Bear Creek Arsenal complete upper M4 profile 16 incher, 18 shots fired

[rickt300]

I embarked on an easy way to get to a Grendel upper, I got a group buy bolt here, ordered a M4 contour 6.5 Grendel 16 inch Nitrided barrel from BCA and a complete AR Stoner 5.56 upper on sale at Midway for $280. The plan being to assemble parts and have a hunting grade light AR. Well before the Midway upper got here BCA put 6.5 Grendel complete uppers on sale for $284, 16" M4 clone. So I ordered one. It arrived Friday but I couldn't shoot it till today. I mounted the upper on an older Olympic Arms lower fitted with an A1 buttstock and that has had enough rounds fired through it that the trigger isn't exactly awful and I know it well. Bore sighted and got it pretty close to center with 3 shots at 50 yards. I moved to the 100 yard bench and my first 4 shots were low and to the right and I was using each shot to adjust my scope, a 3x9 Bushnell Elite. Got it really close and my last two groups were two touching bullet holes as between them I had put in 2 clicks to get exact top dead center 2 inches high at 100 yards. On the way to sight in there were at least three 2 shot touching groups. Function, the first few shots threw the brass straight out from the receiver, the last ten were in a neat group of a 10 inch circle at the 3 oclock. There were no malfunctions. My magazines were two ten shotters from Midway made by the AR Stoner people. The AR Stoner upper will have it's barrel installed and be put together by Thursday and I will run a box through it when time permits. Ammo is Hornady Black Box ELDM. Brass looks fine with no dents. I don't see how the AR Stoner upper could do any better but I will give it a chance.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Thanks for report!

[Lastrites]

Promising for an affordable barrel!

[ah1whiskey]

i have heard good things about their 6.5 barrels , may end up buying one one of these days!!

[rickt300]

I guess I could justify two uppers of similar configuration if I put night vision on one and leave the scope on the other! I also ordered 500 rounds of the Wolf steel cased cheap stuff. The Bear Creek Arms people say they won't honor their warranty if this ammo is used? Is it the bi metal bullet? What if I pulled the bullets and replaced them with a standard cup and core?

[hkcavalier]

I wish they'd make a complete 6.5G side charger. Or just the upper receiver with a good bolt. Kind of a weird oversight on their part.

[Dpr64]

I guess I could justify two uppers of similar configuration if I put night vision on one and leave the scope on the other! I also ordered 500 rounds of the Wolf steel cased cheap stuff. The Bear Creek Arms people say they won't honor their warranty if this ammo is used? Is it the bi metal bullet? What if I pulled the bullets and replaced them with a standard cup and core?

Where did you see/hear that? I just got a BCA barrel and was planning on using it with wolf ammo.. Oye!!

[bj139]

I wish they'd make a complete 6.5G side charger. Or just the upper receiver with a good bolt. Kind of a weird oversight on their part.

Buy a side charging receiver with complete bolt carrier group, barrel, handguard with barrel nut and get the group buy bolt from here. That's what I did.

[85_Ranger4x4]

Where did you see/hear that? I just got a BCA barrel and was planning on using it with wolf ammo.. Oye!!

I see nothing on it:

https://www.bearcreekarsenal.com/terms-conditions

[bj139]

From the BCA site:

7.62X39 Complete Upper

1:10 Twist Rate

16” 4150 Parkerized Steel Barrel

BCG Included with Proprietary Bolt

Standard M4 Handguards

Low Profile Handguards
BCA DOES NOT recommend using steel cased ammo in our Assemblies or Rifles.

[Dpr64]

Well what the heck...Why?? I intended on using the BCA side charger with the Alexander arms bolt in it along with a BCA barrel... All for the 6.5 Grendel...

[bj139]

What could go wrong? BCA provides parts for many other companies that don't even state this. I have been shooting steel ammo through my BCA side charger with BCA barrel. I have been ejecting them manually with no problems so far. I just have to do a slight mortar. With lower pressure handloads I may be be able to cycle it manually while shouldered. I turned my gas block to be an actual gas block. PA hunting laws regarding semiautos are still in the stone age.

[howl]

Thanks for the report!

[rickt300]

It says the same thing on the 6.5 upper page, however nowhere does it say it will void the warrany if steel cased ammo is used in it. It does say in the warranty that it will void said warranty if "non standard" ammunition is used but the description stops short of mentioning steel case ammo. I would think a factory loaded steel cased ammo would have to be considered standard.

[Et2ss]

It says the same thing on the 6.5 upper page, however nowhere does it say it will void the warrany if steel cased ammo is used in it. It does say in the warranty that it will void said warranty if "non standard" ammunition is used but the description stops short of mentioning steel case ammo. I would think a factory loaded steel cased ammo would have to be considered standard.

As a matter of fact I got in a 6.5G complete upper from Bear Creek this week. They had 3 fired cases from the test rounds. All 3 were steel case wolf