By Graham Baates, YouTube personality Graham Baates, gives us a video review of the Bear Creek Arsenal Bear Essential Rifle in .223W. The BCA Bear Essential Rifle was an excellent rifle for its time and deserves a look back. Travel with us back to 2019 when this article 1st appeared on AmmoLand News. You can still find BCA Essential Rifles for sale in the secondary market.
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Panic buys of the Obama era made the AR-15 a ubiquitous rifle. Whether they were interested or not, thousands bought their first rifle (or fifth) in fear of being unable to buy another. Prices went up with demand as supply dwindled. Lately, we’ve enjoyed relatively increased availability as demand has dropped and supply increased. While some now shop for an ultra-premium build or build their own, the increased commonality has also helped open the hobby to new shooters who may have previously seen the AR as intimidating.
The extreme modularity of the platform, as supported by an immense aftermarket, cannot be denied. Parts providing the same function can range in price by a factor of ten or more, so where does one start If they’re not yet familiar with the platform and wants an affordable place to start or an affordable rifle to build upon? Bear Creek Arsenal, a known source of affordable barrels and parts, has created the Bear Essential Rifle and offers it chambered in both .223 Wylde and 7.62×39 for about $400. For this article, we took a look at the .223 Wylde version. The video below takes a look at the build quality and will be followed by technical specifications.
Live Inventory Price Checker
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BEAR CREEK ARSENAL BCA 15 | Guns.com | $ 489.99 |
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Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 Red Dot Sight - Red/Green Reticle | Bear Creek Arsenal | $ 64.99 |
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AR-15 Adjustable Gas Block | Bear Creek Arsenal/Superlative Arms | Bear Creek Arsenal | $ 89.99 $ 83.18 |
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AR-15 Adjustable Gas Block | Bear Creek Arsenal/Velocity Precision | Bear Creek Arsenal | $ 79.99 $ 67.99 |
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Specifications as received from the Bear Creek Arsenal product page.
- 16″ M4 Contour Barrel
- 4150 Chrome Moly Vanadium
- Parkerized Finish
- 1:7 Twist
- 15″ MLOK Rail
- .223 Wylde Caliber
- Carbine Length Gas System
- M4 Flat Top Forged Upper Receiver
- BCA Standard BCG
- Charging Handle
- Bird Cage Flash Hider
As you can see, this rifle seems almost too good to be true. Although the price reflects closer to the actual cost of the rifle when not hyped up by the brand, it’s still an uncommon value. Wanting to believe the rifle would perform but was somewhat leery of the GBGuns team consisting of Graham Baates, Burgundy.Bomber, and Maddy_A.R hit the range for a rather unconventional though realistic test.
With Mil-Spec parts, magazine compatibility was not tested, and though the build could lend itself to almost any use, we decided to jump right to accuracy testing. A Nikon FX1000 4-16×50 was mounted in a Warne XSKEL and zeroed. We shot six different, commonly-available loads from 55gr to 77gr, including options from Barnaul, Black Hills, DoubleTap (Ted Nugent load), Fiocchi, Winchester, and Wolf. The realism comes from using a simple rest and having each shooter put five rounds of each load into the target. The result was a 15-shot group representing the performance of the rifle with three different shooters of different skill levels. The results of the test and more details are in the video below.
The results were better than expected. With above-average ammunition, performance was excellent for such an affordable rifle. A few relatively inexpensive upgrades or some premium ammunition would likely produce even better results. An interesting point of note, however, was the perceived sensitivity to projectile weight. We’ve tested rifles that could produce similar groups nearly regardless of bullet weight. Perhaps it’s the 16″ barrel limiting stabilization time or the type of rifling. Regardless the Bear Creek Arsenal Bear Essential Rifle proved to be a great value. We did not expect a tack driver, nor did we find one. What we did find, though, was a rifle that was 100% reliable, even with steel-cased ammunition that can sometimes bind in .223 Wydle chambers.
I would not hesitate to recommend the Bear Essential Rifle as an affordable option for a new shooter looking to get into the AR platform.
About Graham Baates
“Graham Baates” is a pen name used by a 15-year active Army veteran who spent most of his time in the tactical side of the Intelligence community, including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Post-Army Graham spent some time in the local 3-Gun circuit before becoming a full-time NRA Certified defensive handgun instructor and now works as an industry writer while curating a YouTube channel on the side. Visit Graham on Youtube.
I have several BCA uppers and could not be happier. Shoot great, no problems, price is fantastic. Go BCA. Wallacem in Ga
MY TYPE 2 GRENDEL FROM BEAR CREEK SHOOTS IN THE SAME HOLE @ 100 YARDS, ONE BIG RAGGED HOLE WITH WOLF MILITARY CLASSIC AMMO.
