BCA 17hmr and 22 wmr uppers

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - BCA 17hmr and 22 wmr uppers

Posted: 10/2/2022 7:10:13 PM EDT

I see BCA is offering affordable and complete 17hmr and 22 wmr uppers with magazine . Has anyone given them a try and what are your opinions?

I'd like one in a 10.5" barrel length but they don't offer one... yet. They have been discussed but no plan of production as of yet. Maybe if enough people contacted them showing interest in a pistol/sbr length.

Posted: 10/2/2022 9:45:27 PM EDT

[#1]

The 22 WMR is good once the bugs are worked out. The 17 is a straight blowback, which has never worked in the past, so I've not tried it. I'm not fond of case ruptures, personally.

Posted: 10/2/2022 10:28:13 PM EDT

[#2]

I'm guessing that means the 22wmr isn't a straight blowback design or that it's not a problem due to being a straight wall case as opposed to a bottleneck?

Posted: 10/2/2022 10:40:49 PM EDT

[#3]

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Quoted: I'm guessing that means the 22wmr isn't a straight blowback design or that it's not a problem due to being a straight wall case as opposed to a bottleneck?

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The .17 HMR has a different pressure curve than .22 WMR, and caused a lot of issues on the 1st round of blowback guns that were straight conversions of existing .22 WMR blowbacks.

Alexander Arms was I think the 1st to offer an AR upper in .17 HMR, and it's a straight blowback, but does have ammo restrictions:

https://www.alexanderarms.com/product/17-hmr-complete-upper-assembly/

Posted: 10/2/2022 11:05:50 PM EDT

[#4]

Friends don't let friends buy BCA

Posted: 10/2/2022 11:12:46 PM EDT

[#5]

22 WMR has a lower case to bore ratio, so straight blowback isn't as sketchy. On my BCA 22 WMR upper, I did get ballooned case heads and some swell at the back on the case walls with the buffer that came with it. I have since modified the buffer system to use a standard buffer and have not measured or checked for swelling since. It's not enough swell to be worrying to me. I have a blowback 17hm2 upper that is a case rupturing machine under the right circumstances (generally hot rifle in hot ambient temps).

Posted: 10/2/2022 11:28:16 PM EDT

[#6]

There is no way I would want a straight blow back 17HMR rifle. No one ever got them to work in the past without case ruptures. Now the Savage A17 in 17HMR works well, BUT it is a delayed blow back setup.

Same can be said for blow back 17m2 rifles. No one was ever successful in making them run reliably without case ruptures either. And if you read up on the 17m2 Lothar Walther barrels on this forum and on rimfire central, you will see a lot of people had issues with case bulging and case ruptures with them.

Posted: 10/3/2022 12:02:36 AM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

Quoted: There is no way I would want a straight blow back 17HMR rifle. No one ever got them to work in the past without case ruptures. Now the Savage A17 in 17HMR works well, BUT it is a delayed blow back setup.

Same can be said for blow back 17m2 rifles. No one was ever successful in making them run reliably without case ruptures either. And if you read up on the 17m2 Lothar Walther barrels on this forum and on rimfire central, you will see a lot of people had issues with case building and case ruptures with them.

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Alexander Arms has been selling their straight blowback upper for years now.

Volquartsen has been making a .17 HMR for awhile as well, I assume it's a straight blowback based on a stretched Ruger 10/22 Magnum action, same as their .22 WMR.

Posted: 10/3/2022 9:12:58 AM EDT

[#8]

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Quoted:

Alexander Arms has been selling their straight blowback upper for years now.

Volquartsen has been making a .17 HMR for awhile as well, I assume it's a straight blowback based on a stretched Ruger 10/22 Magnum action, same as their .22 WMR.

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And there is still issues with case ruptures with those too. It is just the nature of the beast since the 17m2 and 17HMR have different pressure curves than 22lr and 22WMR.

Years ago a lot of different companies tried to get 17m2 and 17HMR to run in semi auto rifles by playing with teh spring weights and bolt weights. Some companies were more successful than others. Alexander Arms, Volquartsen, and now Bear Creek are the only ones trying to make straight blow back 17 caliber rimfire work. All other manufactures gave up a long time ago due to all of the issues. Again Savage went with a delayed blow back setup on their A17 for a reason.

Posted: 10/3/2022 9:47:33 AM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:

And there is still issues with case ruptures with those too. It is just the nature of the beast since the 17m2 and 17HMR have different pressure curves than 22lr and 22WMR.

Years ago a lot of different companies tried to get 17m2 and 17HMR to run in semi auto rifles by playing with teh spring weights and bolt weights. Some companies were more successful than others. Alexander Arms, Volquartsen, and now Bear Creek are the only ones trying to make straight blow back 17 caliber rimfire work. All other manufactures gave up a long time ago due to all of the issues. Again Savage went with a delayed blow back setup on their A17 for a reason.

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted: Alexander Arms has been selling their straight blowback upper for years now.

Volquartsen has been making a .17 HMR for awhile as well, I assume it's a straight blowback based on a stretched Ruger 10/22 Magnum action, same as their .22 WMR.

