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This is the place to post your news and reviews on anything that's firearm related (rifles, magazines, ammo, barrels, holsters, training classes, optics, etc). Please try to make the reviews as thorough as possible and include pictures, or links to pictures if possible, as well as price(s). Some syndicated content will go here as well.
I rolled the dice on a company I'd never heard of before, and I'm pretty damn happy I did.
Bear Creek Arsenal had the same upper I wanted from Midway, but it was $150.00 cheaper. And free shipping to boot. Placed my order late Tuesday afternoon, and it was on my doorstep today. The only downside is now it's $50.00 cheaper than when I ordered it on Tuesday.
Wow,...I didn't know they used to be Hesse and Vulcan. If I had known that, I never would have ordered one of their barrels.
But to be fair, maybe they've learned since then,...because I'm truly happy with my purchase.
When I selected their product, it was because no one else was making exactly the combination of features I wanted. Bear Creek was the only place making it,...AND the price was right.
I was looking for a 16in. carbine length, straight fluted, nitrided, Wylde cut chamber, 1/9 twist. For whatever reason, I just never find all that in the same product anywhere.
It's been over a year now since I built that rifle, and it's been great.
Sounds like I may have actually gotten pretty lucky. That's a pretty damning list of complaints!
I was about to order another upper from them, but maybe I won't push my luck.
FWIW, the upper I purchased is advertised to be an AR Stoner product on MidwayUSA. It looks good from my first glance at it, but this being my first side-charging upper I'll have to tear into it more to get a better look.
For the record, I'm not telling anyone not to buy from them, just providing a bit more information that others may not be aware of before you decide to buy or not. In addition to that BBB link with reviews, AR15.com is full of first-hand experiences with BCA, Hesse, Vulcan, Blackthorne, etc.
And yes, I've also heard that MidwayUSA's "AR Stoner" brand is actually manufactured by Bear Creek Armory. I didn't know that until fairly recently and had purchased some of those items in the past, but don't own them anymore. While I didn't ever shoot them that I can think of, nothing seemed unusual or potentially problematic about them from their appearance.
BCA may or may not be better than their products when they went by other names if they have evolved their production, but I've seen Hesse and Vulcan products first-hand (albeit a decade ago) and you couldn't pay me to enough to shoot one of those branded rifles. Maybe if I had a long string and could stand behind a tree.
The general consensus seems to be to stick with Palmetto State Armory if you're building an AR on a budget.
