50 beowulf AR15 upper

[Coco89]

searched around and only see the alexander and davidson defense has then in stock. DD has a lot of bad reviews alexander is little over my budget. BCA got some good review and very affordable, out of stock right now are they any good?

[Lloyd Smale]

bca get mixed reviews. They had a big shake up not long ago for hiring illegals to put guns together. It made a lot of buyers angry. I buy most of my ar stuff at palmetto but do have one Davidson defense upper and its every bit as good as the palmetto. Most of the 50 beo problems come from magazines. Ive got an alexander arms beo and using standard ar15 mags just doesn't cut it. It runs much better using alexander arms dedicated 50 beo mags. My guess is that's where a lot of those bad reviews come from . That and some guys try to make it into something it isn't by loading bullets over 400 grains (mine doesn't run a 100 percent with ANY cast bullet) . Buy yourself some reineer plated bullets and a few alexander arms mags and id bet your good to go.

[Coco89]

Just order a complete upper from bca. About to get the polymer80 50beo mag. Will see how it function with Lee 440 cast when everything is here. Can't wait to try it out.

[Gunslinger1911]

Search for "12.7 x 42" also. Same as a Beo. I got an upper from Radical Firearms - and yes, a dedicated Beo mag makes a huge difference !

[kayala]

You guys are terrible enablers. Just looked through my stuff - already have 550 shell plate (from 7.62x39) and seating, powder through dies (from 500 S&W) and Rainier bullets I've traded some time ago, so turns out all I need is brass, upper and mags *sigh*. I must resist.
Btw why is BCA is half the price of Radical or any other uppers ?

[Sig556r]

On big bore AR uppers, you'll need elbow grease to make your Radical or Bear Creek to work. Machining & tool marks are on the rough side. Polishing feedramp & chamber is a must for either.
Bought stuff from both (Radical has inexpensive suppressors & AR parts while BC has some really cheap side-charging uppers/parts & even glock parts but wont buy their barrels again).
If your handy on trouble-shooting, they're good budget build alternative to costly ones. Its also a good learning experience & satisfying once you tweak them to work flawlessly.
Just my 2 cents, ymmv.

[skrapyard628]

Give that BCA upper a good once over before you fire it. I also just recently picked up a .50beo upper from them. When I received it the barrel nut was loose and the gas block was slightly misaligned.

It was a quick and simple fix for the obvious issues. But I havent had a chance to take it out and fire it yet so Im not sure if it will need any other tweaking.

[odfairfaxsub]

I usually don’t buy bsa or radical or whatever for those big ones but the smaller calibers work great. Feed ramps are king w big calibers

[Dapaki]

I got my third BCA upper after putting a .223 through the ringer, went to the 7.62x39 next and finished (for now) with the 350 legend. I already swapped out the .223 barrel with a WYLDE 24", also from BCA (Green Mountain) and closed up groupings enough to set a target at 500yds to see if I can hit it!

All three uppers ran under $300 each, .223 was under $200 and the 350 legend was $269. All my lowers fell off my fishing boat last year....

[skrapyard628]

I took the BCA 50beo out for its maiden voyage over the weekend. Other than the issue I stated above about needing to tighten up the barrel nut and aligning the gas tube; the only other thing I did was clean and oil everything.

I ran some handloads through it using 350gn Hornady XTP over 31.8gn of 2400. It was just a function test and a chance to start dialing in the scope I mounted on it so only 5 rounds were fired.

Maybe I'm lucky, but I did not have issues at all. No feeding, extraction, ejection issues. It ran just fine. I was using a standard 30rd PMAG (i think gen2) and only loading one round in it at a time so its still to be seen if any issues will crop up once I fill the magazine to capacity.

Distance was 50yds and after laser bore sighting it only took two rounds to dial the scope into the center of the target. I fired two more rounds which grouped together touching in the center of the target.

I saved the final round to pop a watermelon I brought with me. So far I'm very happy with my "cheap" upper. And thats the first time shooting a watermelon for me so that definitely put a grin on my face.

Time to ladder load up a few more rounds and bring out the chrono! Then move on to testing for accuracy at more than 50yds.

[Tripplebeards]

I have one in 243. The only issue I had was I was dumb enough to use my Remington 700 hand loads seated just off the lands so the over all lengths were WAY too long so the action would not completely close. Completely my fault. I also bought An RCBS AR die to size my case down smaller for a looser fit. It wasn’t needed. The standard 243 RCBS die actually groups tighter with the same loads and all things the same. I have not had one hiccup or issue with it. I have two different screaming 55 grain combined technology loads push 4100 FPS that shoots .3” inch groups at 100 yards. This was out of about 20 plus different loads I tried with this bullet. I haven’t tried any other bullets I’m guessing a 70 or 90 grain or will probably shoot tighter. Mine is an A.R. stoner branded upper which is a bear creek arsenal stamped AR stoner. Just buy it right off of AR stoners website direct it’ll save you 130 bucks compared to midway. My gunsmith ordered one in 76 2 x 39 for a customer and never took a deposit. He kept it and says it shoots lights out and runs flawlessly. He also bought another one and 450 bushmaster and said the exact same thing. I think they had some quality control issues for a while but have it all worked out. They also have a lifetime warranty on their uppers the last time I called and checked to see if they would Warranty mine if I had any issues.

