Bear Creek Arsenal BC201, 10/22 clone, Returns from its second trip to North Carolina with a new bolt and a threaded barrel.
Bolt and receiver are the same dimensions as before. And, like before, you can remove the bolt from the receiver without first driving out the buffer pin.
So I headed to the range to put it to the test…again.
Range sessionFired 450 rounds (250 Aguila, 200 Mini-Mag)Experiencing a 20% failure to fire rateAll FTF cartridges fired on second or third attempt
There is evidence of excessive headspaceWhile there is Good firing pin protrusion all cases are lightly struck.Cases swollen near rim…came to my attention when I tried to use spent cases to dry fire NAA Mini Revolver…no BC201 spent case would seat in the cylinder. With a dummy round chambered, there does seem to be quite a bit of slack in the headspace area.
Looking at the bolt…it has not cracked yet but there is obvious elongation in bolt recoil rod channel…so just a matter of a few hundred more rounds until it breaks
On the positive side ..Excellent field accuracy with Primary Arms red dotIgnoring AQT time constraints to handle FTFs I scored a 227 right hand and a 221 left hand.
Pretty solid scores for me when running a dot.
The Hogue overmolded stock is really designed for ironsBut the BC201 is an optics only platform so I really need a ¼” Cheek-Eez to get a bit of elevation for the red dot. Proper eye alignment would probably be worth 2-3 more points on the AQT.
But between rampant FTF and elongated recoil rod bolt channel, the Bear Creek 10/22 clone is making a third trip back to North Carolina. I had really hoped that a new, properly spec’d receiver and bolt was being delivered. A third swing and a turd miss. Maybe next time.