Who does not love the best bang for your buck? Seriously, who really wants to pay more than you have to for a quality product that works the way you want? I do have friends and I know people, and you probably do too, that will not buy an AR-15 or a gun if it does not cost over a thousand dollars and has the right name behind it. I’m more concerned about performance than name, don’t get me wrong. If I’m taking this into combat or to use as a duty or service gun, absolutely, you bet. I want the name, I want the proven history, and the quality control that I can bet my life on. Outside of that, what about getting the best bang for our buck, for everything else? Does BCA Bear Creek Arsenal offer just that? Let’s check out their most cost-effective AR-15 in the 5.56 and see for yourself.
I’m going to start off with a red dot on here and a magnifier and I’m going to see how far we can go up that hill, I’m going to break it in, season the barrel. Once we have done that and we have exhausted our range and accuracy with a red dot and a magnifier, and then I’m going to throw on a quality optic, high-quality optic, and we’re going to use some match ammo, put it on a lower with a match trigger so we can maximize and find out what we’re capable of doing with this barrel, and then I’ll also show you with the lower and the trigger that came with it, we’ll see if there’s a difference, and you decide then what you think, if this is a great deal, bang for buck, quality. Only one way to find out, check it out!
Welcome to Beyond Seclusion where I’m only giving my honest opinion, and it is what it is. I’ll be honest, I discounted BCA for many years, just like I described above, and probably a lot of you have too.
I’ve reviewed two of their guns so far:
I was pleasantly surprised by how they performed in the accuracy and what I was able to do with them, check them out and decide for yourself.
It’s looking for the most affordable AR-15 I could find and this is what came up – at the time it was the winner. I believe when I ordered it, it was going for like 370, 350, or something like that, it was well below $400, not 399.99, it frequently goes on sale for, from what I can tell, an unbeatable price.
What kind of quality is it? What can we do with it and expect from it? Only one way to find out! Let’s start with the specs and tech, see what we’ve got, and then get to shooting.
Bear Creek Arsenal 5.56 Rifle Specs & Tech
| PLATFORM | AR-15 |
| CALIBER | 5.56 x 45mm |
| CHAMBER | 5.56 NATO |
| LENGTH | 16″ M4 Contour 1:8 Barrel |
| WEIGHT | 6.75 lbs No Magazine |
| FEATURES | 1/2 X 28 Thread Pitch, M4 Feed Ramp, Carbine Gas System w/ 0.750 Gas Block |
Not a lot of info, but it is KISS, keep it simple stupid. I’ve got a Pinty optic to review, and I’m doing some other ones, and they seem perfect for this. They really are, or at least I’m going to find out, are they the best bang for buck optic? And not a battle sight, okay, they’re not meant to go on military guns, I would not carry one in the field for service or for duty, but for everything else… Will they work? We’re going to find out, we’ll see what we can do with this.
Zeroing the BCA BC-15
I want to get this zeroed using the battlefield zero, that’s what I always do with red dots and ARS at 50 yards, that way we can easily consistently bang on the steel at 300 yards, assuming everything’s working good. We’re going to have some fun, we’re going to put some ammo through it, season that barrel, then we’re going to put the quality, high-quality optic on it, I got a review of a Riton, really nice scope. AAC, I’ve got some match ammo, use a match custom trigger TriggerTech, and see what kind of groups we can get, how small can we go, and what can we do with this.
Testing The BCA BB-15 at The Range
I’m going to start off, we got it zeroed at 50 and I was getting some nice groups. I’m not going to even really mess with a hundred, it’s just kind of a waste of ammo at this point. When we put the high-quality optic on, yeah, we’re going to go to 100 and we’re going to see what kind of groups we can get because that’s kind of, at least in my opinion, the gold standard starting off at 100, but as far as a red dot magnifier, we’re going to start out there at 200 and bang away, get this barrel seasoned a little bit more. Let’s see what we can do here, how fast last week, and get these off. This is with the magnifier.
That’s pretty much what I expected! Let’s go for 300 and see what we can do! You know, I love the saying ‘proof is in the pudding!
That’s 300. I’m at the point in the seasoning of the barrel, I need to run down and clean and polish, want to do that and come back, and let’s see if we can do 400.
When we’re talking best bang for the buck, if you have not checked out AAC ammo, you should because it’s got some of the best bang for the buck out there.
Let’s get 400 a go! There we go!
That’s getting a little more challenging with that dot separation, it was dropping a lot more than I thought it was, so I was about four feet over that IDPA, I think that’s pretty much going to push our limit with this.
I got the magnifier flipped to the side here, we’re just going to use just the red dot all by itself and see what we can do here at 200 and 300 okay, so just the red dot. That was easy! Alright, let’s do three! Let’s just see what we can do at 100 and then 200 here, this should be pretty easy. Let’s go 200! Nice!
I can’t emphasize enough breaking in and seasoning the barrel. I really, really, truly believe that that makes all the difference in the world. I contacted and talked to some of the top barrel makers in the world and this is what they suggested, and you decide for yourself. Did that make a difference?
For getting it zeroed I’m just going to start with the 55-grain full metal jacket and once we get it, you know relatively zero in then I’ll switch over to the match.
I recently just released a video on how to zero your scope with one shot, basically put it in the bullseye with one shot, I just used that same principle. Let me show you real quick here. In this review, I shot here and I followed the instructions that are in the video, and I just used a bag, I didn’t even get out the vice or the sled or anything like that, I just simply held it the best I could on the bag and dialed in and that was my second shot. It’s worth taking a look at that video, it works pretty well, on how to zero your scope with one shot.
Testing with Different Ammo
I think I got a pretty decent zero using the 55-grain full metal jacket. What I’m going to do is I’m going to do five-round groups with the BCA lower and triggered that came stock, and then I’m going to cycle through and try these different match ammo five rounds, but then I’m going to switch to a different lower that has a TriggerTech match competition trigger, and then do another group and see if there’s really any difference, how much of a difference that actually makes.
I think you’re going to be pretty surprised with that group, surprised as I just was with a Mil-Spec gridy, creepy trigger, that’s not too bad.
Alright, guys, I’m going to swap out lowers, I want to try a custom match grade trigger in there. I got a custom lower here with a TriggerTech trigger with about a two-and-a-half-pound pole, really nice. We’re going to try the 55-grain V-Max.
Checking The Groups
Alright, guys, so that’s when I started zeroing in with the full metal jacket, 55-grain full metal jacket, and that’s the stock trigger, this is the lower in the trigger that it came with, that’s not bad. This is still the stock trigger that came with it, this is the 55-grain A-Max, then that’s the 77-grain Sierra MatchKing, and then that’s that 77-grain Hollow Point Boat Tail match, I mean that’s really impressive. This is when I came back and I put a custom lower on it with a TriggerTech, there are three shots right there, we got two there, this, ok, that’s the 77 Sierra MatchKing, and then that’s the other five shots. Guys, that’s pretty damn impressive!
Something that I just noticed as I was getting ready to head out, this is with their trigger and their lower, and this is with a match trigger and lower, and there’s one could argue.
500 yards on the steel
There you go, guys, 500 yards BCA’s 5.56!
There you have it, guys, it is what it is, you decide what you think, honest review, you decide. I hope you enjoyed the review, found it helpful. If so, help support the channel, be sure and hit that subscribe button, this really does help the most. Like and comment.
Until next time, guys, happy shooting, and educate our young people about shooting and gun safety. Remember, every time that we are on the range, all of us, are ambassadors for the Second Amendment, and everybody’s watching us, so be a safe and responsible gun owner.
