Bear Creek Aresnal 7.62x39, learning to like it

Runs With Fire

New member
I bought a BCA side-charging upper over a year ago. Didn't get to using it much until recently. I'm impressed with how well it shoots. I'm a 1-2 MOA shooter with a good rifle. This $200 AR upper shoots 1-2 MOA. I fired 40 groups last Saturday. M widest was 2.2 inches at 100 yards. The smallest was .76 inches at 100 yards. I was just firing Tulammo, sitting on a bench with a few 2x4s for a rest. It's not bad at all considering the ammo used. I only got in 200 shots, but it was enough to get the barrel hot, and let it freeze (25-degree air temp). The groups opened up as the barrel got heated, so that's worth noting. I only ever bought it to write an article about it, but now I may use it for deer hunting if I can find some soft points that shoot well.

I'm not overly stringent on sub-MOA in a rifle. I just want something that will reliably kill deer at 200 yards. I think it cost me $211 plus $129 for the Vortex Crossfire long eye relief scope. It seems to work fairly well. I really want to get my hands on some more premium ammunition to see if that makes much of a difference in such a cheap upper.
 

Forte S+W

New member
I was considering picking up a 7.62x39 BCA Complete Upper during their Black Friday Sale, but ultimately decided to put the money towards gifts for my family since we've all had a rough year. I'll probably pick one up someday in the future though.
 

Runs With Fire

New member
I've bought 6 of these now in various calibers so I could test them out for writing about them on my website. I like them all. I will say, my 7.62x39 came with the original soviet spec firing pin. I swapped it with the Improved Firing Pin so it would reliably shoot SAMMI spec ammo. As well as the Russian stuff. My friend did the same thing.
 
Please tell me about the difference between the original Russian spec firing pin and the improved pin. Aren't these just a regular AR firing pin, regardless? I have a BCA 7.62X39 and never noticed it was different when cleaning.
 

Runs With Fire

New member
I've only bought 4 different calibers, some were repeats. They're all about the same accuracy-wise. I bought 350 Legend, 450 Bushmaster, 6.5 Grendel, and 7.62x39
 

Runs With Fire

New member
The Soviet spec firing pin is a littler bit longer than the SAMMI spec. The technical specs for the Soviet Berdan primers are really the same, but they have a wider tolerance and some lots of soviet ammo just don't work with SAMMI spec pin. According to some engineers, it's possible for the quasi-Soviet spec "improved firing pin" to cause accidental firing or pierced primers in SAMMI ammo. It's likely dumb layer stuff. They've gone back and forth a bit on which they use. When I bought mine, it had a disclaimer about it. The Improved Firing pin is the one that should be used on 7.62x39 and 5.45x39 ARs in my opinion. It's an issue with these Russian-designed calibers, not all Russian made ammo
 

2damnold4this

New member
I have purchased three uppers from BCA, one in 6.5 Grendel and two in 7.62x39. They are a great way to try out a new cartridge with minimal expense. I have had to replace extractors on the 6.5 and on one of the 7.62x39 rifles but a quick call to BCA had warranty replacement parts on the way. I do keep a spare extractor for both calibers as the type 2 Grendel extractor is a little different than the 7.62x39 extractor.
 

smee78

New member
I got one of their 450 Bushmaster uppers but haven't been able to shoot it yet. It appears to be a solid upper and I hope it performs as well as your uppers did.
 
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