I have an 18" BCA upper with a lightweight Keymod handguard. I have only put about 30 rounds of Federal American Eagle 90gr TNT Hollowpoint ammo. First trip to the range last weekend I got it on target with 3 rounds at 50 yards, then went out to 100 yards. First shot was a dead center bullseye. It shot under MOA the whole session. Most new rifles take a few rounds for break in. Not this one.
It is spot on right out of the box! I also bought a 16" 300 Blackout upper from them that is equally impressive.
Safety Guy Wrote:I beginning to wonder if I want to do business with Bear Creek. I have been reading a lot of reviews that would lead me to believe they produce a good product, however; not to sure about their customer service. Their website states they offer a military discount and to email their customer service for details. I did that 2 days ago with no reply. Am I being unreasonable thinking I should have gotten some kind of reply by now? What if I ordered and received one of their products and had a customer service question?
I finally figured I would just call them about a military discount. Got someone on the phone first try. They told me to email them a copy of my DD214 (retirees will know what this is). Got an email back like 5 minutes later stating the discount was added to my account (you have to create an account with them first). I placed an order for a 20" SS non fluted upper and the 10% discount showed up in my "cart". With this upper and an upgraded complete lower from PSA, I'll be all in at <$550.
I bought a stripped upper from BCA. The finish was not up to my standards, so I returned it. Their customer service was outstanding through the whole process. I'm sure I will buy from them again.
I just received my complete grendel upper from BCA a couple weeks ago. It's the 18" straight fluted nitride barrel with mlok handguard and nitrided bcg. All told, It was only around $340 shipped. On inspection, it looks to be very well machined and assembled. I can only find two criticisms, both minor and already remedied: The a2 flashhider was only hand tight, and the gas key could have been staked a little better.
Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to shoot this thing yet, but with that important caveat, it's looking like a great deal. As for customer service, I emailed BCA with questinos about the chamber and bolt specs but didn't receive a response. However, a week or so later I received a call from a BCA sales person who apoligized for the delayed response and said the tech person who would normally answer was out for health reasons. He also seemed genuinely interested in the product because he asked me to report back on how the barrel shoots. From where I stand it looks like this company is well on its way to getting its act together to offer good quality parts for an exceptional value.
08-22-2017, 08:29 PM (This post was last modified: 08-22-2017, 08:31 PM by Sputnik.)
Safety Guy Wrote:I beginning to wonder if I want to do business with Bear Creek. I have been reading a lot of reviews that would lead me to believe they produce a good product, however; not to sure about their customer service. Their website states they offer a military discount and to email their customer service for details. I did that 2 days ago with no reply. Am I being unreasonable thinking I should have gotten some kind of reply by now? What if I ordered and received one of their products and had a customer service question?
I have had excellent service. I have worked with three different very professional and courtesy oriented people. Cassie, Erika, and another whose name escapes me; Samantha I think. They have new phone numbers now. They upgraded their phones, check out the website. Mil/LEO Discount: First make an account. Then find the place on the website for filling out the Mil/LOE form. For the documentation portion, I sent a picture of my retired ID card with parts taped/dedacted out. I think it was the ID card number. They verify the form, in that your ID card looks legit and attach the discount feature info to your account. Just like Primary Arms does. So you put something in your cart, it get discounted 10% right then and there. I sent in my ID photo and called a day or two later. They check your account, and verify your discount info found its way to it. So the DD214 is one way, the picture of you ID seemed easier. Glad you got it straightened out.
I got a BCA 223 Wylde 18" SS HB fluted upper for 279, before I knew about their discount. Their 24" 6.5 Grendel HB fluted was NIS for 361.00. Fortunately, Primary Arms had that same upper in stock and for 12 dollars less. I believe it was about 324.00 ish to my door; so I went with Primary Arms. No complains on the workmanship at all on both uppers! BTW, the three casings sent with my Grendel upper were steel. The "BCA does not recommend steel casings" disclaimer must by a CYA thing; a fallout thing from the melting lacquer days.
I have not bought a complete upper from them but I could not resist the $105 20" fluted heavy barrel they were selling, so I built yet another upper with it.
I've run a bunch of wolf through it and so far I'm happy. I made sure to break it in though.
