Bear Creek Arsenal 16 556 Nato M4 Contour 18 Carbine 416r Barrel - Stainless Review

It's go quite hard in the concluding couple of months to find in-stock firearms parts and sometimes even accessories. One company that I have noticed that has kept up with the loftier demand is Bear Creek Arsenal. Bear Creek makes everything from stripped firearms components all the manner upwards to completed rifles for almost every AR caliber imaginable. Bear Creek sent me out one of their 16-inch 5.56 upper receivers to put it through some testing and evaluation then today we'll look into how well this upper receiver did in a few "boilerplate joe" tests.

TFB Review: Comport Creek Arsenal 16-inch Complete Upper Receiver

Showtime, let's get the specifications out of the way. For all intents and purposes, the upper I was sent is as shut to a "standard" 16″ upper equally you tin can find. There are no weird features or proprietary technologies that are going to drive upward the toll of this upper. The price online for this specific upper is $369.99 as configured below:

Specifications:

• SKU 617-UA556CM41618P-15M3
• Weight: five.three lbs
• Length: 16″
• Barrel Profile: M4 Contour
• Twist: 1:viii
• End: Parkerized
• Material: 4150 Chrom Moly Vanadium
• Thread Pitch: 12/28
• Quotient: five.56 NATO
• Feed Ramp: M4
• Flutes: Northward/A
• Gas System: Carbine
• Gas Block: 0.750
• Gas Hole: 0.070
• Charing Manner: Rear Charging
• Color: Blackness
• Dimpled: Yes

Assembly Quality

Most of you who are looking for a completed upper aren't looking to fiddle with the product much. If y'all're like me, you await to order the upper, open upward the box, maybe put a niggling chip of gun oil on information technology and then slap that matter right on the nearest available lower receiver. This ways you don't want to be messing effectually with detents, or Torx screws, or gas systems to make sure everything is good to go earlier you take information technology to the range.

As soon as the upper arrived I gave it a good in one case over to check for any obvious defects – there were none. Everything seemed tightened down correctly and the gas block looked similar it was put in the proper place and screwed down nice and tight. Finally, the flash hider was timed correctly with the trounce washer installed in the correct direction.

To brand sure the handguard stayed in identify throughout testing, I went alee and placed some witness marks along the handguard and the Torx screws to make sure nothing would rattle loose throughout firing, handling, and somelightphysical abuse.  The only small-scale event I had was perchance some minor fitment bug with ane of the lower receivers I tried to pair it with.

This could exist more than of an upshot with tolerance stacking only I had very strongly wanted to place this Bear Creek Arsenal upper on my newly acquired KP-xv Lower. In the finish, I was able to get the ii receivers together but it did take a bit of finagling to go them to mate up and the fitment is very tight.

This could be a plus or a minus in your book only I idea it was worth mentioning equally some of the other lower receivers I tried to pair information technology with (Aero, Cobalt Kinetics, PSA, etc.) fit with no trouble. Either mode, the dimensions of the upper receiver takedown holes seemed to be within spec then you shouldn't have any fitment problems regardless of your lower-receiver selection.

Range Time

I'll put this out there once more and say that I am past no ways a precision rifle shooter nor am I the best shot fifty-fifty within my ain cypher code. I took the upper receiver to the range in tandem with the KP-15 lower to examination that out a bit and also topped the rifle off with a overnice SIG Sauer TANGO6T ane-6x24mm LPVO.

I did a quick boresight of the rifle in at l yards and then gradually stepped it out to 200 yards. Since I wanted to get merely a general accurateness-test done, I shot only at steel targets at the range I had access to. I was able to reliably make hits at 50, 100, 150, and 200 yards on a 12×12 inch square steel plate using that particular setup. I'd say that's some reasonable accuracy for an out-of-the-box AR.

On the Bear Creek Arsenal website, they had indicated that they recommend a few different things as far every bit magazines and ammo get. I only had one of those things on hand. First, they recommended Tapco magazines – I don't own any Tapco magazines only I tested the rig with a few different magazines including some OG Colt xx round magazines, BCM Aluminum Teflon Coated magazines, and some PMAG Gen 2 magazines – all of them worked just fine despite the specific recommendation.

Finally, all of the armament I put through information technology which included the recommended 75-grain boat-tail worked just fine. Most of the distanced shooting I did was done with standard 55 grain 5.56 NATO and bated from my jittery caffeine-fueled inaccuracy, I'd say the barrel did a nifty chore stabilizing all the projectiles. The ane:8 twist can stabilize just nearly anything you can detect on the shelf, so I recall it's a great identify to start if you're not entirely certain what blazon of ammo you lot'll have access to on a given solar day.

Post range trip: Screws still lined

Final Thoughts

Bear Creek isn't the cheapest nor is it the most expensive option when it comes to upper receivers and it is also i of the newest brands of upper receivers I've had the pleasance of trying in recent memory. I'm pleased to say that my kickoff and but experience then far with a Bear Creek Arsenal upper has been a great one and I'd safely recommend ane of their receivers to someone who is looking for a more budget-friendly upper receiver option without sacrificing build quality.

Thanks again to Bear Creek Arsenal for sending out the upper for testing and evaluation! If you're interested in assembling an AR-15 in whatever caliber from 5.56 all the manner up to .458 SOCOM, Bear Creek Arsenal has AR-fifteen components in stock now and available for buy! Go alee and check out their current inventory at https://www.bearcreekarsenal.com.

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Source: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2021/03/03/review-bear-creek-arsenal-upper/

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