I received a Bear Creek Arsenal complete upper from a very good friend for Christmas this year. I was blown away at his generosity. When it came i looked it over and didn't see anything that was out of place
or that looked wrong... that is until I tried to install a Magpul bipod mount on the M-Lok rail that came on the upper. The M-lok openings are so out of spec(undersized) that the t-nuts would not go on. The spec for the openings is 7mm according to Magpul... they are the experts on M-lok as they are the ones that came up with the design. The openings on the handguard measure 6.3mm to 6.75mm... too small to work!
I contacted BCA on the 27th of December by email to their warranty department letting know that the 15 inch rail was out of spec and unusable. I also talked with a customer service rep on Facebook messenger. The customer service person said that there was nothing they could do and that it had to be handled by the warranty department. I have tried calling their number more then a dozen times and no one answers their phone and I get the message that the voice mail box is full. The person on Facebook messenger tells me that there is a new manager over the warranty dept but I still have not heard from them. I do realize that new years day was last week and that were closed, but, does it really take more then a week to reply to an email? Are they they that backed up with customer problems that they can not answer an email?
There are better companies to deal with and I urge you to do so. If you choose to deal with Bear Creek Arsenal do so fully informed that you may get stuck with what they decide to ship to you!

I had a kaboom with one of there barrels.

I received a complete upper as a replacement.

The screws holding the free float handguard were not standard or metric.

I could not find a tool that fit these screws.

Additionally... the upper shot minute of barn door at 25 yards.

Totally useless!

Reading over some recent posts, I get the impression that they are overwhelmed with sales recently, plus the holidays just happened. Hopefully you get in touch with them and they sort it out. Reminds me of PSA a few years back.

Because they sell cheap stuff, they probably sell a shit ton of it.

I've read enough bad reports on their barrels, I wouldn't take one.

Regarding calling them. Call before 12 PM CST. I always get an answered call in the morning and I always get a recording after lunch. The only email communication I've had with them did take one week, and I'd already had the situation resolved by phone the day after I sent the email.

If a friend of mine bought me an upper as a gift, and the mlok slot was too narrow, I'd probably just file it to fit. Your friend made a nice gesture, I wouldn't want to make him feel bad by telling him his gift is crap.

And I lol'd at the Allen head screw fiasco.

I bought one of their 16" stainless barrels and munute of barn was all it would do. they sent a
replacment and UPS lost it so they sent a second one then UPS found the lost one. I now have 2 stainless barrels that I do not know if I will ever build.

I measured my 2 mlok railed uppers from BCA, one measures 6.83, the other 6.91.

Two PSA mlok railed uppers. One measures 6.9(has an mlok section attached), other measured 7.01.

Another generic mlok rail measured 7.14. a stngr rail measured 6.93

As opposed to filing the the slot, if file the mlok just enough to slip through.

I shouldn't have to file or grind the t-nuts... just my humble opinion. Just like it shouldn't take over a week to get a response from then either.

Then step up to the plate and buy more premium parts and you won't have to worry about it, if you are buying cheap, you have to accept and know that sometimes things are not going to be perfect.

It's a gift, he should just give it back

Ordered a barrel and Aero Precision stripped upper from Primary Arms.  I should have checked the barrel out before I used it.  Got it all together, went to the range.  Could not get it to chamber a round (55 grain FMJ seated to the cannelure in trimmed brass - my standard reload).

Came home, pulled the bolt, stripped it, wouldn't begin to close on a Forster Go gauge, not even close.  Sent it back to Primary Arms and got a 14.5" barrel from DSA a few days later.  That build is working fine.  No more BCA stuff for me.

Seems to be several complaints with BSA barrels lately. Too bad.
The Mlok cut being a bit small wouldn't bother me much, I would just file an accessory to fit it. An extremely inaccurate barrel or a barrel that had chamber issues would piss me off. It's nice for someone to have barrel options under $50 but working properly and safely is still mandatory.
I would say that BSA is selling so many barrels that a few bad ones is to be expected but I have heard 'several' complaints lately.
Hopefully they get quality control figured out. My side cocking upper and BCG from a couple years ago are excellent quality.

