A friend asked me about a "BCM" AR15. I know nothing about them. Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks.

L.W.

Good brand and quality but pricey.

Great kit. Never a problem, always the best machining.

Good stuff.

I have one complete rifle from them and a few lowers fantastic quality.

Good parts - generally without question, good quality reputation, but usually pricey.

Wouldn't be hesitate to buy a factory rifle, at a good price, and I've bought their parts with no issues to date.

Buildup's (aka kits) can be screwed up on any quality set of receivers, I'd make sure I knew it was a factory rifle.

Exactly. I work in a gunshop and you'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) at all customers who buy a "name" stripped lower, throw a bunch of bottom feeder parts in it and then try to claim it's a "name" brand gun.

BCM has a good reputation for solid and serviceable weapons. I would put them in the mid-priced category.

I bought one of their uppers a while back, M4 14.5" SOCOM profile. I like it a lot.

This^^^^^^^......................BCM stamps their factory built guns & uppers in white BCM on the side of the upper; their uppers that they sell separately in the marketplace are not so marked. Those have only a very small BCM stamped into the front of the upper just above the gas tube hole & it is not visible when a handguard is assembled to the upper receiver.

I agree with Shane, they are more mid-priced in my mind than high end.

MM

Thought this was a thread about Black Cats Matter, disregard.

I've got an 11.5" BCM pistol and like it a lot. Runs flawlessly.

There are probably many others here that would say their brand of ar also runs "flawlessly". All of mine do, In fact. I will say there is one member of my gun club that will only buy BCM's. He has them with different length barrels, and runs some of them suppressed. His rifles shoot decent. Notice i didnt say impressive. He won't shoot against us in our AR matches, but brags his rifles up a lot. He likes taking seminars from James Yeager. Id imagine you would want a very dependable rifle for that.

My needs and usage may be different from others. YMMV.

My AR's are not for shooting paper. They are to defend myself, my peeps and my property. And I'm quite confident the Colts and this BCM will do just that. I spared no expense making that so.

Do you shoot steel? Im wondering what guys shoot at for practice, if they dont shoot paper. Id also use any of my ar's (all of which have 20" and longer barrels) to defend my property and love ones. But i practice a lot on paper so i know what to expect, accuracy wise.

Thanks, gentlemen,for the information. I'm passing it on to my friend.

L.W.

Beyond 50 yards I’d say that 90% of my shooting is on steel.

I've never owned one of their rifles, but I prefer their BCGs over most others.

BSA,

IMO, you are not exactly the target market for BCM guns. BCM's are made to be run hard and put away wet. They are for the guy who wants or needs it to always go bang when pointed at a man shaped target with only god knows what ammo, with the minimum of fuss.

IMO, their closest competitor id Daniels Defense. DD is also targeted at the "it must always go bang with reasonable accuracy" crowd. I've shot several DD guns, and even with good hand loads I've yet to see on that will break an inch for 5 rounds at 100, but all were in the 1 1/8 to 1 1/2 inch range. Not MOA, but certainly Minute of bad guy. It's my understanding that BCM does a little better in that area, but still, probably not the best guns for the fire's BRC.

if I know I'm going into harms way and have to take two guns, straight out of the box with only a couple of shots to site them in, I'll take a BCM and a Glock.

An AR does not have to be a "precision" rifle & able to put 10 shots into a MOA circle to be more than adequate or even outstanding, for what the platform was originally intended for.

In fact, "precision" AR configurations have evolved out of the original battle platform configuration.

I have a number of AR's that won't do 10 shots into MOA, but they are not necessarily configured to accomplish that mission either.

3 of them are KAC's, one is a BCM built upper, one is a SIG, & a couple are built by me........................but for the mission of protecting my house or property or myself under anything resembling a battle like situation, those are exactly the rifles I will pick up first..................they are also not configured with high mag optics, as they are configured for fast target acquisition at moderate range & are much more suited to that task than my various "precision" rifles which typically have optics with high mag capability.

YMMV on how you want to configure your collection of rifles.

MM

I learned a long time ago that if I had to lug an HBAR or heavier gun around to kill something, I'd have to rethink my plan. My first AR weighed 11 lbs all up and I killed a million coyotes with it. Started going for lighter guns and still killed as many coyotes. My hunting partner never parted from heavy rifles with long barrels and he made them work but when I'd hand him my rifle that weighed 7-8 lbs, he'd always cuss me for cheating.

It's a free country and if someone wants a banger they can have one, if they want a precision rifle with a Hubble telescope for a sight they can have that too.

As long as we don't belittle a guy for a different goal, we're gonna be alright.

And quit leaving out Colt when you speak of hard running guns, they paved the way.

To date, I have built one AR, and I own 4. The one I built had more BCM components in it than anything else. Some of this had to do with availability of parts at the time. Good quality components and I am very happy with the build. I would definately use their parts in future builds, and plenty of them.

