BCA Bolt Action AR15

[Willbird]

Went over to Bear Creek to have a look and I see they have an AR308 (aka AR10 but AR308 is more accurate) upper now in 6.5 muh creedmore, 308, and 243.

[Wolfdog91]

[Whole Bunches]

Even though they have all the parts (from other AR uppers they make and sell), BCA said No to putting together a bolt action upper with a 10.5” bbl 5.56 for me.

BCA emailed me they made some 10.5”;223 Wylde uppers. It arrived at my house 2 days ago. Shooting 1” groups at 50 yd with a 3x non-crosshair scope and my poor eyes.

Here’s the problem: As long as there is an empty case or a loaded round in the chamber, pulling the bolt back extracts the case and a new round is loaded from the mag upon pushing the bolt forward…perfect functioning with no problems.

If the chamber is empty with the bolt closed and the hammer is cocked, the bolt is stuck. Holding the rifle pointed up or turned on the left side and jiggling the bolt, it will come loose and can be pulled back. If the same scenario, but the hammer is not cocked, you have to unhinge the upper so you can cock the hammer with your finger before the bolt can come back.

Tried another bolt with same results. Tried 3 lowers and 3 different hammers with same results. BCA gave instructions on break in, but those seem to do with chambering difficulty, not with bolt movement. Never the less I cleaned, took bolt apart, heavily lubed and cycled the action. Fired 100 rounds. I did not polish the chamber as there are no chambering or ejecting problems. As best I could see, no burrs.

There appears to be something going on when there is no pressure against the ejector from the presence of a case pressing against it. I just can’t figure it out. In full disclosure, with an empty chamber and the hammer cocked, it does seem a bit better, but with the hammer not cocked, forget getting that bolt back. I’ve not tried beating the bolt back, but have out a bit of pressure on it with no luck.

[tangolima]

BCA emailed me they made some 10.5”;223 Wylde uppers. It arrived at my house 2 days ago. Shooting 1” groups at 50 yd with a 3x non-crosshair scope and my poor eyes.

Here’s the problem: As long as there is an empty case or a loaded round in the chamber, pulling the bolt back extracts the case and a new round is loaded from the mag upon pushing the bolt forward…perfect functioning with no problems.

If the chamber is empty with the bolt closed and the hammer is cocked, the bolt is stuck. Holding the rifle pointed up or turned on the left side and jiggling the bolt, it will come loose and can be pulled back. If the same scenario, but the hammer is not cocked, you have to unhinge the upper so you can cock the hammer with your finger before the bolt can come back.

Tried another bolt with same results. Tried 3 lowers and 3 different hammers with same results. BCA gave instructions on break in, but those seem to do with chambering difficulty, not with bolt movement. Never the less I cleaned, took bolt apart, heavily lubed and cycled the action. Fired 100 rounds. I did not polish the chamber as there are no chambering or ejecting problems. As best I could see, no burrs.

There appears to be something going on when there is no pressure against the ejector from the presence of a case pressing against it. I just can’t figure it out. In full disclosure, with an empty chamber and the hammer cocked, it does seem a bit better, but with the hammer not cocked, forget getting that bolt back. I’ve not tried beating the bolt back, but have out a bit of pressure on it with no luck.

That's strange. When bolt was stuck, did it move back any bit at all? Try it again with the firing pin removed.

-TL

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[Wolfdog91]

BCA emailed me they made some 10.5”;223 Wylde uppers. It arrived at my house 2 days ago. Shooting 1” groups at 50 yd with a 3x non-crosshair scope and my poor eyes.

Here’s the problem: As long as there is an empty case or a loaded round in the chamber, pulling the bolt back extracts the case and a new round is loaded from the mag upon pushing the bolt forward…perfect functioning with no problems.

If the chamber is empty with the bolt closed and the hammer is cocked, the bolt is stuck. Holding the rifle pointed up or turned on the left side and jiggling the bolt, it will come loose and can be pulled back. If the same scenario, but the hammer is not cocked, you have to unhinge the upper so you can cock the hammer with your finger before the bolt can come back.

