A Range Report on the Bear Creek 18" Heavy Fluted 5R Barrel from Classic Firearms

[Dcoil03]

Haven't seen a whole lot of range reviews about this barrel, so I thought I'd chime in.

I bought mine at $95 + shipping earlier this year but finally had a chance to go shoot it.

My Rifle:



Build List:

Lower:

Anderson Stripped Lower with closed trigger guard
Magpul K2 grip
UTG buffer, spring and tube kit
UTG PRO Model 4 S1 stock
Anderson Lower Parts Kit
Velocity 3lb Single Stage trigger
Ammunition Storage Components (ASC) 15 rnd 6.5 Grendel Mag

Upper:

Tom's Tactical AR15 complete upper
AIM Surplus NiB Bolt Carrier
6.5 Grendel Type II Phosphate Bolt (can't remember the manufacturer)
Bear Creek Arsenal 6.5 Grendel 5R 18" Mid-Length Heavy Fluted Barrel from Classic Firearms
15" No name Chinesium M-LOK rail from Ebay
Midwest Industries Two-Chamber .30 Cal Muzzle Brake
Leupold Mark AR Mod 1 3-9x40 Mil-Dot w/ Butler creek caps
Amazon sourced 1" Scope Mount
Amazon sourced Flip up BUIS
Radical Firearms low profile gas block and mid-length gas tube
Radical Firearms charging handle
Strike Industries extended charging handle latch
Magpul M-lok rail covers type 2

Range Report

To sight it in, I started with 100gr Wolf Military Classic at 50 yards. As you can see below, the results were not stellar. About 2" at 50 yards:



I put about 40 rounds down range, 5 shots at a time, resting between groups over spanning over 2 shooting sessions to keep from heating up too fast. I was a little concerned at this point, since 4 MOA is not what I was hoping for. Once I confirmed my zero, I moved out to 100 with the Hornady 123gr ELD-M rounds.

First Group:



Much more promising! 1.5" at 100 yards!

Best Group:



7/8" or .875 MOA! I can live with that!

Final thoughts

I'm by no means an expert marksman, so putting up a sub MOA group with a very budget build to me is amazing. Averaging 1.5 MOA is plenty good enough for me, and I think FANTASTIC given the price for the barrel. Not saying they'll all shoot that well, but I'm happy mine did.

When I get a chance, I want to go back out and retry the Wolf 100gr again and see if I still get the 4 MOA, or if perhaps I've worked the barrel in.

[Sticks]

Between life of the barrel, and improving your skills, you should be able to cut the groups in half. Not bad for a $95 barrel.

[bj139]

Nice rifle and great shooting.

[VASCAR2]

Great looking economy build, I think you got a bargain on your 18” SS barrel. I’m using a Mark AR 3-9X40 mil dot on my 16” 6.5 Grendel. My Mark AR scope is the earlier generation before the mod 1. My scope has consistently tracked correctly and has held up well.


I wouldn’t expect much improvement with Wolf bimetal bullet’s accuracy. The Wolf bimetal bullets are under sized plus the 5 R rifling doesn’t aggressively engrave the bullets which contributes to it’s poor accuracy. Some longer 20” plus 5 R barrels have shown a little more accuracy with the bimetal bullets but still only about 2 MOA at best. Good enough for ringing steel but that is about it for me. I’m waiting to catch some 100 grain blem or overrun 6.5/.264 bullets on sale then pull a bunch of my Wolf bimetal bullets. I think I might use the steel cases with a good bullet for varmint hunting. That way I’m not loosing my good brass.

[Dcoil03]

Great looking economy build, I think you got a bargain on your 18” SS barrel. I’m using a Mark AR 3-9X40 mil dot on my 16” 6.5 Grendel. My Mark AR scope is the earlier generation before the mod 1. My scope has consistently tracked correctly and has held up well.


I wouldn’t expect much improvement with Wolf bimetal bullet’s accuracy. The Wolf bimetal bullets are under sized plus the 5 R rifling doesn’t aggressively engrave the bullets which contributes to it’s poor accuracy. Some longer 20” plus 5 R barrels have shown a little more accuracy with the bimetal bullets but still only about 2 MOA at best. Good enough for ringing steel but that is about it for me. I’m waiting to catch some 100 grain blem or overrun 6.5/.264 bullets on sale then pull a bunch of my Wolf bimetal bullets. I think I might use the steel cases with a good bullet for varmint hunting. That way I’m not loosing my good brass.

Thanks for the knowledge! Probably saved me tons of headache later!

