that I would have tried it. The other two were SEVERELY short. I figured I would go with stainless the next time so that I could throat it myself if it was too short. It was right on the money, but after two powders and three different bullets the best it would throw was a 5" group at 100 yards. I took my refund and walked away.

Best of luck. You may stick it out and get a good one. Seems there are more reporting good ones than bad ones right now.

I measured a 2.28 MOA group with Hornady 123gr black. The people reporting good BCA barrels are mostly non-grendel models, 223, 300BO, ect. Many people have normally given up after getting 3 bad barrels in a row. You are the first case that tried 4.

[Jimla]

I understand about wanting to keep trying them but in all honesty, with no quality control on their part, I would cut my time loses and move on. You are holding up to your face a piece of equipment that is suppose to "safely" contain an explosion each and every time you pull that trigger. I would trust another company to keep from losing my eyes and risking disfigurement or worse from this outfit. One time was enough with them on a short chamber, tool mark hieroglyphics throughout and lousy results. There are good stories here about nice shooting barrels from BCA but I would venture to say that the ratio of even adequate barrels to garbage is appalling at best.

I plan to buy a different upper with a faxon match barrel while I am waiting but the company is out of stock, so I am on a wait list. I plan to return any bad BCA uppers without shooting it if they can't chamber a factory hornady round without sticking in any way in the lands and make a report in this thread until it is fixed. I am a retired QA person, maybe we can get other people receiving barrels with poor MOA performance or short chamber reporting problems here to get BCA to act so it will fixed there QA problems.

[grayfox]

+1. If BCA were involved in the nuclear industry (where I came from), it would be either "in jail" or out of business by now for all the failures. Even in the commercial arena, I would expect maybe 1/1000 barrels, but when so many have cropped up with the same or similar failures, there's a serious lack of quality there IMO.
Don't waste your $99 or $199 or whatever (not to mention all your time and wasted ammo!), find a reputable barrel; I'd also advocate building your own upper, it's so easy even a cave man can do it (LOL!). With a group buy barrel or faxon or Odin or Ballistic Advantage, or an upper tier barrel, you can find a good upper and the other parts and be gtg.

The bullet may be what imparts your intentions to the target, but the BARREL is what imparts your intentions to the bullet!

[Jimla]

I understand about wanting to keep trying them but in all honesty, with no quality control on their part, I would cut my time loses and move on. You are holding up to your face a piece of equipment that is suppose to "safely" contain an explosion each and every time you pull that trigger. I would trust another company to keep from losing my eyes and risking disfigurement or worse from this outfit. One time was enough with them on a short chamber, tool mark hieroglyphics throughout and lousy results. There are good stories here about nice shooting barrels from BCA but I would venture to say that the ratio of even adequate barrels to garbage is appalling at best.

I changed my mind and simply ask for a refund.

The reason I change my mind,

1) Advice from other members about get a refund and move on.

2) I never got a reply by email from the customer service manager with the promise to test the upper with Hornady ammo. I was not willing to wait on hold for an hour like previous time to speak to customer service manager again.

3) I got email stating a 4 week backlog on repairs. After three bad upper, with the second and third worse than the first what is the odds the problem will be fix.

4) I decided to go with a rifle length gas system

5) If BCA fixed the problem, the weaker Grendel bolt in the rifle may have had its life shorten because of shooting very over pressure rounds.

6) I did not want to take the chance of losing an eye or hand shooting an upper with a chamber not design and/or properly tested to shoot the most popular American made Hornady ammo.

7) With the history of problems, even If I got one that works, I would not feel comfortable selling the upper to another person for there own safety.

[grayfox]

Bravo!!!!!