School Me on Super Cheap 65G Barrels

[Kilco]

Ive got 26 inch Krieger barrels, and 24 inch Bear Creek barrels that I would hate to have to choose between. Both shoot better that I do, and I shoot for a living.

Actually inspiring to read this. I've been debating throwing to gather an el-cheepo Grendel to feed Wolf ammo.. if the barrels are respectable enough for that I'll pick one up with a side charging upper for sure!

[Steamburn]

I seem to never learn the lesson:
I bought a $75 barrel which wasn't satisfactory, so had to buy a better barrel for $185. Total cost: $260.
I should have bought a garanteed good barrel of around $260 from the start.

[slickshot223]

.136" bolt face. Supposed to have a SAAMI chamber too.

I just received mine from Classic last Saturday, FWLIW it looks really really nice. 18" straight fluted, nitrided 4150. Only blemish is a scratch where it looks like it got caught by a boxcutter when someone opened the case (the protective netting was cut too) I have been meaning to post pics but I have been too busy.

From my research at least Classic, AR Stoner and Sander's Armory are all made by BCA.

BCA and Classic had the best prices so I asked them both basic specs (material, bolt face etc...) BCA never responded but Classic got right back to me. I didn't like that... if you can't answer a simple question how are you going to deal with a problem?

Stoner MLGS has .094 gas port, some say that is too big!! Classic Arms barrels all have .070 gas ports! Am currently working on a Stoner MLGS .094 GP and it is over gassed!!

[85_Ranger4x4]

Stoner MLGS has .094 gas port, some say that is too big!! Classic Arms barrels all have .070 gas ports! Am currently working on a Stoner MLGS .094 GP and it is over gassed!!

Mine looked pretty good sized but I have an adjustable gas block... so too much is better than not enough. I haven't measured it.

[kevperro]

Actually inspiring to read this. I've been debating throwing to gather an el-cheepo Grendel to feed Wolf ammo.. if the barrels are respectable enough for that I'll pick one up with a side charging upper for sure!

Here is my 16" Stainless Classic M4 with Wolf. Mil-spec lower and trigger with a 1x6 scope. I shot five other groups similiar to this with no fliers but I was chasing my shot grouping around the paper. I think I had two things going on. One, the target wasn't level (duh). Second, my site picture was moving around because my face was a different place on the stock each time. I need a more consistent place to afix my cheek weld.

So... with my cheap $80 barrel and cheap steel cased Wolf I'm getting good enough grouping that I can work on my technique. That is my goal.... not that it is 0.5 MOA accurate but that I can work on my shooting skills. For the people getting 6-7 MOA with the Wolf I don't know what to say. It could be the barrel or the batch of ammo. I only have my own experience to work from.

[kevperro]

Here are some groups with Hornady ELD-M Black. First time I shot it was today and the first three rounds were right on top of each other. I jinxed myself looking and the fourth was a flyer. Forgive my photo posting skills. It is on it's side and I cannot get it rotated.

After that I adjusted my scope over 2.5 MOA I shot a couple more on top of each other and strung another down below.. I think the flyers were me, not the ammo.





This was after shooting 140 rounds of Wolf and I my groups suffered from here. My zero is pretty much the same Hornady 123g ELD-M & Wolf 100g steel. That kind of surprised me. Next week I'll take it out to 500 yrd and see how that goes.

[sscandyman]

Finally got to shoot my BCA build today (16" fluted mil contour barrel ) I am very new to rifle shooting but I'm getting 3" groups with Wolf steel . Looks like its plenty good enough to bring home a deer and if I manage to develop some skills maybe bring home some tighter groups

[The Profit Joseph Sith]

So back on memorial day weekend sales I bought two of their 20" heavy barrels from classic and looked them over fairly close. Took one out several weeks later when I got my ALG V0's to see how the setup would look on a upper. The receiver to barrel fit could be a little tighter. My extensions were .996" I've heard others fit more snugly. So maybe mines the oddball?
I DID see that one of the two barrels had a bit of the corner of a land stripped off near the chamber throat. So I emailed classic (exceptional customer service) and they got ahold of BCA and I returned the barrel. Its been maybe 3-4 weeks since I shipped it out. It was shipoed back to me we'd./Thursday of last week. UPS tracking says I should receive it July 5th. I'll keep you all updated with results as I get them.

[Kilco]

I'm still getting mixed reports of the chamber... can anyone absolutely confirm without doubt that it's the compound SAAMI spec? Read something earlier that someone took a cast and it was not...

