BCA 18" barrel first impressions

Talk about the AR15 style rifles chambered in 450 Bushmaster.

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BCA 18" barrel first impressions

Postby MiHunter » Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:18 pm

First post, new to 450 bushmaster but not to ar15's and guns in general. I live in southern Michigan and deer season drew me to this website.

Ive been kind of interested in a 450 since they made it legal to use for Michigans limited firearm zone during deer season. I normally use a CVA scout in 44 magnum and I handload for it and do not really have any complaints. Deer have been taken out to 150yds with my particular scout and handloads. The cost has always kept me away from building or buying a 450 ar until I was browsing Bear creek arsenals website a few weeks ago. Id bought a barrel from them before in 5.56 and for the price I was pleased. After going through my parts bin I realized all I needed to build a whole new ar is the barrel and BCG. I found a sale on toolcraft 450 BCG's for $79 and the barrel cost me just over $60 shipped. So for Around $150 shipped I put a budget 450 bushmaster together and am rather pleased. I did not expect the 100yd 1"-2" groups I got today. I did not have much time at the range today, fired 15 rounds of 250gr Hornady Black. I still need to finish tuning the gun and possibly even handload for it, not entirely convinced I need to yet.
Gun specs:
Anderson upper and Lower, cmmg parts kit, factory GI trigger, Toolcraft BCG, BCA barrel, Black rain ordnance .750 adjustable gas block, magpul grip, MFT minimalist stock. Matrix handguard from joebobs, Vortex mount and Athlon Neos 3-9x40.

I was a bit concerned upon arrival of the barrel. Included in the pictures are a few of the bore. Hopefully the pictures turn out decent on here. You can see the lands have what I will call tooling marks. Im not into machining but I assumed that may affect accuracy. The bulk of my barrels are Shillen or Faxon for AR barrels and Ive never seen a brand new barrel look like that. The pictures are taken after cleaning well, which the barrel was absolutely filthy on the inside. I went through a few cycles of soak, patch, soak patch etc.

The range conditions are rather poor today. 31 deg F. light snow with a little wind. In the pictures below the target picture was my best group but none were over 2". Overall im happy with the barrel so far. I think with a better trigger and more rounds down the pipe to help break it in a little bit that groups will shrink.

So overall for $150 dollars im very happy with it and look forward to getting more rounds through it and seeing what it is capable of in terms of harvesting game. Ill definitely be changing things such as the stock and trigger but that was just what was in the parts bin. Hope I havent bored anybody to death yet. Thanks for reading.

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MiHunter
 
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Re: BCA 18" barrel first impressions

Postby Al in Mi » Fri Dec 07, 2018 6:10 am

hello and welcome from the "thumb" ;) and nice budget build there.

looks like she'll be a shooter, nothing wrong with that target on a day like yesterday. Tooling marks I wouldn't worry about unless you can feel them with like the edge of a paperclip, or see if they built up with copper now that you have a few rounds over them, might need a gentle lap. we use a ton of reamers at work, sometimes they leave what looks like marks but feel smooth and sometimes they will look and feel like they were made with a grubbing hoe. Personally with that first time out group, I wouldn't worry about it.
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Al in Mi
 
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Re: BCA 18" barrel first impressions

Postby MiHunter » Fri Dec 07, 2018 9:22 am

Thanks. I was only expecting minute of deer accuracy anyway and ended up getting better. I will clean it well after season and see how it looks then. I dont think ill ever give up my 44 magnum as being my favorite deer rifle but this is a cheap, fun, and decent addition to my hunting guns.
MiHunter
 
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Re: BCA 18" barrel first impressions

Postby Al in Mi » Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:39 am

I almost took one of those CVA's and made it into a 444 x 1.800, which is still on the back burner for a rainy day.

better trigger probably be your best investment over a stock GI. I run RRA 2 stage on all my AR15's and CMC on my AR10's. Buddy swears by the Rise Armaments and those Althon scopes, both which I need to try someday.
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