I know that many don’t care for Bear Creek barrels, but I have a couple in.223/5.56 and they do fine. Bear Creek just came out with a couple of new barrels. One in .308, with a 10” twist, and one in .243Win, with an 8” twist. Both are 24”, Stainless Steel, and close to a standard profile. Priced at a reasonable $154 ea.
I’ve been wanting a .243 with a barrel longer than 20”, and I snapped up one of each. Ordered on the 3rd, and delivered yesterday, the 8th. Very nicely made. No tooling marks, and polished well. Both installed easily. The .243 barrel required 1 shim on an Alexandria Pro Fab side charge upper. Barrels sure look long when used with a 15” hand guard.
Proof is in the shooting, which will be in a few days. I didn’t realize that I did not have a .750” gas block and a rifle length gas tube. Sigh.


308 barrel



243 barreled

I have a .458 and it’s fine. Shoots accurately and no issues using Wilson Combat ammo.

I have one in 7.62x39 that shoots great

friend of mine had a bear creek 243 upper recently,  short stroked with every ammo we could find, opened up the gas hole a little and it ran good after that, accuracy was fine

Curious to see how they perform. I'm still having fantasies about a .243 upper.

Thanks for your post!  Please school me on what you had to shim and how it was done.  

Thanks in advance,

G45

I have Bear Creek barrels in .22LR, 5.56, & 12.7x42. I also have AR Stoner barrels in .300 BLK & .350 Legend, which I believe are BCA. All have been accurate for my needs, very clean machining and finish.

I thought about buying a Bear Creek Arsenal 450 Bushmaster upper just to play with. I see some mixed reviews but 95% of them are positive

Just ordered a 16" last week that finally shipped yesterday. I'll let you know how it looks and functions next weekend. My first experience with the caliber (450).

Serviceable as long as you do your own QC/tweaks honestly. I have one sitting around, decided to go with .458

My main complaint is they use a lot of heavy profile barrels.

Thanks you, I really appreciate it.

Habe several in 5.56/223 wylde from my.earlier days, and honestly, theyve all shot acceptable for me. I dont know that they are match grade (actually, im pretty sure they arent!) But.. neither am i. 2 moa 5 shot groups is pretty average outta them, and again. Im not an amazing shot at all. I dont buy the stuff anymore (i now want and can afford better) but im fine with the barrels i do have. The lowers they made are junk though.

Minimal machining time = lower price point.  They don't do any more than they have to.

I'm still trying to sort out a colleagues' new 6.5C.  It simply will not shoot well.  I've helped people sort out a lot of cheap ARs, but this Bear Creek is nearly as bad as the same guy's Radical.

The ones I've seen had rifling that was pretty rough.  They benefited greatly from fire lapping.

My self-built BCA barreled upper in 762x39 keeps up wthi my Howa mini bolt gun shooting the steel case stuff, about 2.5 moa at 100 which is the limit of my eyes with irons anyway (Wolf, Tula, Golden Tiger).  Haven't bothered trying it with my "good ammo" hand loads, but that isn't what I built it for ...

We have a bear creek set up in .223 Wylde in our R2000 rifle, it is a heavy profile and shoots our General Dynamics ammo very well. I need to see how far out I can go with it.

Even though I do like that barrel, working on trying to replace that with a custom Lothar Walther barrel set up for 77 grain ammo to take it out further.

2.5MOA at 100yards with iron sights and Golden Tiger 7.62x39?  You're shooting groups half the size of the stated capability of the ammo and doing it with open sights....

I shoot a ton of Barnaul 223 through various AR15s (ranging from $1000 rifles to $3500 rifles with $500 to $2500 optical set ups).  Off the bench (not in a rest) with a magnified optic I am happy with 1" 5 shot groups at 50 yards.  The same ammo through the same quality of rifle ... off the bench / just a front rest with a 2 MOA Aimpoint yields 1.25 to 1.5 inch groups at 50 yards.  Trigger plays a big part.  The top end of the spectrum is produced with rough pull / break milspec FCGs while a LaRue MBT-2S or Geissele SSA-E will easily bring the groups to the bottom end of the MOA range. This is with 223 which from my experience great exceeds x39 in terms of repeatable accuracy.  Are you shooting 2 round groups to achieve 2.5 with x39? Haha.

*ETA: before someone asks ... "stated capability" is based upon what I've read online many many times.  That being Russian steel case 7.62x39 is 4 to 5 MOA capable ammo.  I've personally only shot maybe 15-20,000 rounds of Russian steel case x39 so I'm far from an expert on it, but have used it in top of the line AKs (preban Valmets, preban Polytechs, preban Norincos, preban Yugos, Krebs, Arsenal SGLs, Arsenal SLRs, Colt AR15 factory 7.62x39s, etc. etc.) and found it to be ... lacking ... in terms of accuracy potential.  A 2.5MOA claim with iron sights ... most people can't shoot match grade 5.56 to that level.

Not calling you a liar, but would love to see a video of you producing three 5 shot groups at 100 yards with your Bear Creek barreled / open sighted rifle and Golden Tiger x39 ... yielding 2.5MOA.

BCA barrels/uppers have come a long way.  As long as you are willing to possibly get one that doesn't work well and have to send back for repair or replacement, their prices are really tough to beat.  No, they aren't top of the line by any stretch of the imagination, but more often then not, they work plenty well enough.  I've had good luck with them (I have 4 of their uppers and about to add a 5th). A couple of them are tack drivers with my hand loads.

Thats kinda offset buy all the random fluting they do offer, or used to at least.

16” 450 upper arrived tonight. My first BC product. Quality looks good. It’s fricken heavy though. Don’t know if that’s a bear creek thing or inevitable with a large bore AR.

Attached File

The 6.5C I’ve been sorting out for a colleague feels like it’s filled with lead.  It weighs (or feels like it weighs) far more than it should.  I can’t explain how they manage to do this, but you aren’t crazy.

@mooreshawnm

Be sure to check your rail alignment.  Also, check the rail fasteners + gas block fasteners for thread locker / torque.

Roger that.

Slide the handguard off.  I'd bet that barrel is thick as a broom handle

I have one of their .50 Beowulf uppers. Works fine, great accuracy. It was also super-cheap so I can understand why other people have poor experiences with BCA.

Some time ago I bought a complete upper from BCA, 7.62x39 heavy 16" barrel. It's amazingly accurate and reliable and I only paid $279 for it. So far I've shot over 300 rounds down range, and it continues to function very well. All I ever feed it is steel case ammo and really I wasn't expecting much when I ordered it, just read all the raving reviews and took my chances.

Picked up a Bear Creak barrel for 49.95 at a flash sale......stainless steel 556 barrel............head spaced correctly and worked great...........I do check headspace............

I took a chance on a BCA 350L and 450B and both have been fine. I wouldn't say stellar, definitely not bad, but functionally they've ran well and accuracy has been perfectly serviceable and well within reasonable expectations. For Ohio deer and pig guns, they fit the bill nicely.

And as an added bonus, because they are so cheap, you won't cringe as much banging it around in the field.

Lifes too short to buy cheap firearms/barrels

Some will say life's too short not to buy cheap and stack deep.  I'm not a Bear Creek fan by any stretch of the imagination (always get the best quality you can afford), but if you are waiting for enough money to buy a top tier uber-rifle or wonder-barrel in today's anti-gun political climate, time is not your friend, and you may just find yourself getting caught flat-footed.


OP,
My personal experience with Bear Creek has been 50/50.  There are better options for the same money.