[The Profit Joseph Sith]

IDK yet... But I'll be casting all my chambers before I build, I always do. Maybe I can cast them sooner than​ later. But my July is looking VERY busy then slowing down in August. (Hopefully)

[bldsmith]

I cast the chamber +1" of the bore on the m4 profile I got from classic. I do not see a compound throat. The neck is .300. The bore runs .264 from the neck out the full 1". I have not cast the 18" barrel yet. Maybe tomorrow.

[Texas]

When we were making barrels, a 16 inch Mil-B (4350 CMV) 1 3/8 barrel blank was between 9.60 and 13.00 per blank. The real expense was the people time necessary to process the barrel. Barrel drills and reamers last a very long time if you take care of them and sharpen them on a regular schedule - which is primarily determined by how slick one wants the barrel to be after the reaming process. If the barrel is honed before it is rifled, that is additional machine and labor. Cut rifle barrels are done one groove at a time, so the time to groove a cut barrel over a broached barrel is considerable.
The turning of the barrel can greatly affect the price depending on how many times the barrel is handled and positioneed in the turning centers.

Stress relieving a barrel can vary in cost by the barrel being vertical or horizontal, vacuum or normal atmosphere, the gas environment in which the stress relieving occurs, etc.

We air-guaged every barrel, checked for straightness and runout.

The price of a barrel is more than just a profit margin on parts and labor, it is more of perceived value.

We pulled about 3% of the barrels at random and actually shot them for accuracy. All in and all done, we had about 106 invested in a complete M16A4 barrel group (barrel blank, barrel extension, front sight, foregrip, barrel nut, foregrip springs and attachment points.

[sscandyman]

I would actually really like a BCA pistol barrel buy . It would be nice to have the option of a cheap shorty to plink with

[Crusty]

Kevperro, this is what a $245 barrel with a near optimized (but too hot) handload can do. My eyes were fuzzing out by the end of this 10 shot string so I'm calling operator fliers on the top and bottom most shots. The dot is 1".

I don't think it's three times better than your groups, so I'd say ya done good.

[Dcommoncents]

Once upon a time they used to be known as Moore Machine Co., in fact I still think BCA (because there is a place called Bear Creek nearby) is just a 'trade name' for MMC. MMC had some issues in the past but that was during one of the great "panics" and they may have been pushing too hard to get product out the door.

I had about a 20 minute conversation with a BCA sales rep before I bought my first 6.5G from them --- the complete upper with 18" straight fluted barrel. I actually expressed that I had some reservations based upon what I had read about MMC. He acknowledged that there were problems in the past, which he attributed to the gun business being lumped in and on the same floor as MMC's oem auto part manufacturing business. As I recall, he said that in order to resolve the issues, the gun and auto sides of the business have been separated, both physically in terms of work space, and from a management (and perhaps legal organizational) perspective.

In any event, as I've reported elsewhere here, I am very pleased with my BCA upper. I haven't shot for groups past approximately 150 yds, but it is certainly a MOA shooter at those distances without any tinkering, barrel bedding, etc. on my part. From the other reviews I've read here it seems like dissatisfaction with BCA barrels is becoming a smaller and smaller exception to the high value, good shooting rule.

[beastep]

I have had a few and shot a few more BCA barrels and have always loved them and gotten good results with them. But I just put a 20" BCA 6.5 on an AR and I was having hell with what I thought was a tight chamber. To make a 2 week story short, it has a very short throat on it. I was driving the bullet into the lands. That was with 120 and 123 ELDM and 123 SST all set at 2.245 which is what the book calls for. Yesterday I set my OAL at 2.2 for the 123 ELDM and at 2.173 for the 120 ELDM. Im out of 123 SST so I dont know what I have to do to get that one off the lands. Just fyi.

[Splatt]

Get an oal length gauge....
Measure, and you will know.

[Sticks]

Get an oal length gauge....
Measure, and you will know.

You mean a comparator for both Headspace and Bullet (ogive). FYI - You can buy the holder and individual bushings for your needs, no need to buy the whole set shown below.

[URL="https://www.midwayusa.com/product/479704/hornady-lock-n-load-headspace-gauge-5-bushing-set-with-comparator"]https://www.midwayusa.com/product/479704/hornady-lock-n-load-headspace-gauge-5-bushing-set-with-comparator

[/URL]

[beastep]

Get an oal length gauge....
Measure, and you will know.

I agree but do not have the funds for that at the moment.

[Splatt]

No.
An oal gauge.
A dummy case with a threaded primer hole for the part that pushes the bullet.
Take a bullet your going to load with, stick in the case, with the center section of the screw in tube, pulled back.
Stick casing into chamber, make sure it's seated well, and push bullet in til it touches the rifling.
Lock plastic shaft, remove and measure.
There is a accessory part that clamps onto your caliper, that will measure to the office, instead of to the tips.