I picked up a used first pre order FDE BCL-102 a couple of weeks ago. I loved the look and specs of the gun for what I consider a reasonable price. I wanted to give a bit of an unbiased review as there has been a ton of negativity on the forum and I don’t think any of the issues I have had have been mentioned.
My gun came with some extras that were already installed. A lot of them were not what I was planning on doing so I figured I would unload them and defer the cost of the parts I actually wanted to put on. The highlights of the extras were a Geiselle 2 stage G2S trigger, one XCR-M pistol Mag, a Magpul mlok bipod mount and a VLTOR VC301 flash hider/brake.
Upon unboxing and inspection my initial impressions were not good. The hammer pin had “walked” or came out before I even fired it. I am not sure if this had to do with the aftermarket G2S trigger so take that with a grain of salt. It was easy to push the pin back into position but it had me nervous about the gun from the start. The other thing I noticed was the rod that the dust cover rides on was retained by an E clip however it only had one on the side closest the handguard. This means it could travel forward far enough to hit the handguard. So basically the only thing keeping the rod from coming out was the girthy OEM handguard. In my opinion that rod should either have a second e clip to retain it or the e clip should be in the inside next to the dust cover to stop it from sliding forward and falling out. After a little research I found that hammer pins walking is a common problem which can be easily fixed by the KNS anti rotational pins. I haven’t remedied the dust cover rod yet.
Before I hit the range I fit a fixed MOE stock and MOE plus grip. I mounted a Leupold VX-R 3-9x40 Patrol in Weaver tactical medium rings. I had three types of ammo to try: Federal Fusion MSR 150 Grain, Federal Fusion 165 Grain, and Federal Premium Gold Medal Match with Sierra 168 grn Matchkings.
I shot 10 of each ammo as I sighted in. I was having a high number of FTEs (5 out of 30) with my XCR-M Pistol mag so retired it and shot the rest from the IMI plastic mag. That stopped the FTE's. I was shooting from a bipod and a sandbag in the rear. The Fusion MSR shot a 1.5” group. Fusion 165 shot a 3” group and the Gold Medal Match shot a 1” group. I shot across my chrono and the results were 2750, 2630 and 2500 respectively.
If I forgot to keep an eye on the hammer pin it would walk and fall out about every 5 shots making the gun inoperable. I would have to pivot the lower down to push the hammer pin back home.
Another small issue I was having with the xcr mags was the charging handle would stick when first pulling on it. I would have to kind of jiggle it to get it to slide back. I found it less of an issue with the IMI mag. When I got home I compared the XCR mag to the IMI. The follower in the XCR mags has a sharp leading edge that the BCG was dragging on where the IMI has a smooth gradual ramp and showed no marks from the BCG. I filed a radius into the follower and noticed an improved action when using the charging Handle.
Despite the issues I love my BCL-102! Tons of fun to shoot! Being my first semi auto I liked the lack of recoil compared to a bolt gun and loved being able sling lead down range as fast as I could pull the trigger. I found the rifle front heavy when shooting freehand so wanted to lighten it up.
I ordered a 13.5 SLR Helix Mlok handguard, SLR Synergy titanium Mini compensator, KNS anti rotational pins and a Raptor ambi charging handle. Once all this was installed the gun weighed 10.0 lbs +/- .2 lbs with an empty xcr-m mag. The gun seemed a lot lighter on the forward arm and more of pleasure to point freehand. The raptor charging handle is also a great improvement over stock, easier on the fingers and more to grab. The KNS pins totally fixed the hammer pin walking I was experiencing and took 10 minutes to install.
Overall I am happy with the BCL102. I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect but modding this thing was part of the fun I was looking forward to. If you are looking for an AR style battle rifle and aren’t put off by having to address a few issues I would definitely recommend picking one up!
My gun came with some extras that were already installed. A lot of them were not what I was planning on doing so I figured I would unload them and defer the cost of the parts I actually wanted to put on. The highlights of the extras were a Geiselle 2 stage G2S trigger, one XCR-M pistol Mag, a Magpul mlok bipod mount and a VLTOR VC301 flash hider/brake.
Upon unboxing and inspection my initial impressions were not good. The hammer pin had “walked” or came out before I even fired it. I am not sure if this had to do with the aftermarket G2S trigger so take that with a grain of salt. It was easy to push the pin back into position but it had me nervous about the gun from the start. The other thing I noticed was the rod that the dust cover rides on was retained by an E clip however it only had one on the side closest the handguard. This means it could travel forward far enough to hit the handguard. So basically the only thing keeping the rod from coming out was the girthy OEM handguard. In my opinion that rod should either have a second e clip to retain it or the e clip should be in the inside next to the dust cover to stop it from sliding forward and falling out. After a little research I found that hammer pins walking is a common problem which can be easily fixed by the KNS anti rotational pins. I haven’t remedied the dust cover rod yet.
Before I hit the range I fit a fixed MOE stock and MOE plus grip. I mounted a Leupold VX-R 3-9x40 Patrol in Weaver tactical medium rings. I had three types of ammo to try: Federal Fusion MSR 150 Grain, Federal Fusion 165 Grain, and Federal Premium Gold Medal Match with Sierra 168 grn Matchkings.
I shot 10 of each ammo as I sighted in. I was having a high number of FTEs (5 out of 30) with my XCR-M Pistol mag so retired it and shot the rest from the IMI plastic mag. That stopped the FTE's. I was shooting from a bipod and a sandbag in the rear. The Fusion MSR shot a 1.5” group. Fusion 165 shot a 3” group and the Gold Medal Match shot a 1” group. I shot across my chrono and the results were 2750, 2630 and 2500 respectively.
If I forgot to keep an eye on the hammer pin it would walk and fall out about every 5 shots making the gun inoperable. I would have to pivot the lower down to push the hammer pin back home.
Another small issue I was having with the xcr mags was the charging handle would stick when first pulling on it. I would have to kind of jiggle it to get it to slide back. I found it less of an issue with the IMI mag. When I got home I compared the XCR mag to the IMI. The follower in the XCR mags has a sharp leading edge that the BCG was dragging on where the IMI has a smooth gradual ramp and showed no marks from the BCG. I filed a radius into the follower and noticed an improved action when using the charging Handle.
Despite the issues I love my BCL-102! Tons of fun to shoot! Being my first semi auto I liked the lack of recoil compared to a bolt gun and loved being able sling lead down range as fast as I could pull the trigger. I found the rifle front heavy when shooting freehand so wanted to lighten it up.
I ordered a 13.5 SLR Helix Mlok handguard, SLR Synergy titanium Mini compensator, KNS anti rotational pins and a Raptor ambi charging handle. Once all this was installed the gun weighed 10.0 lbs +/- .2 lbs with an empty xcr-m mag. The gun seemed a lot lighter on the forward arm and more of pleasure to point freehand. The raptor charging handle is also a great improvement over stock, easier on the fingers and more to grab. The KNS pins totally fixed the hammer pin walking I was experiencing and took 10 minutes to install.
Overall I am happy with the BCL102. I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect but modding this thing was part of the fun I was looking forward to. If you are looking for an AR style battle rifle and aren’t put off by having to address a few issues I would definitely recommend picking one up!