And there is still issues with case ruptures with those too. It is just the nature of the beast since the 17m2 and 17HMR have different pressure curves than 22lr and 22WMR.

Years ago a lot of different companies tried to get 17m2 and 17HMR to run in semi auto rifles by playing with teh spring weights and bolt weights. Some companies were more successful than others. Alexander Arms, Volquartsen, and now Bear Creek are the only ones trying to make straight blow back 17 caliber rimfire work. All other manufactures gave up a long time ago due to all of the issues. Again Savage went with a delayed blow back setup on their A17 for a reason.

Do you have reports of case ruptures w/ Alexander Arms & Volquartsen guns?

I'm well aware of the Savage A17/A22, and why they did it, as well as the issues Remington had w/ their simple bbl swap on the 522 Magnum.

Posted: 10/3/2022 10:51:31 AM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:

Do you have reports of case ruptures w/ Alexander Arms & Volquartsen guns?

I'm well aware of the Savage A17/A22, and why they did it, as well as the issues Remington had w/ their simple bbl swap on the 522 Magnum.

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Plenty of reports on the Volquartsen having issues on rimfire central. And this was with both the 17m2 and 17HMR. It is a well known fact that neither the 17m2 or 17HMR play well in a straight blow back setup.

If it was easy to get them to run then Marlin, Remington, and Ruger would not have discontinued their rifles in either caliber, plus we would see other manufacturers making them too.

Posted: 10/3/2022 12:42:59 PM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:

Plenty of reports on the Volquartsen having issues on rimfire central. And this was with both the 17m2 and 17HMR. It is a well known fact that neither the 17m2 or 17HMR play well in a straight blow back setup.

If it was easy to get them to run then Marlin, Remington, and Ruger would not have discontinued their rifles in either caliber, plus we would see other manufacturers making them too.

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted: Do you have reports of case ruptures w/ Alexander Arms & Volquartsen guns?

I'm well aware of the Savage A17/A22, and why they did it, as well as the issues Remington had w/ their simple bbl swap on the 522 Magnum.

Plenty of reports on the Volquartsen having issues on rimfire central. And this was with both the 17m2 and 17HMR. It is a well known fact that neither the 17m2 or 17HMR play well in a straight blow back setup.

If it was easy to get them to run then Marlin, Remington, and Ruger would not have discontinued their rifles in either caliber, plus we would see other manufacturers making them too.

Mind, Ruger discontinued their 10/22 Magnum in .22 WMR, did they even come out w/ a .17 HMR?

It is interesting that Volquartsen still sells their .17 HMR semi-auto, but their .17 HM2 guns are a straight-pull bolt action. Alexander Arms specifically denies warranty service if using the CCI A17 ammo, which was intended to run in the Savage A17.

With an AR, there are are lot of different weight buffers, buffer springs, & hammer springs to play w/, you can throw a lot more mass into play than you can in a typical rimfire action. Be nice if CMMG came out w/ one of their delayed-blowback uppers for the .17 HMR or the .17 WSM.

Posted: 10/3/2022 1:15:39 PM EDT

[#12]

And if you do a search (with your favorite search engine) you will see that even the Alexander Arms 17HMR uppers have had issues with spit and/or ruptured cases.

I am not knocking Alexander Arms or Volquartsen for a lack of quality control or for a bad design. It is a simple and well known fact that the 17 caliber rimfire cartridges have a different pressure spike and will cause either split or ruptured cases in a straight blow back design. You can argue differently all you want, but facts are facts.

And yes there were some conversions made for the Ruger 10/22 magnum to change it to 17 HMR. Volquartsen was one company that did offer a kit. I'm not 100% sure if Ruger offered it as a factory option, I could be wrong on that. But again, it still led to spilt/ruptured cases.

@Renaissancemann can verify what I am saying. We have had many discussions on this subject on ARFCOM and rimfire central.

Posted: 10/3/2022 1:24:53 PM EDT

[#13]

I have one of the BCA .22 WMR uppers that I got a few months ago. Other than one failure to extract it's been working just fine for almost thousand rounds now. I typically shoot CCI MaxiMags and Federal out of it.

My BCA 22 Mag thread from a few months ago

Posted: 10/3/2022 3:10:46 PM EDT

[#14]

Quote History

Quoted:
And if you do a search (with your favorite search engine) you will see that even the Alexander Arms 17HMR uppers have had issues with spit and/or ruptured cases.

I am not knocking Alexander Arms or Volquartsen for a lack of quality control or for a bad design. It is a simple and well known fact that the 17 caliber rimfire cartridges have a different pressure spike and will cause either split or ruptured cases in a straight blow back design. You can argue differently all you want, but facts are facts.

And yes there were some conversions made for the Ruger 10/22 magnum to change it to 17 HMR. Volquartsen was one company that did offer a kit. I'm not 100% sure if Ruger offered it as a factory option, I could be wrong on that. But again, it still led to spilt/ruptured cases.

@Renaissancemann can verify what I am saying. We have had many discussions on this subject on ARFCOM and rimfire central.