Same experience on my Side charger and my sample of one complete upper.  Both good to go.  Honestly I'm amazed anything is decent at their prices.   Maybe I got lucky, but I'll keep buying until I find otherwise.

Good, fast, cheap. Pick 2.

I cant help but think of Rob Ski's voice, "Quality is a lower than the snake shit!"

I've only got a 7.5" barrel from them.
It's only going to be used on a .22 pistol.
I put the gas block on upside down so it couldn't be used for anything else.

I didn't buy it... it was a gift from a close friend. If you had read the original post you would understand that.
My point is that if a business is routinely shipping product that is sub-standard then it is everyone's responsibility to share that knowledge. I will take care of this problem one way or another, but when they offer a "Lifetime Warranty" they need to belly up and make things right. If they can not afford to do a decent job of doing any kind of QC then they need to raise their prices so they can... that is if they want to stay in business.

does bear creek make the hand guard? find out before u start a bash war on bear creek .. CSALL THEM
I am sure they will take care of it.
I have several bca uppers and shoot very well, and I haven't had any issues with their products , guess I am lucky also

All I can say, is I hope it works out for you...

Both BCA uppers in my family are fine. They shoot well. YMMV

I have spent 7 days trying to call them(at least 5 times a day)... with the same result every time... no answer and msg that the voice mail box is full. I have communicated with one of their customers service people via facebook, they sent an email to the Warranty dept and the manager on my behalf... they didn't get a reply either! The customer service rep told me that any warranty issue must be resolved via email and they will not take calls.

I just called 1-919-292-6000, they answered the phone after the first ring. I asked about narrow M-lok slots, their tech support wanted me to send pictures to [email protected].

Would you like for me to send pictures to them and see how it goes?

If the problem is just a MLOK slot that’s out of spec and no safety issues. Give up the fight and frustration, get out and shoot it, like your buddy wanted you to do with it.

That's funny shit right there, I don't care who you are...

well, maybe now you know why he gave it away.

I bit on one of those "Scorpion" $49 keymod rails.  every one of the damn keymod holes was out-of-spec, nothing fits.  was I pissed?  no, I had to laugh at myself for being so stupid to have such high expectations.  It went out with next monday's trash pickup.  I thought it was funny.  lesson learned.

I guess I could've given it away, but the recipient would be very frustrated at the "gift horse" I'm sure, and probably pissed at me.

I have 5 bca complete uppers.
All were tight but functional chambers and shot well at 50 yard steel with red dots.
Never tried to shoot groups.

I've always suspected they use Chinese rails. For the price you can't really complain.
I've never bought one of their mlok uppers, but I've got 2 keymods that work great.
I wouldn't be to worried. Depending on what kind of mood I'm in at the moment I'd either let bca replace it if they offer, Dremel out the slots, replace the handguards with a $40 handguard from Chandler -Hardwoods.

They probably are Chinese made. You see alot of Noveske NSR style rails/knock offs on eBay.

Matrix Arms is good to go.

Just had an issue with Armalite. It took several phone calls and a couple of emails, the second one pretty direct. The guy finally called, said they didn't make ar-10 buffer tubes, only mil-spec.I had bought the part directly from armalite,  I was frustrated that I knew his product line better than he did.

Wish I  had seen this post before I ordered a barrel from bear Creek.  20" A2 barrel to try pinning a fsb on myself. Customer service and quality sounds terrible. They shipped out the barrel fast and UPS delivered the shipping tube, just not sure who ended up with the barrel. UPS filed a damage claim and told me to call BCA. Called BCA and it was answered in a couple rings. Talked to Alexa I  believe and she got basic information and said I had to send an email for a warranty. Did that and received a reply this morning that the claim had been processed.
So far BCA customer service has been stellar and immediate. Hopefully I actually get a barrel that shoots minute of bad guy for the price.

I was putting my mlock stuff on my BCA upper and at first I though it was to tight to fit.  One tap the fitting slipped right on in.
Rather the sung fit them over loose fit