** Your NEA102 build **

cr5 said:
Putting the word match in the same sentence with BCL/NEA seems a little off to me though, other than as a marketing ploy to dupe the masses I can't for the life of me figure out why they would cut these with a tight chamber. It really makes no sense at all.
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Has bcl/NEA ever mentioned or marketed the 102 as having a “match chamber”? If they have, I don’t recall seeing it. I’ve seen people saying it has a tight chamber and the word match getting thrown around by forum users but not sure how that equates with “a marketing ploy to dupe the masses”.
 
I emailed maple ridge armory about barrels and got this:

We will be producing 308, 6.5cm, and 243 barrels in SPR and pencil profile in the Spring. These will be manufactured to fit the BCL102.
 
Nice was going to post if anyone had a good source for a 6.5 cm barrel. Do you think the bolt will need to be changed out? I guess the bcg might need to be changed out due to qc anyways lol.
 
got my mid west 13 inch armalite ar10 handguard, I hope it fits...
This concludes my build
precision armament brake
mid west handguard
aero precision bcg
jp enhanced extractor
jp gas rings (spare)
dpms 308 bolt (spare)
POF roll can pin
bcm grip
bcm stock
trijicon ta33 crosshair acog

if she gives me feeding and or accuracy issues new barrel she gets
 
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cr5 said:
I'd go with a 20 inch, it's not like you buy a 308 for doing CQB or 3-gun so the inch and a half extra will hardly be noticed and they seem to perform better in the accuracy department.



I'm not sure how they would look at that legally. It's illegal to shorten the barrel of a restricted rifle of any length and those are designed and advertised as AR barrels but since you are installing it on a non restricted and it would still fall into the NR category at 18.5 it's a real grey area, could go either way I'd guess.

You're right though, by the time you pay a smith to ream the chamber you probably could have almost paid for a different barrel, especially if you add the cost of the reamer and if you're paying him to remove and install it as well it's going to raise the price even more.
The factory barrels are junk anyway, if you like accuracy you'd be way better off to just buy a different barrel.

Junk may be a little harsh, they're probably fine if you're ok with 3-4 moa as an average group size with the odd fluke 2 moa group or slightly better if you handload. If all you want to do is ring steel and have fun then there's nothing wrong with them as long as you find a type of ammo that the "match" chamber eats reliably.
Putting the word match in the same sentence with BCL/NEA seems a little off to me though, other than as a marketing ploy to dupe the masses I can't for the life of me figure out why they would cut these with a tight chamber. It really makes no sense at all.
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Man. Your post count I've come across over the 102 is something.
This may be the first one I've read that didn't make sure everybody in the audience knows how interested you are; but how your going to wait for BCL to step up the QC game before even considering it after verbally ####ting on it. (Don't worry, got your back. Just did it for you)

How many rounds have you ACTUALLY put through a 102?
I cant talk about factory loadings but my experience with the rifle in terms of accuracy (ballpark 500rd thus far) is that using mixed IVI brass its a 1.5moa barrel with pulled 123gr steel core FMJ resized to .308" and the cheapest dominion primers/D4198 I can get my hands on. According to the internet they're the worst for accuracy so what does that mean...?
Sure, heat the barrel up with multiple mags in quick succession those open up to the 3-4moa you're telling me it should get.. but show me a rifle that doesn't??
I'll state it again; I've never had a single round not chamber from mag without hesitation. So why does everyone keep talking about feed issues in this "match" chamber, the issues the rifle has are well before the round is trying to enter the chamber.

I'd love to follow your money trail to understand why the internet hatred for a rifle.
 
Receipt said:
Man. Your post count I've come across over the 102 is something.
This may be the first one I've read that didn't make sure everybody in the audience knows how interested you are; but how your going to wait for BCL to step up the QC game before even considering it after verbally ####ting on it. (Don't worry, got your back. Just did it for you)

How many rounds have you ACTUALLY put through a 102?
I cant talk about factory loadings but my experience with the rifle in terms of accuracy (ballpark 500rd thus far) is that using mixed IVI brass its a 1.5moa barrel with pulled 123gr steel core FMJ resized to .308" and the cheapest dominion primers/D4198 I can get my hands on. According to the internet they're the worst for accuracy so what does that mean...?
Sure, heat the barrel up with multiple mags in quick succession those open up to the 3-4moa you're telling me it should get.. but show me a rifle that doesn't??
I'll state it again; I've never had a single round not chamber from mag without hesitation. So why does everyone keep talking about feed issues in this "match" chamber, the issues the rifle has are well before the round is trying to enter the chamber.

I'd love to follow your money trail to understand why the internet hatred for a rifle.
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My experience very similar to yours. Not only that, but my head concluded the same observations that you state. I thought it was just me.

