I tested Bear Creek Arsenal’s BC15 bolt action AR upper and it was far from a stellar experience. BCA is known for making budget-priced ARs and components, but they also have a reputation for budget-quality construction. Out of the box, the BC15 had a rough action, as you can see in my review video.

I received some helpful comments from BC15 owners to improve the action. I stripped down the bolt and thoroughly cleaned and lightly lubed it with CLP. Reassembling, I still found that the lugs would catch and the bolt would not release reliably. I disassembled the bolt again, this time I put a buffing wheel on a Dremmel and carefully polished the lugs until I could start to see shining metal. I was careful not to grind and round out the lugs. My goal was to mechanically simulate running the bolt hundreds of times, breaking it in. After reassembly, the bolt finally ran clean and smooth.

I mated the BC15 to my Anderson lower with a CA-compliant Hera CQR stock, the same lower I used to originally test the BC15. I swapped out a Discovery Optics ED-PRS 5-25×56 for a ED-LHT 3-15×50; a smaller and lighter scope that has the same clear Japanese ED glass. I also used a Discovery Optics Lightweight cantelever mount for a better eye relief.

At the range, the experience with the BC15’s bolt was night and day compared to my original video. The bolt ran smoothly as a bolt action should run out of the box. It makes me wonder why BCA didn’t polish the bolt lugs, as I did before assembling the BC15? At the factory, this would add perhaps 5-10 minutes of work. But BCA could increase the price of the already dirt-cheap BC15 by a modest $50, which is far less than they probably pay a workshop employee per hour. Just a thought.

The ED-LHT was also a better scope for my budget AR build. It is smaller and lighter than the ED-PRS while giving me more than enough magnification and clarity to see my 4″ target diamonds at 100 yards. Though neither cleaning the bore nor adding the ED-LHT improved my 2″ group, this is still tighter than any group I’ve shot with my normal semi-auto AR.

SHOP

Bear Creek Arsenal BC15 https://alnk.to/7McEe5X

Discovery Optics ED-LHT 3-15×50
https://discoveryopt.com/   (10% discount link: MOONDOG)  

SPECS

Magnification 3x-15x
Objective 50mm
Field of View 12.6M-2.5M@100YDS
Eye relief 88mm-83mm
Exit pupil 11.97mm-3.3mm
Tube diameter 30mm
Click Value 0.1MRAD
Elevation Adj ±23.2MRAD
Windage Adj ±17MRAD
Length 333mm
Weight 792g (27.9 oz)