BCA Bolts?

[BrentJennings]

Just finished a fun AR pistol build and I was checking function with snap caps and every so often I got a failure to extract leaving a cartridge in the chamber and slamming another one into the back of it. It’s a Rainer arms barrel and I made the mistake of trying a budget BCG and went with bear creek as the title suggests because it seems to have great reviews. I’ve thrown together AR’s but I’m no expert by any means. I should have had headspace gauges but I didn’t so I just ordered them. I’ve read it’s quite rare to have headspace issues (or so it’s seemed) in an AR. Was curious if anyone’s used BCA bolts before? I feel like this may be more of an extractor issue as it seems to function fine (again only manually cycling for function check) I’d say 85-90% of the time. But I’m not sure and I’m a little confused on where to go here. Potentially considering handing it off to a smith to look at before I hurt myself lol. Any thoughts on the issue or the bolt itself from experience?

[USMC3531]

If you have another bolt try ot to see if the issue persists. Check the bolt face to make sure they didnt send you a 7.62 bolt on accident,and measure the extractor isn't broke (bca had a bad batch of extractors) you could change the extractor spring and o ring to see if it helps.

[LMTguy]

Contact BCA. I had a issue with a barrel I bought from them. They sent me a new one for free. Good customer service.

[Jhaydeno]

Did you check the chamber for tightness with some loose rounds? Maybe it wasn*t sized properly, or maybe you snap caps are a bit oversized too. I would check the extractor first though, as noted above. Break it down and be sure that it can move freely.

[zachomega]

Just finished a fun AR pistol build and I was checking function with snap caps and every so often I got a failure to extract leaving a cartridge in the chamber and slamming another one into the back of it. It*s a Rainer arms barrel and I made the mistake of trying a budget BCG and went with bear creek as the title suggests because it seems to have great reviews. I*ve thrown together AR*s but I*m no expert by any means. I should have had headspace gauges but I didn*t so I just ordered them. I*ve read it*s quite rare to have headspace issues (or so it*s seemed) in an AR. Was curious if anyone*s used BCA bolts before? I feel like this may be more of an extractor issue as it seems to function fine (again only manually cycling for function check) I*d say 85-90% of the time. But I*m not sure and I*m a little confused on where to go here. Potentially considering handing it off to a smith to look at before I hurt myself lol. Any thoughts on the issue or the bolt itself from experience?

Try putting a donut on the extractor spring or using an extra power extractor. You should already have both of those in your spare parts kit, no?

-Zach

[NathanB]

Honestly it’s a low end manufacturer with dozens upon dozens of reports of bad quality.

[BrentJennings]

If you have another bolt try ot to see if the issue persists. Check the bolt face to make sure they didnt send you a 7.62 bolt on accident,and measure the extractor isn't broke (bca had a bad batch of extractors) you could change the extractor spring and o ring to see if it helps.

That's actually good to know, thank you. I bought it from a very like random online store front which I've never heard of so I wouldn't be surprised if they had old stock and maybe still had the bad extractor batch. I think proactively I'll order a new extractor kit, like the BCM one and just swap it out anyway. Definitely not a 7.62 though

[BrentJennings]

Try putting a donut on the extractor spring or using an extra power extractor. You should already have both of those in your spare parts kit, no?

-Zach

I'm stupid so I don't have spare parts yet lol. When I order another $4 extractor I'll prob order double of nearly everything else to make the order worth it lol.

[Delkal]

Did you just try and test with snap caps? Take it to the range and put some live ammo thru it to see if there is a problem.

[icp4life162005]

I'd personally just shoot the damn thing, and check it after each shot.


It's a new build, still has some roughness and tension till everything settles in together. Since 9 out of 10 just playing around with snap caps is fine, it could even be a snap cap issue.
You could pull the firing pin out of the bolt and try clambering real(or dummies brass) ammunition as well