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EAG had the pleasure of re-visiting the Bravo Company USA facility in Hartland WI 30June 2014.
This visit followed a Bravo Company Special Carbine conducted on 29June2014 http://www.lightfighter.net/to...51#13684252103897051
Full disclosure. Paul is a close friend and has been for 10 years. Bravo Company makes the rifles I use. There is a reason for this...
Our last visit to BRAVO Company was 3 years ago, just as they finished moving from their previous 8000 square foot facility to the current 32000 square foot location.
At that time the building was approximately 1/3 occupied.
Now, it is bursting at the seams.
There is a reason for this as well. They understand the user community and they advertise heavily in the market.
They sell a great number of gun related products.
They make great guns. They have spectacular Quality Control and Quality Assurance.
They have excellent Customer Service.
BCM puts to bed the myth that *Parts is Parts* that is so espoused by the bubble gun crowd.
Bravo Company is not a factory in the manner of Colt and FNUSA, where they manufacture the majority of the parts that go into the gun. Not yet…
Instead, they purchase parts from specific vendors to assemble the weapons in house, like most other small gun companies do.
The parts BCM uses are the Grade 1 parts that meet the milspec for the M16 FOW. These are purchased from those companies that supply the gov.
However, Bravo Company has learned to check everything that comes in. This is a result of a barrel maker delivering what they claimed was the spec 11595E steel, but after testing at a lab it turned out to be something else.
He certainly could have used the barrels anyway, and no one would have known anything about it.
Except for him.
He lost a lot of money while that was sorted out, but he retained his integrity.
The result is that BCM has invested in gauges and training to ensure everything that comes in the door is within spec. The QA is important when you consider that between 20%-40% of everything they receive has to be rejected for failing to meet the spec.
This is both disturbing and gratifying.
Disturbing because so much of what was in the market as quality items actually sucked.
And gratifying…
Because of this frustration brought on by the rejection rate from USGI suppliers, Bravo Company hasbeen slowly been partnering with machining companies specifically outside the firearms industry to set up its own dedicated BCM production lines and machines for about 80% of the parts that make up the rifle. This has mitigated the ebb and flow of quality and supply that have become the nature of this industry.
Yeah, disturbing because of the insane amount of failures, but gratifying as that what goes out of the door -now and in the future is -very much GTG.
The big seller now is of course the KeyMod rail, which was standardized by Eric Kincel- who works for Bravo Company.
We have seven KM’s in service now. Three KM13’s, a KM10, two KM9’s, and a KM10 pistol.
all but one KM0 and the pistol are available as loaners for students
Paul saw the need to introduce upgraded parts for the AR FOW. These did not of course meet the MILSPEC, but exceeded it.
The first was the Gunfighter Charging Handle, which has been wildly successful. The OEM charging handle- and some very expensive aftermarket items- were proven to be deficient.
This enhances user operability as well as increases the strength of the charging handle.
Having had to suffer through the whims and whimsies of suppliers and a very volatile market, Bravo Company set out to make themselves less dependent on others.
To that end he now has Gunfighter pistol grips, vertical foregrips and buttstocks.
The stocks are exceptionally interesting. They are the lightest, and arguably the strongest stock available. We have been running three of them now and the feedback from students is positive.
The new upper and lower receivers will supplant the current models soon.
This independence ensures that it will be easier to ensure that the user community will continue to receive rock solid guns.
We once again had the opportunity to talk with all the good folks at Bravo Company about what they do and how they do it, something I try to do on every factory visit. The good companies allow or encourage this, and we learned a lot.
Bravo Company continues to grow. There are a lot of new items in the pipeline that will eventually come to fruition.
We’re looking forward to doing this again next year.
S/F Pat sends
www.eagtactical.com