1st range report on a Bear Creek Arsenal AR rifle in 7.62 X 39

Mike A1

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Over that last several years I have had experience with several BCA uppers including two in 7.62x39. There is a high probability that it will have a minimum chamber that will not except some eastern european made ammo. Also they may need an 'enhanced' firing pin and and extra power hammer spring. One of mine was so overgassed the followers on some magazines with weaper mag springs would double feed. Switch the buffer for an H3 and it slowed down working with any AR 7.62x39 magazine. I had to do a bolt substitution to correct minimal head space with one gun.
A friend sent back his upper 5.56 because it would not not chamber military 5.56 of any caliber but might work with .223.
It may take some trouble to get an upper from them to work, but afterwards it should work well.

I purchased an upper in 7.62x39 because I have a lot of that ammo around.
It is a good deal except for what seems to be in my experience a 50-50 chance of insufficient head space. I fixed my head spaces issues with a new bolt.

Looking for a winter project. Im want to build an AR 15 in 7.62 x 39. MY Colt AR-15 A2s are perfect.
I want to build a perfect AR-15 in 7.62 x39. Who should I look to, for quality parts for my adventure?
 

barnetmill

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Any good?


I like E-Lander magazines for 6.5g and 7.62x39. I may be a little retarded or maybe just too old, but I am not so much in favor of mag dumps. I believe I have some of the duramags 30 rounders or least magazines that look like what I see in the video. I needed to add an H3 buffer to slow down the bolt carrier group so they would feed. Once I did that any mag would feed in that overgassed BCA upper with an ancient lower that I have purchased years ago. The springs in the E-Lander mags were stiffer and worked no matter what bolt the speed.
I tend to go low bucks with parts, but when necessary I will pay more if I see a good reason. The problem with AR parts is often one does not know what company actually made them and you may be be paying different prices for the same item. So for recommendation of parts I would leave that up to an experienced builder. Parts that I have obtained from Alexander Arms I considered to be good parts. Parts I obtained else where if not bolts have worked ok for me. Bolts often have to be fitted to the particular gun and it is only recently that I have started to buy head spacing gauges. Parts have to started to come down in priace and would stay down if our enemies in the congress and white house would stop attempting to outlaw things.
The video series, the School of the American Rifle does explain with gauges exactly how an AR15 is supposed to be when in spec. Many rifles not in spec will run just dandy for a low round count shooter such as myself. I will say that I have good luck so far with La Rue triggers. Start going many 1,000s of rounds one may see accelerated wear. On the 7.62x39 bolts, often the lugs will cracked or break sooner than is the case with 5.56 head size cartridges. So always pay attention to the bolts lugs on your rifle.
Right now I am working with my glocks, but I soon will go back the my ARs. For many years I was first a garand-M14-and then a SKS-AK guy and so I am learning about the AR15. I do have an Alexander Arms 6.5g upper and I am 100% pleased with it. But it was expensive, but at times I am willing to pay for quality, but the AK in me has also made cheapo BCA uppers attractive and mine are now all working.
 

joepistol

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Don't have a lot of experience building AR's..but own more than a few.. LOL I have assembled several lowers, but no uppers.
My 1st AR in 7.62 X 39 was a PSA upper. Experience has shown some of their stuff has been/ may be of questionable reliability, or have teething issues, but
my 7.62 X 39 PSA upper has been the best AR I've owned. No problems or issues @ all, as well as being surprisingly accurate. When a manufacturer makes /,sells as many products as PSA has / does, there are bound to be some great, some, o.k. ,and some with issues. So far, PSA has responded to issues pretty well, if not always as quickly as one would like. I'd put Bear Creek products in the same level, my experience so far. Haven't had to use their customer service , so can't compare their service to others, but reports I've read about BCA is they do stand behind their products.

as for magazine, as I shoot from a rest / bench, and I'm not one to "mag dump" I don't own any 20 or 30 rnd mags in 7.62 X39, I own 5 and 10 rnd mags, as the work well when shooting off a bench. Brands I've used are Duramag, Magpul, and C-Products. All work well in my PSA AR, but haven't tried them all in my BCA
AR, yet. Looking @ the Duramag envelope, I discovered that Duramag is made by C-Products ;)
 
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CECannonJr

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Any good?


