Yet another BCL 102 Review

Horse96

Regular
Rating - 100%
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Location
Calgary
Okay okay, I know, I know, there are lots of BCL 102 reviews out there already. But this review is on my rifle, and while there are many like it, this one is mine... ;)

First off, I have not even shot it with the stock barrel, trigger or handguard. I replaced all three without even shooting them. It would be great if BCL offered these receiver sets for guys like me that like to hot rod. I ordered the barrel, the ballistic advantage 22 inch 6.5 creedmoor barrel for Saskatoon Gun Works. I installed the SLR Helix handguard, the 14.87 inch .308H handguard. And I replaced the trigger with the triggertech adjustable flat blade trigger. I mounted a 1-6x vortex strike eagle. All in, it weighs just over 11lbs, unloaded. I spun on the little fat ba$tard muzzle brake from my prs bolt gun.

I used Hornady custom 140gr ammo, and the 143gr Hornady Precision Hunter ammo. In my opinion, the 140gr shot better. I suspect the 140gr is a little lower pressured, and that's why it shot better. In my stag 3g I would find that factory match loads would shoot 1.5 to 1.75 moa, but then with handloads backed down from the max pressure, I would bring my groups in under 1 moa consistently.

First shots: I was anticipating recoil. There was none! It was probably a mix between semi-auto recoil impulse spread mitigation, smaller round and the muzzle brake, but at any rate, there was no recoil. Muzzle blast however, was rude to all around. It was quite concussive. I flinched when my buddy would shoot it, I could only feel sympathy for the others at the range today.

The bad: it was probably just break-in, but the bolt failed, only twice, to pick up a round fully seat it inside the chamber. Instead, the round was caught midway between the forward travelling BCG and the feed ramps of the barrel extension. There was some force, as the two cases were quite dented. But, I stuck them back in the mag and shot them, and no problem! It was not a mag problem, as I used both the supplied pmag and an xcr-m 10 rounder. Another issue, was that the BCG would not travel forward to seat a new round upon mag reloading, after the last round hold-open. Or, when the bolt was back, and you inserted a mag, the bolt would not travel forward. I would have to drop the mag, ride the bolt forward to closed (I detest dropping a bolt/slide on an empty chamber), insert the mag, then rack and let the bolt drop home. It worked great when I loaded from a closed bolt, but not from an open bolt. Could just be more break-in required. Not a big deal, as it still went bang.

The good: this thing can shoot!! I was able to squeeze a couple of good groups off. Word on the streets is that a great semi will hold 1 moa, while a decent bolt-action will hold 1 moa; great bolt-actions will hold 1/2 or 1/4. So, anything around 1 moa or better is good news! The first three round group, after sight-in, shot 0.681 moa. Then I upped the ante, with both my buddy and I each shooting two sets of 5 shot groups. The combined moa of the 20 rounds fired was 1.52 moa. Which isn't too bad....

Here comes the 'but'.... These are factory loads, and probably over-pressured. Which shows in the two 5 shot groups with the hornady custom, there would be a really tight 4 shot group, then one flyer which opened the group up quite a bit. I do recall Jerry saying that the last shot in a mag tended to be the flyer. The three shot group though only had three shots in the mag, so there does not seem to be any consistency to it. Another 'but' is that I shot these using a 6x scope, which may or may not mean anything. I do feel that with higher mag, I could pick an even smaller aim point: aim small, miss small. So, with the 4 tight shots, the group sizes would be around 0.8 moa. That would be cherry-picking groups though... However, it does indicate that the rifle has great potential.

My theory is that with load development, I can keep the groups at 1 moa or better, which according to the 'street' definition, marks a great semi-auto.

The first pic below is the three shot group; the 2nd and 3rd are the 143gr Hornady Precision Hunter's; the 4th and 5th are the 140gr Hornady Custom's; and the last is my rifle.

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How bad is the gap from the upper to the handgaurd.

From this angle it looks like the gen 2 upper leaves a huge lip of extra material...
 
Do you have 2 guns and mixed the receivers or did you buy one of those rifles Chemist was saying he has a few of that are green on black? I didnt know they were different gen receivers lol

Just curious whats going on here
 
I was on the fde pre-order 2, and Ryan said he had a few of these up for grabs and so I took opted for one. I'm not fussed about gen 1, gen 2, gen xyz, etc. As long as I can spin on a good barrel, the platform is what it is, and will shoot.
 