Congratulations
Your one of the very few who got a Grendel that would shoot… After 2 uppers and dealing with customer service . I gave up and tore it apart after Installing a Ballistic Advantage Grendel barrel and lapping and bedding the receiver it shoots .5 moa at a 100 yds instead of Minute off softball……
I just purchased a POF USA AR-10, P308 EDGE Gen4 SPR with NP3 coating. Q; Why did I pay the premium? A; Because Frank DeSomma won’t hire illegals to build POF hardware! The excuse about not knowing is exactly that, an excuse.
The management in charge of hiring are not trained to detect very professionally made fake documents. As a retired Border Patrol Agent, I can’t say they are to blame for hiring persons that illegally entered the US. Some speak perfect English too. Now if the staff had a background in forensic documents or knowingly hired them then I would not do business with them. I believe the staff was fooled by the fake documents and I will most likely do business with them. Now that the illegal aliens we’re caught by ICE I am sure the staff will scrutinize the… Read more »
Sorry I refuse to buy anything from or pay attention to a company that hires illegal immigrants. This is especially true for a firearms manufacturer. Just Google them and ICE and see what pops up and you’ll know why there items are so cheap.
Why the hate though i understand they are here illegally and such but there is no reason to refuse to buy product made by said immigrants.
If they are here illegally, they are not immigrants. Immigration is a legal process. Key words- legal, and process. If they are here illegally, they are criminal infiltrators. Key word- criminal. AR’s are not rocket science. They could hire Vets, or high school kids for the same salaries.
Oh for Christ sake, you sound just like Pelosi, “Just because they’re here illegally doesn’t mean they’re doing anything illegal”!!!! Are you frigging kidding me!!
@Ryker, It is not hate. It is jealousy on my part. They get to disobey the law, with no consequences, and I do not. And that is just the crimes of being here and remaining here. What about the drug smuggling, raping and murdering. Yep, pure jealousy.
Guess you won’t be staying or golfing at any trump property then
https://www.ammoland.com/2019/02/ice-detains-30-people-after-raids-on-bear-creek-arsenal/
Maybe this is why their stuff is so affordable?
Not sure I want to do business with this Company.
I recently bought a 556 NATO 10.5” side charging BCA pistol upper to go on my novelty PSA China Balloon Killer lower. Before the unconstitutional ban inflicted upon us this year by the commie legislature. I run it suppressed with an Omega 300 can. Pretty damn accurate at 100 yards slight drop at 200 but coupled with the discontinued Burris AR 332 reticle optic, (newly formed astigmatism), it does everything I hoped. It’s a very nice AR pistol, accurate enough to “blow someone’s lungs out” up to 200 yards, haven’t tried shooting it out farther, and the best part the… Read more »
I ordered an upper from them sent it back because it would not function properly they won’t stand behind there junk I still haven’t received my money or another upper I wouldn’t buy anything from them and I wouldn’t recommend any thing from them either
Have a 10.5 upper from bear creek with red dot scope it is a tack driver from 100 yards to 250 yards . shot coyote at 200 yards running straight away across a valley. Head shot after 2 ar15s with scopes missed .sometimes shorter is better!
I bought an upper receiver from Bear Creek Arsenal and although I’ve had accuracy issues with it one thing I will say is their customer service is as good as any. Their warranty is unbelievable.
I’ll agree that BCA prices tend to be great. I have had mixed results with build quality and customer service. One of their G17 barrels for a build. Cheap and performs reasonably well. .458 upper. Had to send it back twice to get them to fix feed issues. Still wasn’t happy. Was headspaced improperly, feed ramp was crude. Burned a lot of not cheap ammo trying to work it in. Gave up eventually and sold.
I bought a bca 224. Valkyrie. Tore it apart, lapped the receiver and at 100 yds it holds dime size groups with 75 great federal. The cost of the upper was $225. Far out preformed my expectations.
Wow. That top picture looked a lot like Peta Wilson behind the AR. That takes me back a couple of years.
I’m beginning to hate Ammoland because of the sloppy “waiting for approval” moderation and the editor and chief’s lazy use of AI generated content. You guys can do much better, my 13 year old great granddaughter could run Ammoland’s tech platform better.
I took a chance and bought a 6.5 Grendel 20″barrel complete upper from BCA right before the ICE raid. After that I had my doubts about what I had just bought and the general consensus I found among Grendel enthusiasts was not to expect too much. I took it out for the first time this weekend, and like the article says, it’s not a tack driver, but still shoots well. It certainly will fill my needs for a hunting AR at less than 200 yards. One thing I don’t get, BCA’s website talks about having an ISO 9002 quality system… Read more »
BCA doesn’t actually make anything. They buy all their parts elsewhere, and assemble them. The difference is in the attention to detail used in assembly. And remember, “mil-spec” is the bottom rung on the quality scale. Sloppiest tolerances, minimal accuracy requirements, only has to go bang- most of the time! I would not buy anything “mil-spec” except magazines. I did “mil-spec” at the office for 37 years, and learned that for pennies to dollars more, one can vastly exceed “mil-spec”.
You really dont know about Bear Creek they mill the lowers the uppers and build their own barrels i know thid first hand i live in the same town i know a few people that worked there yes they build as much as all the others