Bear Creek Arsenal Complete Uppers

[ported45]

Thats why I start to get into the lands.

Short-throated like mine was, but I hit the lands with OAL @ 2.234" with a 120 Nosler BT.

Just dropped my upper off at UPS on its way back to BCA to put the throat to spec so that factory ammo could be loaded without being jammed 0.011" into the rifling.

We shall see if BCA makes good on the warranty.

[beastep]

That should have read "where" not "why". I hope you get it fixed.

[1Shot]

Well I can report on a BAD BCA upper I got. It averages 5" groups at 100 yards. Every shot seems to be a flyer so I suspect that the crown on the barrel is bad. I have called 3 times trying to get them to send me a UPS pick up ticket. After two weeks of waiting I called again today. Was told they were sorry but the person in charge of warranty stuff has been sick. I guess NO BODY ELSE could do her job. I was told that she would be in tomorrow and would call me. We will see.

[Dcommoncents]

Well I can report on a BAD BCA upper I got. It averages 5" groups at 100 yards. Every shot seems to be a flyer so I suspect that the crown on the barrel is bad. I have called 3 times trying to get them to send me a UPS pick up ticket. After two weeks of waiting I called again today. Was told they were sorry but the person in charge of warranty stuff has been sick. I guess NO BODY ELSE could do her job. I was told that she would be in tomorrow and would call me. We will see.

Sorry to hear you apparently got a lemon. Which upper did you get?

[1Shot]

I got the 20" SS fluted M-lock. It functions great, only have had one mis-feed and that was the second round in a new ACS magazine but after that it ran fine with both ACS mags and a Elander. It just shoots 5" groups and every shot acts like a flier. No two shots with in 3 to 5 inches of each other. The chamber seems OK from looking and measuring the fired cases and by just looking down the bore with a light I see no problems but the crown looks suspect. I really can't inspect the crown without taking the flash hider off and I am not doing ANYTHING like that or it may give BCA an excuse to void the warranty. If I do not hear something from BCA by noon today I will be calling them AGAIN. You live and learn. Since I have so much invested in ammo, reloading dies, magazines etc. I will be building another 6.5 Grendel since I just got a great deal on 3 Anderson stripped lowers. May just get the Odenworks combo that joboboutfitters.com has, Barrel, bolt, adjust gas block for $418 sounds like a good deal.

[Keef]

I bought a BCA complete 16" upper(now cut to 12") and a 18" barrel(that I assembled) and both are shooting great. Would not hesitate to buy another. I might build one with the 16" contour fluted.

[calvarez]

I had terrible accuracy for the first few dozen rounds. I thought it was the crappy Wolf ammo. I switched to the hunting ammo and the groups got very good. Then going back to Wolf, those are reasonably accurate now too. I've never believed in break-in, but something happened. Could be any combo of cleanings and such too.

What ammo are you using? I'm also finding that one high end round is far better than another.

[bj139]

My BCA barrel shot better after firing about 50 rounds through it. I guess it was kind of rough.

[calvarez]

My BCA barrel shot better after firing about 50 rounds through it. I guess it was kind of rough.

Yeah, and for me, it was kind of like a light switch. Suddenly good. It just coincided with switching boxes of ammo, so it made me think it was just the ammo at first.

[Dcommoncents]

My 18" fluted BCA barrel has been sub moa from the first groups I shot. For those of you who saw improvement after some break in, was the improvement any where near enough to fix the type of 5" groups like 1Shot is reporting? It's interesting some of you experienced improvement because now that I think about it, I recall the BCA rep I spoke with before I received my upper expressing interest in whether I would observe the need for a slightly extended break in process given the nitriding in the bore.

And 1Shot, what type of ammo were you using when you got those bad groups?

[calvarez]

My "groups" looked more like shrapnel from a hand grenade. It truly was awful. And unfortunately I was also shooting in sub-optimal conditions so I was totally confused. Next time out, I get horrible groups again, then BOOM, perfect.

[1Shot]

I have been shooting Hornady 123 SST. I really feel that it is something wrong with the crown. Every shot acts like a flier. No two shots will land within 3 to 5 inches of another. BCA warranty person was supposed to call me today and it is 2 p.m. and I have not head from them. I am going to call them AGAIN as soon as I finish typing this reply.

[calvarez]

How many rounds through it so far? I found Federal Fusion to be much better in mine than the Hornady.

[Keef]

https://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/the-over-rated-crown.670/

[grayfox]

So... is this article saying that the chamber and throat, and initial parameters acting on the bullet are more important than the muzzle when seeing dispersion (ie, scatter) on the target...?
Interesting read.