When you get right down to it, criticism of Bravo Company MFG products comes from people who simply don’t understand what makes a quality AR for hard use, and have to resort to calling BCM fans “kool aid drinkers” in lieu of any real criticism. Well, I’m here to tell you that those people are right.
The BCM kool aid is popular. That’s because BCM is renowned for producing some of the highest quality, most functional AR-15 uppers in the business. If gravitating towards the best product on the market at a reasonable price makes me a kool aid drinker, so be it.
However, describing a product as “the best” doesn’t really mean much these days. It seems that every product is “the best”, and the AR-15 world is no exception. How, then, do we determine if an AR product really is that good?
Well, one of the first tools you can use is “the chart“, which gives you a list of, as the creator puts it, “desirable features.” Not surprisingly, the BCM checks every box. However, quality goes deeper than just those items. As I stated recently, there are other items that have an effect on the function of an AR – and the BCM offerings score high for them. I have other items on a list that I will be discussing in the future – and again, the BCM is not lacking in any of those areas, either. Simply put, there are no excuses, and there are no cut corners.
Until recently, though, the only way to buy a complete BCM rifle was to purchase an upper and a lower separately, or purchase an upper and a lower that had been put together by one of BCM’s dealers. Starting in late June, though, you’ll be able to buy complete BCM rifles/carbines directly from them, and hopefully, you’ll start to see them on the shelves of some gun stores (I don’t know if that will actually happen).
Why is this important? Well, it’s a really simple way to get one of the best military-pattern carbines on the market. I have three complete BCM ARs at the moment for T&E – a Mk12 SPR, a 16″ lightweight midlength, and a 14.5″ midlength – and each one has exceeded my expectations. In fact, they’ve redefined what I consider to be a “good” AR.
When I first became interested in AR-15s, there was nothing remotely like a complete BCM available. Options were limited and truly quality stuff was hard to find. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. If you just want to place one order and have a top quality rifle show up at your FFL in a few days, the complete BCM ARs are definitely for you.
This article couldn’t have summed up BCM rifles any better. I recently purchased a BCM A4 off a popular AR website; by all appearances, it couldn’t have had more than 100 rounds through it. After the Brown Truck dropped it off, I took it to the range the next day. Without touching the sights, I sent an M855 round down range and hit an 18″dia. steel plate @ 200 yrds; and this was my first shot! BCM’s A4 is rock solid (zero wobble) and has a “heft” to it that gives this owner a sense of owning a quality AR.