Tried another bolt with same results. Tried 3 lowers and 3 different hammers with same results. BCA gave instructions on break in, but those seem to do with chambering difficulty, not with bolt movement. Never the less I cleaned, took bolt apart, heavily lubed and cycled the action. Fired 100 rounds. I did not polish the chamber as there are no chambering or ejecting problems. As best I could see, no burrs.

There appears to be something going on when there is no pressure against the ejector from the presence of a case pressing against it. I just can’t figure it out. In full disclosure, with an empty chamber and the hammer cocked, it does seem a bit better, but with the hammer not cocked, forget getting that bolt back. I’ve not tried beating the bolt back, but have out a bit of pressure on it with no luck.

What's goin on is there a bit of slop, just enough so that when you run the bolt without a round it allows the bolt held to come to the right just enough it let it over lap the lugs and catch. We're adding left and right forces to something ment to just have straight forward and back.

The round or case basic acts to cent everything and doesn't allow the blow head to move enough left or right to catch.

When you run the bolt kind a push to the left as to extract and do it with a lil authority just build a .300blk pistol and fhad the same issues


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[Whole Bunches]

What's goin on is there a bit of slop, just enough so that when you run the bolt without a round it allows the bolt held to come to the right just enough it let it over lap the lugs and catch. We're adding left and right forces to something ment to just have straight forward and back.

The round or case basic acts to cent everything and doesn't allow the blow head to move enough left or right to catch.

When you run the bolt kind a push to the left as to extract and do it with a lil authority just build a .300blk pistol and fhad the same issues


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Thank you. Using your suggested technique, I can get the bolt open about 1 in 3-4 tries if it happens to be on a closed empty chamber. So, better than before. I will continue shooting and enjoying and will send another report to BCA if no further improvement. For the most part, when at the range, on the empty gun, the bolt is left open for safety observation.

[SiliconeSword]

To improve bolt pull I put the bolt retaining pin in a drill and ground it round on a bench grinder. It now no longer hangs up due to it rotating slightly. There's a sharp dent in the aluminum upper from when the pin used to be square.
Screenshot_20250511-115630~2.jpg
Also, don't cut off the prongs of your bolt, at least not the left one. I had to weld one back on because it'd catch on the receiver. BCA will not give OR EVEN SELL spare parts for this it seems. The exception was a bolt handle, which they forgot to put in the box
Screenshot_20250511-115627~2.jpg

My upper is a slow project since I'm dealing with a warranty on an aftermarket barrel, but hopefully I'll be able to get more rounds through it. Dad likes his tho.
Ordered myself a complete upper last night, a 5.56 for $219. Gonna swap out a 20 inch barrel for the included 16 inch CHF that'll be going into a normal upper.

[tangolima]

To improve bolt pull I put the bolt retaining pin in a drill and ground it round on a bench grinder. It now no longer hangs up due to it rotating slightly. There's a sharp dent in the aluminum upper from when the pin used to be square.
Screenshot_20250511-115630~2.jpg
Also, don't cut off the prongs of your bolt, at least not the left one. I had to weld one back on because it'd catch on the receiver. BCA will not give OR EVEN SELL spare parts for this it seems. The exception was a bolt handle, which they forgot to put in the box
Screenshot_20250511-115627~2.jpg

My upper is a slow project since I'm dealing with a warranty on an aftermarket barrel, but hopefully I'll be able to get more rounds through it. Dad likes his tho.
Ordered myself a complete upper last night, a 5.56 for $219. Gonna swap out a 20 inch barrel for the included 16 inch CHF that'll be going into a normal upper.

The rounded/chambered pin end is a good idea.

The barrel that comes with the complete upper doesn't have gas port, if I heard it correctly. You may need to drill one yourself. Likewise installing a regular barrel to the bolt action receiver will require plugging the gas port hole. Both are quite easy to do.

It is still an unknown whether the hammer could drop and hit the firing pin before the bolt handle is fully turned down. Do NOT try that with a live round!

-TL

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[SiliconeSword]

I guess I'll find out on the barrel, but I can't imagine they're making different barrels when they're offering so many options for the uppers. There's so many options for the 5.56 upper that they must be using their normal barrels. And, in some of the pics I can see their sleeve thing. Bummer they don't and won't sell that, but gas blocks are already stupid cheap.