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Yes, I can verify -- I led the charge playing around with the 17HM2 in the CMMG based AR uppers. It works great when the weather is cold, but is a rupturing machine when it's hot. So much so that I just don't use it from about May-September. I may port it to see if I can get the rupturing under control at some point.

Posted: 10/3/2022 3:18:10 PM EDT

[#15]

Sounding more and more like a pistol/sbr length suppressed upper isn't a good idea.

Posted: 10/3/2022 6:24:29 PM EDT

[#16]

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Quoted:
Sounding more and more like a pistol/sbr length suppressed upper isn't a good idea.

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I question suppressing the supersonic rimfires when .22 SSS 60 grn is available. Break 1100 fps and you don't get rid of the supersonic crack.

Posted: 10/3/2022 8:19:15 PM EDT

[#17]

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Quoted:

I question suppressing the supersonic rimfires when .22 SSS 60 grn is available. Break 1100 fps and you don't get rid of the supersonic crack.

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For my ears, not the critters. And because I'm shooting between 50 and 125 yrds.
I already have a 16" ruger american rimfire 22wmr and a 16" nef 17 hmr that I run suppressed. Was just hoping for an affordable repeater.

Posted: 10/3/2022 9:31:17 PM EDT

[#18]

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Quoted:

For my ears, not the critters. And because I'm shooting between 50 and 125 yrds.
I already have a 16" ruger american rimfire 22wmr and a 16" nef 17 hmr that I run supposed. Was just hoping for an affordable repeater.

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Quoted:

Quoted: I question suppressing the supersonic rimfires when .22 SSS 60 grn is available. Break 1100 fps and you don't get rid of the supersonic crack.

For my ears, not the critters. And because I'm shooting between 50 and 125 yrds.
I already have a 16" ruger american rimfire 22wmr and a 16" nef 17 hmr that I run supposed. Was just hoping for an affordable repeater.

https://www.burrisoptics.com/scopes/laser-rangefinder-eliminator-laserscope/eliminator-5-laserscope-5-20x50mm

Posted: 10/3/2022 11:10:19 PM EDT

[#19]

I had an eliminator 3. Hated it.

Posted: 10/3/2022 11:56:16 PM EDT

[#20]

Quote History

Quoted: I had an eliminator 3. Hated it.

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Even though I just posted their 5, I have a feeling we're basically still on Gen 1 of integrated laser/ballistic calculator/optics. But it's interesting to follow the features from each version, they're back to a remote now, like the 2, but now it's Bluetooth. They keep going to higher & higher base magnification and extreme long range, but I think if they'd go for lots of adjustment they could rope in the subsonic crowd. They've just come out w/ a crossbow optic as well, so there's hope for smoke generators and and 800m .300 Blackout shooters.

Posted: 10/6/2022 9:51:53 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
I see BCA is offering affordable and complete 17hmr and 22 wmr uppers with magazine . Has anyone given them a try and what are your opinions?

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One little piece of information that may or may not affect your decision to buy. I bought one of the .22 Magnum uppers and found it to work very well. The kit includes a proprietary buffer and spring to make the upper work on an AR carbine lower. The buffer is nothing more than an extended carbine buffer with no weights inside. I wanted to try some weights inside the buffer after seeing a video showing horrible bolt bounce when firing. I figured I would order a couple extra buffers from BCA to set up with various weights to take along on range trips. Well, imagine my surprise when I contacted BCA about purchasing the buffers and received a hard NO. I also asked to purchase a spare extractor and that request was totally ignored. I'm at a loss, since I received no explanation for anything. I know of one other person with one of these kits who also had no success in ordering spares from BCA for his Magnum.

As I said, my upper works great, but just take into consideration that if you get one of these uppers and something breaks or wears out, you may not be able to get replacement parts.

Posted: 10/6/2022 10:18:29 AM EDT

[#22]

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Quoted:
Well, imagine my surprise when I contacted BCA about purchasing the buffers and received a hard NO. I also asked to purchase a spare extractor and that request was totally ignored. I'm at a loss, since I received no explanation for anything. I know of one other person with one of these kits who also had no success in ordering spares from BCA for his Magnum.

As I said, my upper works great, but just take into consideration that if you get one of these uppers and something breaks or wears out, you may not be able to get replacement parts.

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Well that is enough for me to stay away from Bear Creek Arsenal. I have been thinking about one of their 22WMR uppers for a while now. But I won't buy one if I can't get spare parts.

I've been down that road before with the Chiappa M4 upper and S&W 22A.

Posted: 10/16/2022 7:32:02 PM EDT

[#23]

There was a 17hmr upper besides AA that was super robust. Forget the name but it was a rotating bolt it delayed blowback or whatever it was it got rid of the risk.

They went out of business but came back and I haven’t seen any new reports on them.

Posted: 10/16/2022 7:56:35 PM EDT

[#24]

Quote History

Quoted: There was a 17hmr upper besides AA that was super robust. Forget the name but it was a rotating bolt it delayed blowback or whatever it was it got rid of the risk.

They went out of business but came back and I haven’t seen any new reports on them.

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I think Franklin in Cali has a .17 WSM upper that is a standard AR DI rotating bolt.