NEA/BCL in the EE

It is pretty funny watching NEA bashing threads. I would honestly bet that if the badger comes out as an NR rifle priced below 1500 bones they will fly off the shelves and everyone will begin to post "check out my badger build" threads. Lol

And it always seems to be the same dozen or so people lol
 
Back in 2010 / 2011 I bought a bunch of NEA parts for my CZ858, they seemed alright. I skipped the NEA15 launch, I hadn't been bitten by the AR15 bug yet, glad I did. Before they were available in Canada I was trying to build a Troy M7A1-PDW, I bought a NEA CCS stock, OMG was that thing bad. I sold the CCS stock kit at a big loss after I finally imported a Troy industries PDW stock kit. We had a indoor shooting range open in my town in 2013, they were sent a couple of NEA15 rifles to try on their shooting range, neither of them lasted more than 2 months & 2000 rounds before failing. One the CCS stock literally came apart in pieces, the other had problems with the BCG.

A coworker got one of the first 'gen 2' BCL 102's with all the 'extra features', it is sooo bad, just functional, horrific finish, machining, assembly. When they announced stripped receiver sets, I figured here's my chance to build one right without having to deal with their crappy assembly and #### parts. It arrived one month before the Stag 10's were announced. The raw receiver set I got & 2nd upper are 'meh' in the quality department. Being a machinist apprentice it is very apparent to me that they prioritised speed/cost over quality on their machining. And I'm going to loose my shirt getting rid of the BCL 102.

I'm done with NEA/BCL/Whatever they are called next. Heck their new packaging is just a black box with a sticker on it that says BCL, so when they change the
company name again they can reuse all their old packaging! Just put new stickers on it, about the only smart thing they have ever done. They could come up some NR laser beam death ray hunting rifle for $800 and I won't even go look at it.
 
What am I missing? I bought an NEA AR lower during the SFRC fire sale a few months back, in part on the strength of opinions here and there that the brand name of the lower doesn’t matter much - I believe I saw a TRexArms vid recently make that claim too. So as a relative newb I have to ask: what is so obviously wrong with buying an NEA lower, handguard, even barrel, and fitting it with name brand BCG, trigger, etc.?

Your missing the fact that with nea it's pretty much a gamble if your rifle will be in spec and that you can even fit a "brand name" upper or barrel or trigger. If you get one that works perfect out of the box then your lucky nobody is saying that their all garbage but you have to keep in mind there is good chance you'll be sending it in for warranty (which they are very good with).
 
What am I missing? I bought an NEA AR lower during the SFRC fire sale a few months back, in part on the strength of opinions here and there that the brand name of the lower doesn’t matter much - I believe I saw a TRexArms vid recently make that claim too. So as a relative newb I have to ask: what is so obviously wrong with buying an NEA lower, handguard, even barrel, and fitting it with name brand BCG, trigger, etc.?

The part you missed is that all forged US manufactured receivers are pretty much identical other than the brand name stamped on the side and the finishing work but once you get into CNC machined receivers they are all very different and NEA/BCL is well known for building parts that are not in spec and that have issues fitting milspec parts.

Many will buy a BCL/NEA receiver or other parts and have no issues but there are a lot of guys who have bought NEA/BCL parts that just don't fit and there have been lots of guys who have bought complete rifles just to find that they don't work correctly and need to be sent back for warranty.


And it always seems to be the same dozen or so people lol

And it's always the same dozen or so guys that defend them because the one rifle they got worked fine for the 100 rounds they shot through it before selling it.

Some people don't forgive or forget just because they change their name or claim to have improved the QC.
The more products BCL produces the more people realize that the negative reports and constant bashing is real. If you can't see it from the new threads almost every day about someone having issues with their BCL then you're not looking. They've subsided now for the most part but I think that has more to do with people seem to have quit buying them now that the Stag rifles are here.
Have you ever read more negative reports about a brand than what we read about BCL? I can't recall a single brand that has so many problems, not even Norinco gets bashed on like this and they make junk. But at least the Norinco junk works most of the time. People seem to know what they're getting into with Norinco but many still haven't realized that BCL is not top end gear and that the chances of getting a dud are higher than with any other brand.

If these were such junk.......didnt everyone send them back for refund?

Sounds like the BCL warranty is not as good as what NEA used to offer and I think that at the time (when there were no other affordable options) it was easier to buy one knowing in advance that there was a good chance it would be crap and guys just planned to replace the bad parts themselves rather than paying to ship it both ways (sometimes more than once) just to end up with a rifle that worked after an extra $200 in shipping fees.
 
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Thank you, that’s helpful context indeed.

Brass tacks bottom line seems to be: chalk up the NEA lower as a ‘political purchase’ and start a new (American) build.
 
Thank you, that’s helpful context indeed.

Brass tacks bottom line seems to be: chalk up the NEA lower as a ‘political purchase’ and start a new (American) build.

Well, if you get one that's built right there's nothing wrong with owning one of their products other than it has pretty poor resale value. I have an AR I built with an NEA Z marked lower (blem) and it and the matching upper receiver have worked just fine and have fit all the parts I've tried on it but then there are the other reports from guys that bought the same thing and nothing fits. NEA/BCL is capable of making nice products, they just aren't consistent about it.
 
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