I use the Duramag SS mags for 5.56X45 and 300 BO. They are outstanding mags but I cannot attest to their 7.62X39 performance.
 

joepistol

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The 5 & 10 rnd Duramag mags for 7.62 X 39 have worked in my rifles. Found a 20 rnd. ASC mag in that cal. in my stash, though
I haven't used it yet I've had good luck with the ASC mags I've purchased in the past... for 223 & 308 AR's.

the price on the Faxon website is a great deal..though they're not in stock.
My best mag source has been Gunmagwarehouse, & the same mag is $24.95 there... just checked & that site has only 5 rnd mags in stock.
 
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hipowr

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To throw another one into the mix, I picked up a Radical AR in 7.62. I put a Vortex Strikefire on it and headed to the range with Wolf ammo. Really had no feeding issues with the 20 round stock ASC mag or a 30 rounder I ordered with the optic. Accuracy was fine in my book. With Russian ammo, I kept them well inside the black at 100 yards with the dot scope. My trigger pin did wander out of place within 40 rounds causing a couple doubles until I corrected the problem. But otherwise, I was impressed. Since I have no plans to ever buy a can, the cheaper ammo over the Blackout, plus I already have it on hand for my other guns in that caliber, was a no brainer for me. I like it.

AJ
 

barnetmill

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To throw another one into the mix, I picked up a Radical AR in 7.62. I put a Vortex Strikefire on it and headed to the range with Wolf ammo. Really had no feeding issues with the 20 round stock ASC mag or a 30 rounder I ordered with the optic. Accuracy was fine in my book. With Russian ammo, I kept them well inside the black at 100 yards with the dot scope. My trigger pin did wander out of place within 40 rounds causing a couple doubles until I corrected the problem. But otherwise, I was impressed. Since I have no plans to ever buy a can, the cheaper ammo over the Blackout, plus I already have it on hand for my other guns in that caliber, was a no brainer for me. I like it.

AJ
I plan on shooting the cheaper or what was cheaper 7.62x39 because I have it on hand. But I plan to load to some performance ammo with the all copper barnes bullets. But would be premium ammo for serious business.
 

Mike A1

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I plan on shooting the cheaper or what was cheaper 7.62x39 because I have it on hand. But I plan to load to some performance ammo with the all copper barnes bullets. But would be premium ammo for serious business.
Please post your recipe.
I had a fantastic Deer recipe using the Sierra 135 gr. SPFB Pistol bullet made for the 7.62 x 39 single shot pistol.
Using AA 1680 in an IMI case. Velocity 2,1 00 FPS. Sierra no longers offer this great bullet.
 

barnetmill

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Please post your recipe.
I had a fantastic Deer recipe using the Sierra 135 gr. SPFB Pistol bullet made for the 7.62 x 39 single shot pistol.
Using AA 1680 in an IMI case. Velocity 2,1 00 FPS. Sierra no longers offer this great bullet.
Sound like good ingredients. The issue is I want to achieve the velocities with the copper bullets as what the russian steel achieves with 123-5 grain bullets and that is 2350-2400 fps when it is loaded military specification.
I have some 1680 and some other powders. I will get that project going after I finish up the trigger pulls on my glock pistol and then next month I am waiting for the final ruling on pistols with braces. Then I go back to working up some loads with 300 blackout and 7.62x39. I planned to build a carbine 300 black out also.
I have the all copper bullets in .308 and also .310. The 308 for the 300 blackout and the 310 for the 7.62x39. I believe some have shot .308 bullets in the a .310 barrel with good results.

Below from the barnes site and one can set that with the 16 inch barrel velocities run about 1000 fps slower than excombloc ammo with the 123 grain bullet.
Barnes loading data.
1669817647773.png
Hodgdon with the 24" do give a top load of

27.3gr2,445 fps51,400 PSI
 

barnetmill

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The Sierra 135 SSPB was .308 but shot great in the early Mini 30s .310 bore.
I may have misremembered, but did not some of the very early mini's have a .308 bore. So I looked it up and prior to 1992-3 the mini-30 was .308. So it depends on just when the ruger was made. A gun made in 1991 was .308.