I like BCM, not bashing them at all. I do think, however, that when we talk about "running reliably", or even longevity of your ar, it doesnt start and end in BCM. There are plenty of AR's out there that will run just as long and hard, given they use quality components. Like TWR said, colt is one of them. BCM is good chit, but the fact of the matter is so are a lot of other manufactures ar's. The funny thing is ive never had a single hiccup with any of my AR's, they all run like swiss time pieces. Thats after 1,000's of rounds through them. I know some brands are crap and i stay away from them. I guess if a guy has had issues with his ar's, a good factory off the shelf BCM may be the answer. And yes, ive seen guys have issues with their ar's. Just the other night, i was shooting with local law enforcement while they qualified with their ar rifles and there were a couple having issues. You would think those guns would have no issues. I didnt ask what brand they use, maybe i should have.

Carbine vs rifles, rifles tend to be easier on parts, smoother to shoot and just more trouble free across the board. Carbine on the other hand, are all over the place. Most of them work and to the average guy, if it goes bang, it works flawlessly. It's when you stick a good gun in their hands that the differences start to appear. And on average most people don't shoot enough to wear anything out and the majority of sub par parts never get flushed out. It's when you take those guns to a class that runs 1000 rounds in 2 days that things start failing. Pat Rogers used to keep a book with failures he'd seen in his classes and what brands had them, it was very apparent parts were not parts and it's what he called a clue.

Colt and now FN build their guns for the govt strictly adhering to the TDP which was developed over years of service and while it can be improved on, it's the bare minimum it can be. It's telling that cheaper companies don't even meet the bare minimum yet the internet is full of inflated round counts and mine is just as good as theirs attitudes.

BCM and a few other companies build to the same standards or better.

Some info on long term assessment of various AR's & parts; take it FWIW, or believe what you want to believe of it, or simply close your eyes & don't believe anything of it at all.

MM

Long Term AR Range Testing

A Condensed Version

So you guys are saying BCM is the best of the best? Maybe ill buy one and slap that 6mm ARC barrel on it..

I cannot name a forged upper receiver that is any better.

No, I don't think anyone is saying that exactly at all, just saying that BCM built stuff & their parts are built to a generally higher & more consistent standard than most & that they are a consistently good performing product.

On a complete gun, I'd surely not put them ahead of KAC, LMT or DD for sure, but about on a par with Colt or FN, which is still top tier, IMO.

As to BCM's forged receivers being the "best", that's a pretty subjective quality.

They are good, consistent & require a thermo fit when installing all but an undersized barrel extension,
if that's meaningful to you, but as for "best" forged receiver, for my money that would be Vltor MUR, but I can buy cosmetic blem (never factually found a blem) BCM receivers for $60, including a FA & dust cover. (I have 3 of them waiting to be barreled up right now.)

The best price I routinely see on Vltor's is around $160, & if necessary, I can always fit the extension up to a tight fit to the receiver or glue it in.

MM

Nobody is saying any of that.

A lot of people get hung up on round count, but that's only part of the story.

I went to a class earlier in the spring and put 1000ish rounds through a gun in two days, which isn't a lot. But the first day was windy and we were covered in dust. The second day it rained all day and the rifles sat in the rain, sat in the mud, and were fed muddy mags. I squirted it with oil after the first day. 1000 of those rounds is different than 1000 rounds under a cover or 1000 rounds with frequent cleaning.

Carrying your rifle to the line and uncasing it is different than banging it up and down stairs with 70# of other gear and constantly bumping in and out of cars for a couple of weeks like I just finished.

None of that is extreme, or even abnormal for a lot of the guys here. But it's just an example of how "my gun runs flawlessly" doesn't mean a lot without context.

Which is why I commented a week or so ago that as interesting as the BRC is, we probably ought to be a little more careful with how much weight we give it.

The BRC gives a very clear picture through a very narrow window.

There's a reason I keep my AR's pretty close to mil spec, especially regarding triggers. gas system, and BCG. I have opted for heavier buffers (H3), but I also realize that may need to be swapped back to spec in sub-zero weather, for optimum reliability.

With my AR's, reliability in all conditions is a higher priority (for me) than squeezing out the last bit of accuracy.

Yep.................

And while bragging rights for shooting small groups is interesting, in the real world of potential AR use (excluding a specialized mission that would require specific LR precision), a rifle that shoots 10 shots <MOA, is no more effective than a rifle that shoots 10 shots <1.5MOA when given center mass target sized proportions.

MM

That's where I live.

I think it would be unwise to think otherwise. Exceptional accuracy should be icing on the cake though. For me it has to be accurate. Of course my guns are going to be f****** a hundred percent reliable. I shoot a lot of competition. So they need to be accurate. I'm just getting done with a military rifle shoot right now so it's not just ars that I shoot all my rifles are 100% reliable. That's just how I roll