Bear Creek Arsenal

I had an AR with a Bear Creek Arsenal .223 Wilde 16” barrel. It was a very accurate barrel. Like a goof I sold that gun. That is my only experience with their barrels.

I’ve purchased Bear Creek uppers including 5.56, .223 Wylde and .22 long rifle. Every one has functioned 100% out of the box. No failures to feed, fire or eject. Accuracy is as good or better than any similar firearm. Fit and finish is great. I’m a big fan of Bear Creek products and will continue to order from them.

Good products. I have several. They’ve Become the leader for low-cost, decent quality ARs.

I’ve had a few of their barrels and taken apart 3 of their uppers. The parts are nice quality. Whoever assembles them put the barrel nuts on to 5000 ft lbs of torque.

I have a 350 Legend upper. It shoots well, but it did get sent back to them for feeding issues. Their CS was awesome and took care of the issues. A week after I sent the upper back, I was shooting again. They are worth looking into.

I picked up a 450 bushmaster upper a few months ago. Only ran a box of ammo thru it at 50 yards. Performed fine. The accuracy could have been better but I had a cheap red dot and a nervous flinch : ) I was definitely the problem

trigga said:

Onto my next AR15 Pistol build (10.5" 300 BLK) and while searching for barrels, I stumbled upon Bear creek arsenal. Prices are great and comparable to others but for the complete upper with BCG and CH, just over $200 for some. Not a fan of the rail but will most likely be switched out.

Anyone have experience with this brand? Quality? Reliability? This build will be for hunting and most like not be shot much. Will probably be a beater gun should I get a suppressor later.

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I have 2 complete uppers and used a bca barrel for a ar10 build and all have been great so far!

I own two of their uppers a 7.62x39 & a 350 legend. Both worked great from the start & the accuracy is a sub moa as long as I do my part.

We have done 3 budget builds using there uppers and have had no issues. One of the 223 uppers has probably 4k rounds thru it and no hiccups.

I have their 350 legend upper and a 223 wylde upper that are great. I have gone through hell with their 458 socom upper though. I currently have a rock river arms 458 socom and a tromix 458 socom and they are amazing. I couldn’t get anything to chamber right in the bear creek upper. It went back a few time and I finally gave up and stripped it down and built one using their parts I could savage

someguy2800 said:

Whoever assembles them put the barrel nuts on to 5000 ft lbs of torque.

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The same guy must install their flash hiders. I've had several uppers. All have performed well. One side charger handle kept coming loose, but no big deal.

While I was shopping around for a 10.5 300blk upper recently, I had it narrowed down between PSA or Bear Creek. I went with PSA, mostly because of the rail, and it was on sale for $279. I've been pleased with it.

I don’t have first hand experience with them but a coworker bought a upper and lower from them to build a rifle and it’s being working fine for the past 4 years we have been going to the range so that’s all I know about them. I can ask him and report back.

I’ve got a 20” fluted heavy barrel upper in 6.5Grendel.

It’s not sub-MOA but is nearly MOA with a few loads. However, I’ve only got 200-250rds down the tube. It’s gradually getting better. Not bad for ~$250 before Covid19 hit.

I’ve also got two Glock barrels. One is a G22 to 9mm conversion barrel.
It’s expectedly better than a regular Glock barrel, but not a great deal better. It does shoot cast bullets with out issues.
The other, a .40S&W barrel is a “ringer”! It’s 2X+ More accurate than the Glock barrel. I’ve shot some 1.5” 6-shot groups at 25yds. For a drop in barrel, it’s unbeatable! Especially when you realize I paid 48.50 for the 9mm barrel, and $43 for the .40 barrel!

I’m a fan!

beagler said:

I have a 350 Legend upper. It shoots well, but it did get sent back to them for feeding issues. Their CS was awesome and took care of the issues. A week after I sent the upper back, I was shooting again. They are worth looking into.

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Did you notice what they did? I have one and so does another friend here that has feeding issues.

fireman 9731 said:

While I was shopping around for a 10.5 300blk upper recently, I had it narrowed down between PSA or Bear Creek. I went with PSA, mostly because of the rail, and it was on sale for $279. I've been pleased with it.

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Between the two hands down go with the PSA.
Steve

stolivar said:

Between the two hands down go with the PSA.
Steve

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From what I have seen of both I whole heartedly agree.

I have a side charger 450 upper.

It's fine, it was cheap and I was expecting it not to be perfect. The finish is on the rough side. I took it apart and refit everything. To get it to run, I had to drill the gas port out larger.

Runs fantastic now. Ugly, but runs.

If it's your home defense gun, get a better option.

If it's a beater hunting camp gun, should fit the bill nicely.

maxxhavoc said:

Did you notice what they did? I have one and so does another friend here that has feeding issues.

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They wrote me and said they reworked the feed ramps prior to sending it back to me. Honestly, it looks like they used a dremmel and ground the tips off the lugs closest to the feed ramps. Kinda crude job too. They are pretty rough and sharp now.

Most 350 issue are mag related I feel. The Wilson Combat mags have worked well for me. I have also ground about 1/8 in off of the front of my DuraMags and they seem better now. The bullets would snag on part of the mag prior to feeding. They are several threads on forums and YouTube illustrating how to modify mags. Hope that helps.

trigga said:

Onto my next AR15 Pistol build (10.5" 300 BLK) and while searching for barrels, I stumbled upon Bear creek arsenal. Prices are great and comparable to others but for the complete upper with BCG and CH, just over $200 for some. Not a fan of the rail but will most likely be switched out.

Anyone have experience with this brand? Quality? Reliability? This build will be for hunting and most like not be shot much. Will probably be a beater gun should I get a suppressor later.

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I just built a 350 Legend AR. Bought the lower and upper separately to save money. Total cost was $428

I have a few along with some of my friends, I know of no issues with any of them. Their prices have gone up since I purchased my last one. The next one I build, I will look there first to get an idea on pricing

trigga said:

Onto my next AR15 Pistol build (10.5" 300 BLK) and while searching for barrels, I stumbled upon Bear creek arsenal. Prices are great and comparable to others but for the complete upper with BCG and CH, just over $200 for some. Not a fan of the rail but will most likely be switched out.

Anyone have experience with this brand? Quality? Reliability? This build will be for hunting and most like not be shot much. Will probably be a beater gun should I get a suppressor later.

Click to expand...

All but two of mine are BCA uppers, two have the Gen 2 side chargers. No complaints.

I have used 5 of their uppers 5.56, .223 Wylde, 6.5 Grendel, 450 Bushmaster & 350 Legend. They all, surprisingly, shoot moa or better, the . 223 Wylde shoots . 5 to . 6 consistently. The only problems I've ran into are the 1st gen side charger retaining bolt would come loose (6.5 Gr) which loctite blue fixed and the 350L had some feeding issues fixed by polishing the ramps and modifying the mags. Fit & finish is good for the price point and all have had no other problems at all.