From brownells https://www.brownells.com/guntech/ruger-mini-30-bore-specs/detail.htm?lid=15904

Ruger Mini-30 bore specs


This rifle is chambered for the 7.62 x 39mm cartridge. This cartridge, traditionally, uses a projectile with a nominal diameter of .311 to .312 inch.

At the time the Mini-30 was introduced very few bullet makers where producing .311/.312 inch bullets for reloading in the light 125-130 grain weight required. Ruger initiated the use of barrels with a groove dimension of .308 inch and a long tapered throat. The throat allowed the use of ammunition with .311/.312 projectiles by gradually squeezing them to the .308 diameter. In addition, ammunition loaded with more commonly available .308 diameter bullets could also be used.

Commencing in 1992 Ruger initiated a change to using .311/.312 nominal groove diameter, 1-10 inch right hand twist barrels in all Mini-30's. It was likely well into 1993 before all rifles coming of the production line incorporated the .311/.312 barrels.
 

mm1911

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704 Tactical has their stuff on his channel a lot, actually just had a PSA lower and BCA upper for 330, he has codes for discounts, I've got several of their uppers on PSA lowers but they are spares, haven't shot yet, got iron sights for them all, will get around to all that at some point but like you I don't look at them and think cheap, 704's biggest issue was some of hand guard screws loosened up, other than that pretty solid, heck of a review though!

But to be honest no more than I shoot 2 gun matches it makes me think why did I spend 1300 bucks on a BCM when I could just use one of these that cost a 2/3rds less, BCM a great rifle but I'm sure I wouldn't have places any lower with one of the other cheaper options, I just decided I wanted a higher tier AR
 

joepistol

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.." Looks like I've been squeezing those .311 bullets down to .308 LOL..." you're not alone.
Quite a few yrs. ago, I discovered that Ruger had used the 2 different sized barrels in their Mini 30.
Since I've had my Mini 30 a long time, I contacted Ruger to see what size barrel my rifle had.
It has a .308, but I was told it could also shoot .310-311 sized bullets. This got me thinking about the accuracy of the rifle.
Since the Mini 14 & 30 both have very crude, rough triggers ( IMO) I had been a bit disappointed in the accuracy in both my rifles.
Got my gunsmith to improve the factory trigger on my 30..finally could hit aroundthe bullseye with some consistency. This was about the time I discovered the accuracy, economy, ease of modification, & variety of aftermarket mods for the AR line of rifles. I bought my PSA 7.62 X 39 upper for my AR and the Mini 30 has been a safe queen ever since.
 

barnetmill

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I just watched a MAC tour of PSA and it is impressive. Apparently there has been both tremendous expansion and state of the art QA/QC now in place. I wonder where the investment money is coming from. I just might have to buy an upper from them and even their new AKs. The 7.62x39 is quality of the ammo. Other than the super expensive lapua, much of it is not capable of moa accuracy. But that could change with people like PSA and others in the USA planning to make ammo.
 

joepistol

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" much of it is not capable of moa accuracy..." The factory Fiocchi 7.62 X 39 is, ,IMO
At least in the BCA & PSA uppers I own , they seem to be.
I limit my shooting to 50 yds. as I have a covered bench @ that range , & must stay out of the sun.
If not 1 moa, not much greater than that, with the Fiocchi & my handloads .
I don't shoot steel cased ammo, so can't comment on that.
 

barnetmill

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" much of it is not capable of moa accuracy..." The factory Fiocchi 7.62 X 39 is, ,IMO
At least in the BCA & PSA uppers I own , they seem to be.
I limit my shooting to 50 yds. as I have a covered bench @ that range , & must stay out of the sun.
If not 1 moa, not much greater than that, with the Fiocchi & my handloads .
I don't shoot steel cased ammo, so can't comment on that.
I will have to try out some fiocchi. I have a lot of steel case on hand. One trick t of fix steel case is to dump the factory powder charge and reload the case with a carefully weighed charge. If needed than try better bullets.
 

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