That being said I’m not a big fan of a 50 caliber. I had a 50 AEA shot a deer with and it sailed right through both lungs and laid there and looked at me like it wasn’t even hit. I hit it with my truck first and it had four broken legs and I tried to put it out of its misery. The spear hot cores just sailed right through it like a knife through butter with no expansion. I had a buddy that had the exact same experience deer hunting with one. After that I was so unimpressed with my $2600 investment... A 50 action express desert eagle mark 19 with a 44 mag barrel and two leupold Gilmore dots... that I traded it for a 2 year old four wheeler with a plow back in 02’. I still have that four wheeler and plow and it still going strong today... it’s Just know where it worth what I paid for that desert eagle with depreciation now. But I can guarantee I got more use out of it. That goofy pistol would still be sitting in my gun safe collecting dust. If it were me I’d buy an upper in 308 or at least 450 BM which will be easier to find casings for. But I tell you don’t sweat it when it comes to Bear Creek. I will be buying more uppers from them after the experiences I’ve had.

Here’s a post I did over at predator masters with it with some pics of it and groupings so you can see it...

http://www.predatormastersforums.com...99#Post3209599



I know Bear Creek got a bad rap a few years back for having a bunch of illegal aliens working for them. Im guessing most of their quality control issues disappeared the same time their illegals did. I talked with two other shooters over on predatormasters forum that both have one. The one with the bear creek arsenal fed perfectly with standard RCBS loading dies and the other one needed RCBS AR dies to squeeze the brass down a hair more for flawless feeding and cycling. I actually had two of the AR 243 dies and sold him one. He said it’s been smooth sailing ever since he use the AR specific die. BTW They both are shooting less than sub MOA Like mine. The one guy is actually shooting factory loaded rounds and grouping that tight. I think he was shooting midway varminter rounds. I ended up buying an Lyman 243 case checker and a hornady head space checker. I found out that just spinning my die down a quarter turn after it comes on contact with the shell plate, like I always do, is more accurate than bumping my headspace right off the chamber. The 243 checker also showed me that my standard rcbs sizing die sizes them just fine according to the Lyman...and not my chamber. They still cycle flawlessly though.

I’ve been wanting a 243 AR for almost 30 years. I just never wanted to spend that kind of money on one. If I would’ve went through Bear Creek I would’ve had less money invested in it. The upper was 450 which I could’ve got through Bear Creek for 320 but they weren’t offering them when I bought mine and we’re out of stock and I didn’t know they were made by Bear Creek at the time. The aero Percision complete lower was on sale for 200 bucks shipped minus a stock right from Aero on Black Friday. I did spend a little bit more money on it as you can see. It is a CMC trigger in a single stage that’s 2 pounds. The warren scope mount is awesome. And I have a Nikon pro staff five 3 1/2 x 14 on it. The best scope made on the planet in my opinion for the money. I still think you can get some of these discontinued optics for 200 bucks over at Midsouth in mil dot recitals. Lastly I bought that stock through Remington for 60 bucks. I can’t believe no one ever made those stocks commercially. It has a great cheek weld. The only downside is it feels as heavy as a 50 BMG. I might have to look for an extremely light upper to switch on and off with my lower now that I actually have an A.R. 10 lower in my arsenal.

[kayala]

See what you've made me do, folks . Anyway just couldn't resist for $250 complete upper plus a little over $100 for 100 brass and Lee dies. The small guide on the rail is for brass catcher - I'm not about to loose $0.75 a piece brass

Have few pounds of 2400 and 335 Rainiers. I've found AA reloading recipes; unfortunately they only have 2400 for 325 (37.3 - 38.8) and 350 (31.8 - 34.0), I guess 33 to 36 should be safe for 335 bullet, any thoughts ?
Also any recommendations for red dot that won't break the bank and survive this beast ?

[skrapyard628]

Youre probably in the ballpark with 33-36gn of 2400 for the 335 Ranier.

Personally I would stay on the low end and not try to push it. But that is just my normal reloading preference. Im not planning to really hot-rod this cartridge.

For a red dot, I would think any option that isnt $20 of Chinese garbage should work. The recoil (IMO) of the .50beo really wasnt as bad as I expected. Actually it seems fairly light compared to what people were saying.

I do have a Saiga12 with a Vortex Sparc 2 mounted on it though. And that little red dot has been amazing. It has been beat to heck and back on a 12ga with a steady diet of 3" slug and 00buck (maybe 3k rounds total together). I wouldnt hesitate to use that same red dot on any heavy recoiling rifle/shotgun. I think I paid $120 for it 5-6 years ago. Its still running on its first battery and has held zero since the day I sighted it in.

[Tripplebeards]

I just ordered another 243 upper on Thursday for $318 from them. A lighter 20” version. I see their website is down. I take partial credit for it because I gave them a ton of crap Thursday after I asked them to weigh the claimed 4 &3/4 lb weight listed on the upper I ordered...it weighed 6.4 pounds according to their in house tech. All their 243, 20” uppers had different weights listed and everyone weighted more then listed...all exactly 6.4 pounds. I found over a dozen incorrect weight listings and photos of wrong uppers listed. They shut down their site today. I would assume to fix all the incorrect listings and to up their prices with the toilet paper panic.