Okay, I have done some load development. I used the standard COAL, 130 grain Hornady ELD-Match rounds, varget and cci BR2 primers. All shooting was done at 100 yards. I swapped to a 10 power trijicon optic, instead of the 6x strike eagle. All groups are 3-shot groups. For load development, unless someone wants to donate the cash for 5 round groups, they'll have to do. I know, I know, everyone says to use H4350. I was only able to find some after my loads were already complete, and I have a lot of varget. I'll probably work up a load for 140 grainers with the H4350 at some later time. But for now, the 130 grainers with varget have performed well.

Here's the quick play by play. 31.5 grains of varget was did not provide enough oomph to cycle the action, and 37.5gr caused a round to jam en-route to the chamber on the feed ramps. I did experience a number of failure's to feed around loads 5 through 7. It could still be break-in, or there might be something else going on. I'll isolate for that later. The XCR-M mags do not like the bolt release. I would try to release the bolt by the button, but I would have to resort to the charging handle to chamber the round. The pmag seemed to work fine, except at times the bolt wouldn't hold open. Maybe I need to swap out the bolt stop?

The rifle shot very well. Only one group just barely over MOA. The standout load seems to be 34.5gr of varget, printing a 0.418 MOA group. The estimated velocity of 34.5gr varget in a 24" barrel is about 2,610fps. With this round, the wind adjustment for a 10mph X-wind at initial velocity of 2,700fps vs 2,600fps is roughly 0.20 MOA (1-inch), but about 5 inches of drop. So, I am not too worried about hitting the 2,700fps mark. Adjusting for drop is easy compared to adjusting for wind.

32.5gr printed 0.474 MOA.
33.5gr printed 0.418 MOA.
34.5gr printed 0.418 MOA.
35.5gr printed 0.705 MOA.
36.5gr printed 0.884 MOA
37.5gr printed 1.003 MOA.

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It's good to see that these rifles can perform with a good barrel and some load development.
Mine's in Richmond, hopefully I'll see it tommorrow or Tuesday.

Then it can hopefully learn to be friends with Magpul, Geissele, SLR, and Radians Raptor.
 
Okay, I have done some load development. I used the standard COAL, 130 grain Hornady ELD-Match rounds, varget and cci BR2 primers. All shooting was done at 100 yards. I swapped to a 10 power trijicon optic, instead of the 6x strike eagle. All groups are 3-shot groups. For load development, unless someone wants to donate the cash for 5 round groups, they'll have to do. I know, I know, everyone says to use H4350. I was only able to find some after my loads were already complete, and I have a lot of varget. I'll probably work up a load for 140 grainers with the H4350 at some later time. But for now, the 130 grainers with varget have performed well.

Here's the quick play by play. 31.5 grains of varget was did not provide enough oomph to cycle the action, and 37.5gr caused a round to jam en-route to the chamber on the feed ramps. I did experience a number of failure's to feed around loads 5 through 7. It could still be break-in, or there might be something else going on. I'll isolate for that later. The XCR-M mags do not like the bolt release. I would try to release the bolt by the button, but I would have to resort to the charging handle to chamber the round. The pmag seemed to work fine, except at times the bolt wouldn't hold open. Maybe I need to swap out the bolt stop?

The rifle shot very well. Only one group just barely over MOA. The standout load seems to be 34.5gr of varget, printing a 0.418 MOA group. The estimated velocity of 34.5gr varget in a 24" barrel is about 2,610fps. With this round, the wind adjustment for a 10mph X-wind at initial velocity of 2,700fps vs 2,600fps is roughly 0.20 MOA (1-inch), but about 5 inches of drop. So, I am not too worried about hitting the 2,700fps mark. Adjusting for drop is easy compared to adjusting for wind.

32.5gr printed 0.474 MOA.
33.5gr printed 0.418 MOA.
34.5gr printed 0.418 MOA.
35.5gr printed 0.705 MOA.
36.5gr printed 0.884 MOA
37.5gr printed 1.003 MOA.

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Hello my reloading bible doesnt even have Varget for 130 grain, although 150grain max is 44.9g o Varget for such light bullets change the powder up.
 
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