Budget upper recommendation?

[kcb38]

Asking for a friend. He's interested in an 18-20" barrel primarily for hunting. He's looking at offerings Battle Creek Armory or AR15part.com so I imagine the budget is around 400 bucks complete, give or take. Anyone have experience with either of these companies or know what barrels they use? Thanks

[A5BLASTER]

Neither build it.

Group buy barrel or Alexander arms barrel

Group buy bolt

The rest can be had from joebobs and right to bear arms website.

And still come in either just under or barely over 400 bucks.

[kcb38]

I hear that but he's not looking to build anything. If he lived closer I'd offer to build it for him but it's not really an option right now. I know PSA has some offerings in that range, can anyone suggest anything better for the $$$?

[donhov43]

Have him look at 22modsforall.com. I bought one of their uppers and it runs well. No jams or any other problems and price was quite good also. He will do some customization if that is where you want to go. Check out their web site. Small operation but very good service, at least as far as my dealings with them.

[grayfox]

midway usa has their 20" grendel upper on sale for $329 bucks..... might have a look at that one.

[VASCAR2]

Last I heard Midway AR Stoner were BCA. I’d buy Palmettos State Armory, I bought a PSA 12” Nitride 6.5 Grendel kit and it has been gtg. PSA has a lifetime warranty and good CS. Reading a lot less problems with PSA compared to Bear Creek Armory “BCA”. Grendel Hunter get good reviews and uses Satern/Liberty Grendel II barrels. Diamondback Firearms have gotten pretty good reviews.

Classic Firearms were selling rebranded BCA barrels and uppers as well as a couple other vendors.

https://diamondbackfirearms.com/product/upper-assembly-18-6-5-grendel-with-15-keymod-rail-black-with-azimuth-bcg-ch-and-mag/

[kcb38]

Thanks guys. You're confirming what I thought I knew about these different companies.

[grayfox]

yeah if they are BCA I would look elsewhere too. Thought Midway/Stoner was a diff brand but you could be right.
PSA has their own barrels and the prices are in his ballpark, that would be a good place to look.

[FLshooter]

If I were on a budget,I’d get a bear creek armory upper for around $200.I had a 24”Grendel ss BCA uuper.It did moa.For hunting it is more than accurate enough,
Don’t know why folks hate on BCA so much.Most of the haters probably never even owned or shot one.They read about it online.For the price,BCA uppers cant be beat.
The guy I gave my bca 6.5 Grendel 24” ss barrel to shoots sub moa with it.If you are a real shooter and reloader(I know I am)you can get most any barrel to shoot moa.
Of course its not going to shoot sub moa within 20 rds like a $500-$700 custom barrel.You will need to work with it and find out what it likes.200- 300 rd break in.

[Brazz04]

A $200 upper that needs 200-300 rounds to settle in is starting to add up to a lot of cash in ammo...

[A5BLASTER]

If I were on a budget,I’d get a bear creek armory upper for around $200.I had a 24”Grendel ss BCA uuper.It did moa.For hunting it is more than accurate enough,
Don’t know why folks hate on BCA so much.Most of the haters probably never even owned or shot one.They read about it online.For the price,BCA uppers cant be beat.
The guy I gave my bca 6.5 Grendel 24” ss barrel to shoots sub moa with it.If you are a real shooter and reloader(I know I am)you can get most any barrel to shoot moa.
Of course its not going to shoot sub moa within 20 rds like a $500-$700 custom barrel.You will need to work with it and find out what it likes.200- 300 rd break in.

I can beat them all day and twice on Sunday with a 200 dollar barrel and a upper built by me.

I tryed the bca thing, it's junk from a junk company.

[munchie3409]

I know that BCA isn't going to get a break on this forum, but I can say my 16" BCA barrel shot subMOA/MOA in the first 11-15 shots through the barrel. I spent $50 on the barrel and will say I've seen people with much more expensive barrels on this site that aren't getting MOA groups.

For the $50 I spent, I feel it's money well spent. I honestly was expecting AK accuracy out of my AR15 with BCA barrel, but what I got exceeded my expectations.

[Jimla]

I would recommend the following AT3Tactical upper for a sub MOA upper:

http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?19765-AT3-FF-ML-20-Inch-Faxon-6-5-Grendel-Upper-Range-Result

I just got a 20% off next order code "C79M11" from AT3Tactical in the mail Valid Until Aug 31,2019. I not sure if it will work for others, you may want to give it a try at checkout.

If you want a 1.5 MOA upper, many people have had good results with Palmetto State Armory.

https://palmettostatearmory.com

One thing to look at is how long break-in will take, if it takes 200 rounds to break-in vs 30 rounds to break-in. A $300 upper could cost the same as a $500 upper when break-in cost is counted it.

I would not recommend BCA, I gave up after three tries.

http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?19570-18-quot-Bear-Creek-Arsenal-6-5-Grendel-Upper-Range-Result&highlight=BCA+range+result

[HickLife]

Why can't you build the upper and then ship it to him? No laws against that, I understand being budget concise but if you could build something better for the same price I would go that route. Brownells does free shipping a lot and bigdaddyunlimited is so cheap thart the membership pays for itself with just one purchase.

Edit: also, AK's aren’t that inaccurate when you use good ammunition. It would be the same as shooting steel cased ammo out of an ar that is guaranteed 1 moa and complaining of getting 3 moa.

[grayfox]

If I were on a budget,I’d get a bear creek armory upper for around $200.I had a 24”Grendel ss BCA uuper.It did moa.For hunting it is more than accurate enough,
Don’t know why folks hate on BCA so much.Most of the haters probably never even owned or shot one.They read about it online.For the price,BCA uppers cant be beat.
The guy I gave my bca 6.5 Grendel 24” ss barrel to shoots sub moa with it.If you are a real shooter and reloader(I know I am)you can get most any barrel to shoot moa.
Of course its not going to shoot sub moa within 20 rds like a $500-$700 custom barrel.You will need to work with it and find out what it likes.200- 300 rd break in.

I have owned and built and shot them, they were not quality for me. For the record, if anyone has good luck with them, good for you, but it's mostly luck (IMO and experience), and for any amount of money my time and expectations are higher than they can reliably do. It's not about the 1 or 2 that "shoot sub-moa" (always the case in the interweb!!) it is about consistently producing quality barrels. And BCA sadly does not. As I have written elsewhere I do hope they get their act together but they are not worth my waste of time and energy in the meantime. I'm not 30 yo any more and do not want to waste time on an iffy company. They aren't so much "bad" in my book as inconsistent... and that causes me to go elsewhere with my $$.