But I'm likely shooting crappier rounds than you, for the most part. And still no feed or eject issues. Safe to say I'm likely in the same ballpark for # of rounds fired. And sure, others have experienced other results.
 
Receipt said:
Man. Your post count I've come across over the 102 is something.
This may be the first one I've read that didn't make sure everybody in the audience knows how interested you are; but how your going to wait for BCL to step up the QC game before even considering it after verbally ####ting on it. (Don't worry, got your back. Just did it for you)

How many rounds have you ACTUALLY put through a 102?
I cant talk about factory loadings but my experience with the rifle in terms of accuracy (ballpark 500rd thus far) is that using mixed IVI brass its a 1.5moa barrel with pulled 123gr steel core FMJ resized to .308" and the cheapest dominion primers/D4198 I can get my hands on. According to the internet they're the worst for accuracy so what does that mean...?
Sure, heat the barrel up with multiple mags in quick succession those open up to the 3-4moa you're telling me it should get.. but show me a rifle that doesn't??
I'll state it again; I've never had a single round not chamber from mag without hesitation. So why does everyone keep talking about feed issues in this "match" chamber, the issues the rifle has are well before the round is trying to enter the chamber.

I'd love to follow your money trail to understand why the internet hatred for a rifle.
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^^^^ this made me spit out my drink.......you sir are spot on and you win the internet for today :)
 
Receipt said:
Man. Your post count I've come across over the 102 is something.
This may be the first one I've read that didn't make sure everybody in the audience knows how interested you are; but how your going to wait for BCL to step up the QC game before even considering it after verbally ####ting on it. (Don't worry, got your back. Just did it for you)

How many rounds have you ACTUALLY put through a 102?
I cant talk about factory loadings but my experience with the rifle in terms of accuracy (ballpark 500rd thus far) is that using mixed IVI brass its a 1.5moa barrel with pulled 123gr steel core FMJ resized to .308" and the cheapest dominion primers/D4198 I can get my hands on. According to the internet they're the worst for accuracy so what does that mean...?
Sure, heat the barrel up with multiple mags in quick succession those open up to the 3-4moa you're telling me it should get.. but show me a rifle that doesn't??
I'll state it again; I've never had a single round not chamber from mag without hesitation. So why does everyone keep talking about feed issues in this "match" chamber, the issues the rifle has are well before the round is trying to enter the chamber.

I'd love to follow your money trail to understand why the internet hatred for a rifle.
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Not going to bash on the other guys that have never shot a 102 but still know there are problems with the rifle?
I've read almost every post on this site regarding the rifle and I am one of the guys that organized the 102/Modern Hunter comparison thread to get more info out to people.
Just because you got a good rifle doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with them in general. Many others have had issues feeding certain types of ammo, a few others have had to send their rifle back for warranty (one guy more than once).
If you've been following NEA over the years this type of inconsistent manufacturing is what they are best known for and why many people would rather buy a Norinco than an NEA. Of course, and as usual though as soon as they start making something with a non restricted status everyone forgets about their sketchy history and just falls head over heels and blindly throws money at them. If you consider that only something like 75 rifles are actually in civilian hands in Canada and how many reports of issues there have been it doesn't take hands on experience to know that it's very likely that buying one will more likely be a headache than a pleasure. They're not all bad and you got lucky and didn't get NEA'd but if they were great and everyone else thinks they're great then why are there so many guys replacing everything on their rifle? Is it normal for so many people to buy a brand new rifle and immediately replace the barrel and BCG? We all see that type of behavior with triggers but when so many people buy them expecting to just replace it all there must be a reason.
You got a good one, that's fantastic and I'm glad you are enjoying it but don't try to pretend they are all good rifles. NEA is well known for letting crap parts make it into customer hands and they've been doing it for years, simply changing the name to BCL and making something NR doesn't change that.
You've been stalking me? Well then you'd know that I've also said that ATRS shouldn't have used a "match" chamber on the MH series either.

My money trail? I own an NEA AR-15 upper/lower that works fine but I bought it because it was cheap on the EE and the previous owned stated that he had no issues installing all parts so I knew it was a good one. Would I buy a complete rifle from them? Not unless I could inspect it first. This is why I say that when I see them get their sh!t together and start making them right 99% of the time they'll get my money, but as others have replied to that comment, I'll probably never buy one if I wait for them to get it right most of the time.
Compare their failure rate to any other brand and I bet you can't find another company that's worse.
I don't hate, I'm just not supporting a company that uses it's customers as the QC department or just because they make a NR rifle.
 
It will be interesting to see if there are problems with the next batch. Hopefully not. I am still loving mine! Can't wait to get a pencil profile barrel on it though to make it more ideal as a hunting rifle.
 
driller212 said:
It will be interesting to see if there are problems with the next batch. Hopefully not. I am still loving mine! Can't wait to get a pencil profile barrel on it though to make it more ideal as a hunting rifle.
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I hope so to, hopefully they've learned something and try to turn it around.
I have a buddy in Calgary that builds barrels for me, if you want I could ask him how much he would charge to throw your factory barrel into the lathe and turn it down a little, might be cheaper than a new barrel if you're happy with it other than the weight.
 