Here are some pics of the BCA upper I described above:
With handguard removed you can see some nice millwork on the barrel, at least if the picture was better you could
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9618[/ATTACH]
Here is the upper assembled with the lower I will primarily use for it as I began to tape it off for paint
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Here's a comparison of the staking on my BCGs, from top to bottom, WMD Nibx; S&W m&p 15 phosphate; BCA nitride with grendel bolt
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And finally my diy multicam paint job, which unfortunately wasn't one of my best because I didn't degrease the weapon sufficiently first
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9621[/ATTACH]
I'm in the same boat (waiting for a customer service response)- I've been reading up on Bear Creek and am thinking about jumping in with an upper. I've sent two emails for their military discount information (DD-214 is just waiting to go), but no response so far. Once I get the military information sorted out, I've got a lower waiting for that upper (or someone else's, if I don't hear from BCA). All in all, I think it would fit my needs perfectly - I want a minute-of-coyote rifle so that both my son and I can carry AR's on a coyote hunt.
Well, I finally got to the range yesterday and must say I am quite happy with the accuracy I'm already seeing out of my 18" BCA upper with only 40 rounds of break in. Here are two 4 round groups at 100 yards (don't mind the two shot zeroing groups on the one target):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9692[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9693[/ATTACH]
Unfortunately, the upper was having reliability problems, or so I thought. I have two magazines; an ASC (10 rds I think) and an AA 17 rounder. The first 8 rounds cycled out of the AA mag just fine. Then I tried the ASC and was getting bolt over base FTF malfunctions nearly every round, so I set that mag aside for now. When I went back to the AA mag, however, I started having FTFs where the bolt would entirely fail to strip a round out of the magazine every other shot. It seemed like an obvious short stroke to me, and I became very worried that the upper is under gassed (.70 gas port on midlength 18" barrel is on the small side to my understanding).
But, a strange discovery later last night alleviated my fears! As I prepared to clean the gun and check culprits for under gassing (gas block alignment, etc), I heard a strange rattle noise when I tilted the gun. I realized it was coming from my buffer tube, which I wouldn't ordinarily open for a routine cleaning. When I pulled the buffer and spring, this is what I found!:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9694[/ATTACH]
I haven't had a chance to go shooting again to confirm the hypothesis, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that the loose weights in my buffer tube were causing the short stroking! It would also seem to explain the bolt over base malfunctions if the bcg was moving to fast for the next round to move up after it recoiled against the empty buffer. It's bizarre, but I'm actually relieved that the upper itself seems fine and at the very least I learned my lesson on buying cheap buffers.
So, at the end of the day, I think this BCA upper is going to be a heck of a shooter, especially for the price! If it feeds reliably and continues to group well at my next range session, I'll be fully prepared to endorse BCA based upon my experience at least.
I honestly can't remember the brand, probably UTG or something like that, but it came with a crappy buffer kit I got from cheaper than dirt because it was only intended to make an extra beater lower I had sitting around functional. It never occurred to me that a buffer would just fall apart like that and I just didn't pay attention to how poorly it was put together - i.e., the fact that there was no roll pin! I already ordered a better replacement and in the meantime stole the buffer out of the lower for my m4 style 5.56 platform. I may try to salvage it to have an extra around though by just using my drill press to make a hole for a roll pin, but the plastic (not rubber) end cap is pretty thin and may just tear at the roll pin hole. I figure it's worth a shot though. Maybe I'll pass a metal sleeve through it as a bushing for added strength. As a side note, the back of the buffer where the cap came off is all chewed up from hitting the weights tumbling around in the tube. Gnarly stuff. You live and you learn I suppose.
Shocking news... my broken buffer was clearly the source of my ftf malfunctions out of the AA Elander mag. With a replacement h buffer my BCA upper cycled 26 rounds out of that mag without a hiccup today. My bolt over base malfunctions were definitely caused by the ASC mag, as that malfunctions recurred on just the second shot i tried out of that mag today. I dremeled the front of the mag down as shown in some other threads here, so I'll see if that works next time.
Safety Guy Wrote:I finally figured I would just call them about a military discount. Got someone on the phone first try. They told me to email them a copy of my DD214 (retirees will know what this is). Got an email back like 5 minutes later stating the discount was added to my account (you have to create an account with them first). I placed an order for a 20" SS non fluted upper and the 10% discount showed up in my "cart". With this upper and an upgraded complete lower from PSA, I'll be all in at <$550.
I got an email back apologizing for the delay - sending my DD214 in - I'll let you know when my upper arrives.
Red Dawn Wrote:* BCA DOES NOT recommend using steel cased ammo in our Assemblies or Rifles.
Anyone know why ?
In one of the million videos I've watched a guy said that the steel cases are lacquer-coated (in the pictures the coating looks thick) and if your barrel is hot and you chamber a round and leave it there...the lacquer can melt and glue the round into the chamber.
I can't verify whether that will happen or not.
I'm now about 400 rounds into this upper shooting only cheap-o Wolf steel case ammo, it has never had an issue. My groups are terrible though, time to test it with some spendy ammo.