With my dad's upper in .300BLK we've noticed that there's a firing pin dent just from slamming the bolt forward. I don't do that, and he forgets not to. I was worried about the OOB thing and emailed BCA with them saying it's probably fine. Just to be safe I tried it myself and not so much as a scratch on the primer.
Whatever you do though, don't remove the spring. The spring pushing the bolt forward it your OOB prevention, and an OOB with a .50 Beowulf or an AR-10 size cartridge could end quite badly.

[tangolima]

There is another thread on same sort of complete upper. As per the owner, the barrel doesn't have gas port hole.

The bolt forward is not locking up yet, till the handle is turn all the way down to fully engage the lock lugs. Pulling a trigger then could be a big problem. Probably fine is not good enough for me. I can't believe BCA is selling this product without a positive answer.

-TL

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[SiliconeSword]

There is another thread on same sort of complete upper. As per the owner, the barrel doesn't have gas port hole.

The bolt forward is not locking up yet, till the handle is turn all the way down to fully engage the lock lugs. Pulling a trigger then could be a big problem. Probably fine is not good enough for me. I can't believe BCA is selling this product without a positive answer.

-TL

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Are you sure it's a BCA?
Uintah Precision makes a higher end upper for like 1.5K and I highly doubt it'd have a gas port as I believe it's quite proprietary.
Everybody I've seen with the BCA uppers has a sleeve thing covering the port as they seem to be using regular old barrels. I don't know personally as the ones I bought were bare, but I'll find out next week for sure when my built one shows up I'll know for sure.

Although it's not the absolute safest system out there, I'm not sure what else you could expect for this level of retrofitting and the price. I can't really think of a time you'd be pushing the bolt all the way forward and then pulling the trigger as that'd be a two handed job. That could maybe happen with somebody inexperienced though, who has no clue what they're doing or what could happen. Such as a BCA buyer come to think of it......
I'm personally not worried but I certainly won't be handing my gun off to anybody, or any of my more DIY guns for that matter.

[tangolima]

Are you sure it's a BCA?
Uintah Precision makes a higher end upper for like 1.5K and I highly doubt it'd have a gas port as I believe it's quite proprietary.
Everybody I've seen with the BCA uppers has a sleeve thing covering the port as they seem to be using regular old barrels. I don't know personally as the ones I bought were bare, but I'll find out next week for sure when my built one shows up I'll know for sure.

Although it's not the absolute safest system out there, I'm not sure what else you could expect for this level of retrofitting and the price. I can't really think of a time you'd be pushing the bolt all the way forward and then pulling the trigger as that'd be a two handed job. That could maybe happen with somebody inexperienced though, who has no clue what they're doing or what could happen. Such as a BCA buyer come to think of it......
I'm personally not worried but I certainly won't be handing my gun off to anybody, or any of my more DIY guns for that matter.

I will post a link here when I find that post. But it is no big deal as plugging/ drilling gas port is pretty easy.

The safety thing. The bolt handle could be partway down and the lugs are short of full engagement. Firing could be problematic. Real conversation with a guy who like shooting a left handed bolt gun. He claimed he could shoot fast by working the bolt with left hand while keeping right hand on trigger. See how it can go wrong?

Uintah got into trouble with this, I think. That's why they approve specific types of triggers, even ship with a free trigger for complete upper. They have wider bolt throw with angular interlock as safety. But trigger with thinner hammer can still sneak through the gap.

Be careful.

-TL

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[tangolima]

Here is the link to thread on different forum. I remembered incorrectly. The owner didn't positively confirm the barrel had gas port or not.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/top...ink_source=app

-TL

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[SiliconeSword]

The 16 inch 5.56 upper showed up and I swapped it's CHF barrel to a normal upper, and a 20 inch barrel into the bolt action. With a 24X scope and Lake City 55 grain it's giving 3moa 10 round groups, but to be expected with a load like that. Guess I'll need to start loading 5.56 now.

Got my .350L upper together too and put maybe 200 rounds of my 385gn loads through it. Kicks crazy hard and puts some serious power onto a 6 inch plate at 200 yards. About double or triple the plate movement of the 20 inch 5.56

[tangolima]

I heard about the first case of gun firing before bolt handle fully locked down. Owner has big bruise on his right palm as the bolt flew back. He was lucky. An out of battery ignition could be much worse.

-TL

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