Anyone have recent experience with Bear Creek?

[Will_White]

I had a few less then stellar experiences a few years ago, during the Coof, and being as they sponsor this site I thought to give them another try but don't want a repeat of last time. Specifically looking at their side charge AR9 uppers and the 24" 308 uppers/barrels.

Read More

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

I know someone on another forum that just got two of their bolt action uppers, he was very happy with both

 

[kmk1012]

Just a couple weeks ago I bought a BCA bolt action 450BM and will fire it for the first time tomorrow. They shipped quickly and always do a decent job packaging it. No complaints from me, that's going back several purchases and years.

 

[feelinlucky]

Not the 9mm upper but I bought their 17hmr upper. Transparency is I swapped out the handguard for one I wanted, checked everything as I'd heard about loose barrel nuts and such. Mine was GTG. Only thing else I had to do was add some weight to the buffer because I'm running it suppressed.

 

[Buddy1211]

I've yet to have a bad experience with them. I kinda look at them as parts kits, they might need a once over, a re-torque and some lock tight then mine have been just fine. While I personally wouldn't bet my or my family's life on them. they're great a for fun project/idea test bed imo

 

[titsonritz]

I had a few less then stellar experiences a few years ago,

That would be enough for me.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

My 300 BlK pistol side charging upper and 5.56 dual charging upper have been excellent.

18" stainless heavy fluted barrel dual charging complete upper plus psa complete lower total cost was $318. Great budget option and not every gun has to be a "go to war" gun. Here's the $318 complete gun after swapping stock, grip, and adding scope.

 

[ar man]

If it's a big bore gun there firing pins are junk

 

[titsonritz]

not every gun has to be a "go to war" gun.

Why wouldn't you want them to be capable though?

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Why wouldn't you want them to be capable though?

No need. It's never going to war. Other guns for that.

 

[ar man]

If it takes what you feed it with no issues and you can hit something with it then it's good in my books one can take a weapon that one deams a POS and train with it and rock and roll with the best. It's all in what one can afford. And how well they know how to use there equipment

 

[kmk1012]

If it takes what you feed it with no issues and you can hit something with it then it's good in my books one can take a weapon that one deams a POS and train with it and rock and roll with the best. It's all in what one can afford. And how well they know how to use there equipment

Agreed, lots of snobs here that will only accepts exactly what they learned on the internet as to what is the best. Know your weapon, know it well and it'll treat you right. Let's all be real here, we're not going into battle, I like masturbating as much as the next guy but some of the mental masturbation here is a bit over the top. A lot of internet operators base their opinions on price tags and not necessarily quality. Marketing at its finest!

 

[ar man]

Agreed, lots of snobs here that will only accepts exactly what they learned on the internet as to what is the best. Know your weapon, know it well and it'll treat you right. Let's all be real here, we're not going into battle, I like masturbating as much as the next guy but some of the mental masturbation here is a bit over the top. A lot of internet operators base their opinions on price tags and not necessarily quality. Marketing at its finest!

Just like people who hate on ak's and call all of the pos.

 

[Will_White]

Based on the responses here, I'm probably going to go with the 9mm upper, if my wife likes it I'll swap the bolt and barrel when needed. I'm torn on the 24" 308, its for kind of a meme gun (iron sight "DMR") but I want it to be functional.

 

[kmk1012]

Didn't take it out until a couple weeks back, what a POS. The bolt "action" is a joke. Great idea on paper but poorly executed. This junk will be returning to sender for repair or replacement. Would not cycle at all, even without a mag or ammo in it.

 

[Xmark1]

My BCA side charging 5.56 upper has some issues.
It shoots very straight!
After 20 or so rounds, the chamber gets funky in that it's extremely difficult to pull the charging handle back when I go to remove a cartridge.
Other than that, it's good for the $500 I paid for it. I have other AR's that run perfect, but they cost a lot of money. I use the inexpensive rifle as a Jeep gun so I'm never in the woods without a long gun.

 

[HaoleSlap]

I have had good experiences with them. One 7.62x39 had issues at first. Sent it back and a new one was returned in a week and it's good to go. Neighbor just received a .300blk last week and it rocks. Cheap but good. And if you have problems, keep sending them back and you'll get a great one eventually.

 

[kmk1012]

My side charging BCA uppers have been great so far, this is about their bolt action uppers though. This is my first one and it needs some work just to be able to use. Persuasion had to be used to get it to cycle, good thing I keep spare 2x4 blocks in the pickup bed.

 

[Will_White]

Didn't take it out until a couple weeks back, what a POS. The bolt "action" is a joke. Great idea on paper but poorly executed. This junk will be returning to sender for repair or replacement. Would not cycle at all, even without a mag or ammo in it.

I was hoping the bolt action upper was going to be actually good, but from what I can see it looks like a straight pull with twisty bit is that true?

 

[Rkangel]

I am 50/50 with Bear Creek. One of the cheapest barrels I ever spent money on, a $39 BCA 10.5" nitrided barrel, shoots great. They sold out in hours. Based on that good experience though, I purchased another 10.5" nitrided BCA barrel when they went on sale for $50 at another vendor. That barrel was total dog poo. Constant failures to extract on its very first outing and I had to frequently mortar rounds out of the chamber. And way over gassed.

Other experiences...
Purchased a stripped BCA upper that was solid. Picked up a BCA bolt carrier group and it was utter crap. The carrier looked like it was machined with a dull butter knife and the extractor broke before completing the first magazine. Yes, BCA responded to warranty.
Yes, BCA sent new parts. No, they weren't any better than the originals. In fact the new extractor looked like someone ground the face of the extractor hook with a die grinder to make it fit, leaving bare metal. Therein lies my problem with BCA: their QC appears to be so spotty that it is a coin toss whether you get something that works awesome or sucks bad.

I haven't purchased anything from them for the past year or two. And I don't plan to in the future. To me it is no longer worth the risk trusting them with properly containing explody things 4 inches from my face.

For budget friendly and better quality I've gone to Bkings Firearms.