Originally Posted By: varminter .223But what doesn't make sense is that I have had 2 different BCA 29" 8 twist .243 barrels on this upper shooting the same ammo with zero issues. My other BCA upper shoots this ammo fine as well.
every barrel - and chamber - is different by a little bit. even two produced by the same person back to back. even high end premium offerings vary a little bit from barrel to barrel. the difference between the price points is often the amount of QC that goes into them - when you buy the cheapest product available.... you're going to have to expect some costs to be cut somewhere. (you get what you pay for)
sounds like this one has some issues and hopefully a QC check at the factory will find it for you and get you something that performs the way you expect.
I'd say the barrel will sit on the shelf because I'm not real sure who actually chambered it. I'm 3rd owner. I tried Sierra 60 grain hollow points in my Bear Creek 243 and it shoots them probably better than it does the 70s so no need to switch I reckon. This barrel I thought would be a better one than the Bear Creek and it shoots great it's just that I think the chamber is too big in the rear end. For the money I'm pretty sure the Bear Creek can't be beat. In my opinion you shouldn't have to put fancy bolt carriers or gas blocks on rifles to keep them from stretching the brass .006" around the primer pockets and blowing out primers with a sub max load.
I am not shooting suppressed and this is not a Bear Creek barrel my Bear Creek perform great.
Ironic this thread just popped up because I was doing a ladder test with my Bear Creek barreled upper and I noticed on one round that it nearly blew the case head off. You can see where it's cracked all the way around but held completely intact and the shot also hit right with the others. I got lucky.
I am in the process right now of sorting an entire gallon bag of brass and I'm measuring everything just above the case head where this overstretch is occurring. Anything that measures over .470 is going in the trash. I am certain that the chamber in that other barrel is oversized at least near the rear probably throughout the entire chamber and this case along with many other in this bag have been fired through it and overstretched causing the issue.
As of today I have the BCA barrel shooting the 60 Sierra hollow points very well with 42 grains of varget at 2.600 with CCI 200's. This load will put five at .750" center to center. I don't believe I'll chase accuracy beyond that. I'm guessing that will be the load that I shoot night hunting this year. We pile them up with the 70 dogtowns last year we'll see what the sixties can do this year.
