Bear Creek Arsenal now posting pictures of groups at 100 yards on their website

[slappyhooper]

So has anybody actually accepted my original challenge.

BUY A CURRENT BARREL FROM A WEBPAGE OFF THEIR SITE AND TRY RECREATING THEIR PHOTOGRAPHED GROUPINGS.

It would certainly go to show a lot in terms of informing the community.

I'm not a BCA fanboy. I'm a sucker for cheap barrels though, so there's some crossover.

I've built and tested.....over a dozen of their barrels in 5.56/.223 Wylde, and a couple in 300 blackout, and three barrels in 6.5 Grendel, and am about to test one in 308.
I lap my upper receiver face, and use shim stock to get a tight fit between the upper receiver and barrel extension.
I don't reload, so I can't do load workups for their barrels.
From bags off a concrete bench, 100 yards, 5 round groups, my experiences so far have been:


1x Heavy Profile .223 Wylde carbine gas 1:8 barrel 1.25-1.50 MOA cold with good ammo. I don't think the barrel was properly stress relieved because as it heated up, it turned into about a 5 MOA barrel.

2x 16" 5.56 pencil profile nitride mid gas barrels 1:7 2.5 MOA or so cold with good ammo, 4-5 MOA with cheap blasting ammo, and about 6-8 MOA when heated up.

3x 16" m4 profile 5.56 nitride carbine gas barrels 1:8 1.5-2.0 MOA with good ammo, 3-4 MOA with cheap blasting ammo. Groups remained good when barrel was heated up.

2x 20" Govt profile 5.56 nitride rifle gas 1:7 1.25 MOA with good ammo, 2.5 MOA w/cheap ammo. Consistent groups when hot.0.6 MOA GROUPS WITH AUSSIE OUTBACK 55 SBK

1x 16" light profile .223 Wylde parkerized mid gas 1:8 <1.5 MOA w/good ammo, 2-3 MOA with cheap ammo very consistent, even when hot.

1x 16" m4 profile 5.56 parkerized carbine gas 1:8 <1 MOA w/good ammo, 2-3 MOA w/cheap ammo. Very consistent. Not free floated, still shot awesome.

1x 16" m4 profile .223 Wylde Nitride carbine gas 1:9 2-3 MOA w/good ammo, 5-7 MOA w/cheap ammo. all over the place. not free floated, shot like hot garbage.

2x 8.5" mid-weight profile 300blk nitride, pistol gas 1:8 1.5 MOA w/good ammo, 2-5 MOA with cheap ammo depending on load. consistent, shot great.

2x 16" m4 profile 6.5Grendel nitride, carbine gas 1:8 3 MOA w/ 123 grain ELD, 8 MOA w/123 grain SST, 12+ MOA w/Wolf steel cased 100 grain. Both barrels shot like hot garbage. Sent back.

1x 18" heavy fluted 6.5Grendel, nitride mid gas 1:8 5R 1 MOA w/ 123 grain ELD, 3-4 MOA w/Wolf steel cased

1x 20" SOCOM profile .308 nitride rifle gas 1:10 TBD. I got this on a whim. it looks REALLY decent. I think they put more QC into this one than normal, but we'll see. Testing next week.

Bottom line, I think they're generally full of crap when they post those videos, BUT, it's generally pretty easy to get a barrel that will shoot 1.5 MOA or better, which for a general purpose build is ok.
Overall, I think they're worth it for cheapskates who like to tinker. For somebody who just wants a quality barrel out of the gate, you'd be best served just buying a barrel that costs 2x more and having more peace of mind.

If I hand loaded, I'm pretty sure some of the mediocre results I saw would have improved, but it is what it is. You have to expect that ~$50.00 barrels are going to be that price for a reason.