JP Enterprises .308 BCG - Worth it?

RangerPark

RangerPark

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As I'm slowly upgrading everything on my Stag 10 I started looking at BCGs. JP Enterprises seems to have some of the best offerings. Their full mass BCG with enhanced bolt definitely has my attention.

Is anyone here running them? Are they worth the price tag? Through Brownell's they look like about $650 CAD landed. They're available in Canada for $750 plus taxes and shipping.

Any input is appreciated.
 
Guys are getting crazy accuracy out of guns with OEM BCG's(even from lower end companies). Save your money and spend it on the barrel and trigger. Brownells/Toolcraft is great quality for the money and available in several options including NiB coated, Nitrided, phosphate, low mass titanium, etc. I would go with one of those options personally.
 
Tachead said:
Guys are getting crazy accuracy out of guns with OEM BCG's(even from lower end companies). Save your money and spend it on the barrel and trigger. Brownells/Toolcraft is great quality for the money and available in several options including NiB coated, Nitrided, phosphate, low mass titanium, etc. I would go with one of those options personally.
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I saw TNA carries the Toolcraft offerings, I'll be looking into those too.
 
RangerPark said:
I saw TNA carries the Toolcraft offerings, I'll be looking into those too.
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Hard to beat the price from Brownells though if you have the time. My NiB coated full mass was just over $190 all said and done to my door. But, I also wouldn't hesitate to give TNA your business if you are in a rush as Stanley and the gang are awesome to deal with.
 
Changing the bolt or the BCG is not going to make your rifle more accurate. The only thing it will do is reduce reciprocating mass if you go with the low mass option, in which case you will need other parts to rebalance the system. Other than that you may see a slight increase in reliability if your original bolt has a weak extractor or some other problem.
Is it worth $650 to you just to have a new part with a fancy brand name on it or do you think you would be better off buying more ammo so you can shoot more or maybe spend that money on an upgraded barrel that will actually make your rifle more accurate?
If on the other hand you have a problem with your original BCG and need to replace it anyway then go ahead and buy whatever brand you like. Just know that as long as the headspace is correct a different bolt is not going to make your rifle shoot any differently.
 
RangerPark said:
That's good to know. Did you see an accuracy improvement over the Stag BCG?
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Actually I never had a OEM BCG, wanted one but this one came up for a price I couldn't refuse haha, but with a factory barrel I got a ladder with Winchester sp ammo, 180 grains of about 2 inches at 100 meters so I'm happy, tho I want to use an A2 front sight haha
 
I bought the lantac heavy BCG. It's really nice, and it has functioned flawlessly so far. With the slr adjustable gas block and the JP silent capture system it shoots very smooth.
 
cr5 said:
Changing the bolt or the BCG is not going to make your rifle more accurate.
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I would agree with you, but with a caveat. I now have a Criterion barrel on this build. It came with a Fulton Armoury headspaced bolt. Awesome, right? Not quite so. I put the FA bolt i the Stag BCG. It headspaced fine and the rings seemed to fit well enough.

The FA bolt caused huge accuracy problems, some groups over 4" at 100 yards. It also caused poor ejection. No mater the gas setting all brass would get thrown forward. Also, I could see a 50 fps drop in most loads. In talking to Criterion, they mentioned that Stag has loose tolerances in regards to following the DPMS standard. They said there was likely nothing wrong with my barrel and FA bolt and the Stag BCG was likely out of spec.

Sure enough, using the Stag bolt solved the ejection and loss of velocity problems. The rifle shoots fine and I'm still fine tuning it now. Now the question is, what else could be out of spec with the Stag BCG? How do those differences from spec affect performance with the Criterion barrel? This is why I'm looking at a new BCG, one that would be closer to the DPMS standard that the Criterion barrel and FA bolt are made to. Will it improve accuracy? That remains to be seen, but there's a good chance it will.
 
jmichelin84 said:
Actually I never had a OEM BCG, wanted one but this one came up for a price I couldn't refuse haha, but with a factory barrel I got a ladder with Winchester sp ammo, 180 grains of about 2 inches at 100 meters so I'm happy, tho I want to use an A2 front sight haha
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As much as I'm trying to make this rifle a laser beam, I have to say I'm having a lot fun I have with it shooting the BUIS!
 
I own a JP Enhanced low mass 308/6.5 BCG with high pressure bolt. I've always been into building rock solid AR's with high quality milspec parts but this was my first really really expensive carrier system...but my god the JP is one of the nicest pieces of machined metal i've ever held. I went with the low mass and a superlative arms adjustable gas block so I can tune my gun once its built to just have enough gas to function properly with good ejection. The low mass carrier is best served with an adjustable gas block from all the research i've done. I went with a criterion fulton 18.5 which is an absolutely beautiful barrel hence going with a really high quality BCG like the JP. I got mine for 10% off at brownells it ended up being 383.00 USD after the discount, no way i'm gonna fork over 750 to Canadian retailers who are more than likely ordering this stuff from brownells then marking it up once its here.
 