[Timmy2Knives]

I thought 5R was supposed to be more accurate due to decreased projectile deformation? Are you saying with bi-metal bullets (like Wolf) this can be a detriment because the projectile is too hard to deform from the start? Something like that? This is the first I've heard this about 5R.

[Timmy2Knives]

Thanks for the review OP.

I also have this same barrel on a build of mine I have yet to finish. All I can afford right now is budget parts, but I am OK with that.

[VASCAR2]

Timmy2Knives

“I thought 5R was supposed to be more accurate due to decreased projectile deformation? Are you saying with bi-metal bullets (like Wolf) this can be a detriment because the projectile is too hard to deform from the start? Something like that? This is the first I've heard this about 5R”


To get good accuracy the bullet has to get the proper seal/grip from rifling to obtain proper stability. The copper washed steel jackets are not as pliable as typical copper jackets which engrave more easily. The bullets pulled from Wolf steel case ammo have been under sized (less than .264) which further contributes to poor bullet seal/engraving to lands and grooves.

Bill Alexander who helped develope the steel cased ammunition with Branual stated the bimetal steel jacketed ammo didn’t produce as good accuracy with 5R or polygonal rifling.

Generally speaking 5R rifled barrels produce very good accuracy with cup and core bullets. I’ve also gotten good accuracy out of my Faxon 5R barrel with monlithic Barnes bullets. Another advertised advantage of 5R rifling is easier to clean barrels. I can’t tell any difference in cleaning my AR-15 barrels whether Stainless Steel, Chrome Moly 4140 or PQP CMV 4150 barrels.

I don’t shoot much Steel cased ammo so the lack of accuracy with 5R barrels is not an issue for me. If I choose to shoot bimetal bullets I have a 16” 1:9 twist CMV barrel with traditional rifling.

[zcostilla]

Build List:

Lower:

Anderson Stripped Lower with closed trigger guard
Magpul K2 grip
UTG buffer, spring and tube kit
UTG PRO Model 4 S1 stock
Anderson Lower Parts Kit
Velocity 3lb Single Stage trigger
Ammunition Storage Components (ASC) 15 rnd 6.5 Grendel Mag

Upper:

Tom's Tactical AR15 complete upper
AIM Surplus NiB Bolt Carrier
6.5 Grendel Type II Phosphate Bolt (can't remember the manufacturer)
Bear Creek Arsenal 6.5 Grendel 5R 18" Mid-Length Heavy Fluted Barrel from Classic Firearms
15" No name Chinesium M-LOK rail from Ebay
Midwest Industries Two-Chamber .30 Cal Muzzle Brake
Leupold Mark AR Mod 1 3-9x40 Mil-Dot w/ Butler creek caps
Amazon sourced 1" Scope Mount
Amazon sourced Flip up BUIS
Radical Firearms low profile gas block and mid-length gas tube
Radical Firearms charging handle
Strike Industries extended charging handle latch
Magpul M-lok rail covers type 2

You had me LOL at “Chinesium”...brought tears to my eyes.

I’m almost done with my 18” BCA barrel (non-5R) build. I’ll have a report up soon. Hope mine shoots as well as yours with copper bullets. I’ll probably stick with one cartridge, either Hornady Black, or American Fusion, I haven’t decided yet.

@VASCAR2: As always, you’re a wealth of information and really helpful. I always appreciate reading your posts because I always seem to learn something.

[GaCop]

Chiming in a little late but, your Bear Creek barrel is shooting way better than the 20" I got in a trade. I was lucky if mine would group on a sheet of 8.5"X 11" paper at 200 yards no matter what I did. My loads would produce identical velocities for three rounds in a row yet all three hit on various area of the paper 4 or 5" apart! I changed scopes, bullets, brass, put in a nice 3.5 lb trigger to no avail. Dismal accuracy was the same whether I used hand loads or factory ammo. Barrel to date has 250 rounds thru it. I'm going to pull that barrel as soon as my 20" KM Tactical barrel get here this week and use the old barrel for a freakin tomato stake.

[Keef]

[QUOTE=GaCop;179803. My loads would produce identical velocities for three rounds in a row yet all three hit on various area of the paper 4 or 5" apart! [/QUOTE]

Just curious did you try shooting any factory ammo thru it?? EDL does very well in mine.

[beastep]

Its good to see your BCA barrel showing promise. BCA gets a lot of hate from a lot of online elitist folks. I have 2 and one of them is in a 6.5G. So far its only down to 1.5moa but thats only 2 range sessions and Im not done with load development yet. Although I will say that my chamber is a little tight and I ordered some small base dies today since my Hornady dies dont quite size my reloads small enough. Just some info you dont care about unless you decide to reload.