I didn't get a flawless rifle. Far from it.
I too can hardly believe that they could've put a mag through the gun at BCL without issue as it wouldn't cycle more than two rounds of anything I tried initially. But to fix the problem required an adjustable gas block to slow it down a little. OR download the ammo to achieve same effect. I went adjustable gas block and haven't had any cycling issues since. (As long as the gas block is setup for the ammunition being used.)

Again with the match chamber.....fired brass almost fits in a Lyman case gauge..its clearly a tight chamber, but it in no way has it effected rounds attempting to enter it.. Maybe brass will last a bit longer as a bonus....?

The cycling issues everyone on here that I've seen being listed is same as mine was (IMHO). Stovepiping, fresh rounds partially in chamber with spent brass stopping bolt from going forward, etc. The bolt is going too fast for the rounds to comfortably EJECT. Not extract, not feed into, ejection out the port and out of the way of bolt and new round from mag.

The trigger certainly isn't great OEM. Sure. But it certainly didn't NEED replaced. I was able to consistently ring my 400yd 12" gong with above listed cheapest possible handloaded rounds, mostly landing in a 6" pattern.
I did replace the trigger, but it certainly didn't NEED it; personal choice seeking more consistent breaks from myself.

I'm definitely not interweb stalking you bud; your flamboyantly boisterous on the 102 it seems. But don't have any skin in the game from what I can tell; YET. :rolleyes: That's ok, takes all kinds right.
 
Receipt said:
I didn't get a flawless rifle. Far from it.
I too can hardly believe that they could've put a mag through the gun at BCL without issue as it wouldn't cycle more than two rounds of anything I tried initially. But to fix the problem required an adjustable gas block to slow it down a little. OR download the ammo to achieve same effect. I went adjustable gas block and haven't had any cycling issues since. (As long as the gas block is setup for the ammunition being used.)

Again with the match chamber.....fired brass almost fits in a Lyman case gauge..its clearly a tight chamber, but it in no way has it effected rounds attempting to enter it.. Maybe brass will last a bit longer as a bonus....?

The cycling issues everyone on here that I've seen being listed is same as mine was (IMHO). Stovepiping, fresh rounds partially in chamber with spent brass stopping bolt from going forward, etc. The bolt is going too fast for the rounds to comfortably EJECT. Not extract, not feed into, ejection out the port and out of the way of bolt and new round from mag.

The trigger certainly isn't great OEM. Sure. But it certainly didn't NEED replaced. I was able to consistently ring my 400yd 12" gong with above listed cheapest possible handloaded rounds, mostly landing in a 6" pattern.
I did replace the trigger, but it certainly didn't NEED it; personal choice seeking more consistent breaks from myself.

I'm definitely not interweb stalking you bud; your flamboyantly boisterous on the 102 it seems. But don't have any skin in the game from what I can tell; YET. :rolleyes: That's ok, takes all kinds right.
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So you're agreeing with what I say about the 102 but don't like that I post it because I don't own one? :p
Needing an adjustable gas block is more proof they are using the customers as the beta testers. It doesn't take much testing with a couple different types of factory loads to realize a rifle is overgassed. I had an NEA 223 barrel years ago that was so overgassed the trigger reset would actually bruise your trigger finger after a hundred rounds. I sold it and bought a decent barrel.
How are your gas rings holding up? Inside of the carrier polished nicely so you can expect the rings to last or is it actually still overgassed with your regulator setting but balanced out with the worn rings?
Trigger I can live with, I'm not a trigger snob and if I did own one of these it would probably be the last thing I changed. I don't want one for precision shooting and probably wouldn't replace the barrel either unless it was having issues with feeding. I have a MH for precision work, this one will just be for fun, but to have fun it has to be reliable.

You'll figure out that I'm passionate about everything firearms, if I have an opinion on something I'll voice it. The reason I tend to repeat myself is that for the most part I find that many people on here are too lazy to read the entire thread and just read the last page then ask the same stupid question that's been answered 8 times already or make some obviously uninformed comment that has already been addressed.
I try to stay objective about things and will usually give a new company or product the benefit of the doubt but I can't believe that NEA has been doing this for as long as they have and nothing has really changed with regards to their consistency.

The 102 looks like a very nice rifle and I'd like to buy one but I'm 1-never going to pre-order anything 2-not getting one till I have a good chance of getting a trouble free rifle. When the hype dies off and these can be found on retailers shelves I'll most likely buy one after a thorough inspection (if they don't get too upset with me for detail stripping the rifle on the sales counter)
 
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