RangerPark said:
I would agree with you, but with a caveat. I now have a Criterion barrel on this build. It came with a Fulton Armoury headspaced bolt. Awesome, right? Not quite so. I put the FA bolt i the Stag BCG. It headspaced fine and the rings seemed to fit well enough.

The FA bolt caused huge accuracy problems, some groups over 4" at 100 yards. It also caused poor ejection. No mater the gas setting all brass would get thrown forward. Also, I could see a 50 fps drop in most loads. In talking to Criterion, they mentioned that Stag has loose tolerances in regards to following the DPMS standard. They said there was likely nothing wrong with my barrel and FA bolt and the Stag BCG was likely out of spec.

Sure enough, using the Stag bolt solved the ejection and loss of velocity problems. The rifle shoots fine and I'm still fine tuning it now. Now the question is, what else could be out of spec with the Stag BCG? How do those differences from spec affect performance with the Criterion barrel? This is why I'm looking at a new BCG, one that would be closer to the DPMS standard that the Criterion barrel and FA bolt are made to. Will it improve accuracy? That remains to be seen, but there's a good chance it will.
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So just by switching from the Fulton Armoury bolt back to the Stag bolt and no other changes you saw an increase in velocity? That makes absolutely no sense. On the same day with the same environmental conditions? The only explanation I can think of for that one is that it was colder the day you tried the FA bolt in the Stag carrier.

There is either something really out of spec with the Stag bolt and carrier but they must both be out the right amount to make it fit the rifle correctly or sorcery is afoot. I would like to see you do the same test with the complete Stag BCG and an in spec carrier with your FA bolt in it. There is definitely something weird going on if your seeing results like that. The bolt does nothing other than stop the brass from flying out when the rifle is fired, there is nothing it does that could affect accuracy as long as it headspaces correctly. Once the bolt cams into position it does nothing but stop the brass from coming back out till it unlocks and pulls the empty case out. As long as the bolt face is square to the barrel bore and the lugs lock evenly they're all doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same way which is why I say that a bolt can not make your rifle more accurate.

A few years ago I had an AR-10 build and it had a DPMS BCG in it, I swapped in a JP enhanced bolt and it became very unreliable, I removed it and sent it back to JP, when the replacement came back it went into the DPMS carrier and functioned perfectly. Even the best manufacturers mess things up from time to time. I'm guessing that a new carrier would have fixed your weird issues with the FA bolt.
It's unfortunate that the AR-10 platform doesn't have a "milspec", it makes it a lot harder to build a rifle when not all manufacturers follow the same specs or are free to tweak things a little.
 
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My opinion is that spending $750 on a steel BCG is ridiculous. I've been running an SLR adjustable GB, Fulton Bolt, Criterion 18.5 barrel since the Stag came out with the Brownells Titanium carrier, got it for like $450. Every Brownells carrier I've bought has run flawlessly and the titanium version removed a half pound of reciprocating mass. Huge upgrade IMO and it has functioned flawlessly even in -25 C.
 
cr5 said:
So just by switching from the Fulton Armoury bolt back to the Stag bolt and no other changes you saw an increase in velocity? That makes absolutely no sense. On the same day with the same environmental conditions? The only explanation I can think of for that one is that it was colder the day you tried the FA bolt in the Stag carrier.
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Same day, same loads, I had both bolts with me and fired groups of 5 with both bolts. My load using Berger 185 grains hunting bullets saw a 30 fps drop with the FA bolt. The FA bolt would also cause all rounds to be ejected at the 1 o'clock position. Either the FA bolt or the Stag BCG are out of spec. I don't have a way to figure out which one. All I know is the Stag bolt and BCG work well together so I won't be splitting them up anymore.

cr5 said:
There is either something really out of spec with the Stag bolt and carrier but they must both be out the right amount to make it fit the rifle correctly or sorcery is afoot. I would like to see you do the same test with the complete Stag BCG and an in spec carrier with your FA bolt in it. There is definitely something weird going on if your seeing results like that.
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This is what I'm thinking of doing. From the recommendations on this thread and others I've read I think I will go with a Toolcraft bolt and BCG. If both are in spec I should be able to swat the FA bolt into the Toolcraft BCG no problem.
 
Bombsquad68 said:
My opinion is that spending $750 on a steel BCG is ridiculous. I've been running an SLR adjustable GB, Fulton Bolt, Criterion 18.5 barrel since the Stag came out with the Brownells Titanium carrier, got it for like $450. Every Brownells carrier I've bought has run flawlessly and the titanium version removed a half pound of reciprocating mass. Huge upgrade IMO and it has functioned flawlessly even in -25 C.
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Brownell's or Toolcraft is probably the way I'm going to go with this.
 
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