Bravo Company Mfg - BCM - Accuracy Issues?

I know… I know. It’s one of those trivial things that probably has no business being here. But for the last year or two there have been whispers about BCM’s accuracy, or lack thereof, on different message boards and social media platforms.

I trust the audience I am posing this question to, more so than other forums and, God forbid, Reddit. So I figured I would post the question here to try and settle it once and for all:

With regard to current examples, is BCM’s QA/QC lacking? Is the accuracy and durability of their barrels questionable? Is this anything that not only your average shooters but professional shooters, as well, should be worrying about?
 

TCB

Amateur
Do you have one? Dose it shoot good with good ammo? Are you planning on buying one? What are your requirements? What ammo will you be feeding it? Barrel length / profile / handguard type? Magnified optic? Good trigger? All of these things will have an effect… Maximum distance you expect for engagements? Expectations of precision?

An AR platform rifle was not designed to be a precision gun (I believe the minimum accuracy is 4MOA for a .Mil gun). 1-2MOA seems to be fairly achievable with decent ammo through most of the “good” manufacturers which tracks with the BCM guns I’ve been seeing over the last couple years. My agency has a lot of BCM guns (current production) in service and I have a number of personal ones made over the last 10 years. That being said there are variations barrel to barrel so you never know but I’ve never seen one I wouldn’t take out in the field to put in work with.
 

PM07

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
"Is the accuracy and durability of their barrels questionable?"
What were the standards used to determine that the accuracy was off. Anything, by any company that is made by man can have a bad product.
 
For what it's worth, I've got an 11.5 MCMR BFH that will consistently shoot 2.5" five round groups with 62gr Fusion.

I've shot 1.5-1.75" groups with the same load, but given the size of the dot on the Nx8 at full power I typically hover around the 2.5" mark, which is acceptable for me given this rifle doesn't typically shoot beyond a hunnerd yards anyway.
 

BKS

Newbie
I had one I bought used, wound up selling it to a friend. He couldn’t get it to group, contacted BCM, they replaced the barrel for him.

3rd owner of the gun gets a new barrel on a gun for free, pretty good customer service I’d say…
 

shoobe01

Established
Everyone I know is hilariously happy with their BCM guns for reliability and accuracy. I have a 12.5" upper of theirs I got slightly used, put a new handguard on, shoot all with a suppressor.

YES, just one gun and my results are not yours, but middle of last year I stuck a briefly-spare 4-16x Steiner on it, zeroed, and went to the range with all the (not unbearably weird, RSTA, Tracer...) ammo I had, shot 9 different groups at 100 and 300:

100 yd Group300 yd Group
1Armscor .223 62gr Ball (no penetrator)4.069.15
2Federal Powershok 64 gr Soft Point #223L1.334.21
3Geco DTX 55 gr1.787.55
4R-P .223 55 gr (older, no box)4.935.3
5Armscor LC06 NATO 55 gr2.747.25
6American Eagle XM855 LC172.615.81
7Hornady Black #81263 62 gr 5.561.746.25
8Speer Gold Dot .223 62 gr GDSP #244455R0.924.89
9TAP FPD (Unknown bullet weight!)1.855.84

Esp with good ammo, that's entirely satisfactory accuracy for a shortish combat-oriented gun vs a precision rifle. The Gold Dots are spectacular and I shot a few more with them and they keep on being that good, so I bought more, need to invest in a case sometime.


Bagged, not rested, I am not like a nationally-ranked PRS shooter. A bit of wind, esp with the 300 so that's not all stability but me and environment. It can mechanically/ballistically do better than this, most likely.

51115742781_0447b27499_4k.jpg
 

shoobe01

Established
(Table is a bit broken and I missed the edit window. Right two columns are 100 and 300 yds. If any admin is bored, fix it, everyone else just sorta... figure it out)
 

pointblank4445

Established
Two tips:
1) Carefully manage your expectations compared to internet...or don't do it at all. @shoobe01's chart is pretty reasonable to compare to

2) IF you ever are out measuring raw accuracy, it never hurts to take out a 2nd, "known entity" setup for comparison. Sometimes its the environment, setup, or maybe you're just having an off day. The other day, I pushed some bad conditions and a compromised setup for what's supposed to be a laser of a build. It was pretty "meh" and I might've been pissed had I not brought my tried-and-true spr and we were turning out very uncharacteristic, sub-par results there too. The "old" me might've driven home pissed about this initial outing rather than pack it in without wasting a ton of ammo on a day I shouldn't have pushed.
 

shoobe01

Established
#2 is a good one. One example only: Spent time with a much better and more informed shooter and we BOTH spent a bunch of time chasing a windage issue on a precision rifle zeroing that ended up being:

Wind.

Gun was fine. Spent time and ammo and frustration on that though.
 

ggammell

Does not pass up an opportunity to criticize P&S.
There are too many variables from the random internet. Optics. Shooter. Ammo.

For one, BCM isn’t billed as a sub MOA gun. They are meant to be shot. A lot. And work every time.

Generally speaking, with range fodder ammo, they’re like 2” guns. SMKs can ring in at 1”. BCM has had a somewhat mythic status. And when people have unrealistic or unfounded expectations, they run to the internet that “qa/qc” is “slipping.”
 
There are too many variables from the random internet. Optics. Shooter. Ammo.

For one, BCM isn’t billed as a sub MOA gun. They are meant to be shot. A lot. And work every time.

Generally speaking, with range fodder ammo, they’re like 2” guns. SMKs can ring in at 1”. BCM has had a somewhat mythic status. And when people have unrealistic or unfounded expectations, they run to the internet that “qa/qc” is “slipping.”
With as long as people have been singing the praises of BCM, I think people new to the brand assume superb accuracy is something that's lumped in with all the good that's said about the product.
 

Seth Thompson

Regular Member
Three months ago, I replaced the old (circa 2009) BCM 11.5 fixed-FSB (chopped off a long time ago) upper on a rifle with a new BCM 11.5 "Enhanced Lightweight" MCMR-10 upper.

The new upper was just as expected, out of the box. It functioned consistently, all accessories installed easily, including a suppressor, and accuracy with junky range ammo and my duty loads was sub-2 MOA, sometimes better.

This is not a PRS rifle, but a duty gun that rides a lot of miles in a patrol car rack. For that requirement, it appears BCM is still turning out quality equipment.

I have nothing to support my view in this case, but often when "tEh iNterNEtz" starts bagging on a shooting product, the source is often people who rarely, if ever, do much shooting or use the thing in the real world.
 

Seth Thompson

Regular Member
A short update on the BCM 11.5:

Took it out to 300 and 400 yards with some junky old British Radway Green 62 gr.- FMJ, circa- 1988. Hits on "C"-zone steel were easy at 300 on 6x, but 400 yards was about 50/50. Of course, the wind was very quirky and gusty. Again, this upper seems to perform as well as you'd want from a short-barreled patrol rifle.

(Gratuitous Range/bench shot)

IMG_7071.jpg
 

pointblank4445

Established
Can the people claiming accuracy and accuracy related QC issues shoot?
Hard to say.
Many people embellish greatly on the internet...as there are legions of folks out there getting 1/2 MOA with garbage ammo...or so they claim.
Likewise, there's a lot of folks that don't realize what they don't know either and think they're shooting to the equipment's potential when they don't fully know where they sit as a shooter.

Having had barrels with improper heat treat/stress relief, poorly or improperly cut chambers, and piss poor ammo lot numbers (talking M118LR) to name some of the issues I've had over the years, It's not unreasonable to experience realistic QC problems. Being able to shoot and understanding scientific method is how to sort these things out.
 
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