I often get asked about my opinion on budget priced firearms. Many of those inquiries come from folks who are looking for a defensive tool who don’t have a lot of money to spend. While I would love to test and review every firearm I receive an inquiry about, that’s just not practical. I simply don’t have endless resources to do that. As such, I get really excited when an opportunity to test and evaluate a firearm that I wouldn’t have otherwise purchased myself presents itself. And this was exactly the case with the Bear Creek Arsenal BC-15, thanks to contributions from Bear Creek Arsenal, Primary Arms, and Ammo To Go.
Full disclosure time. I have affiliate relationships with Bear Creek Arsenal and Primary Arms. That means that I get a small commission from sales that occur on those organization’s websites following the use of a link on this blog. Additionally, Bear Creek Arsenal provided the BC-15 rifle being reviewed in this post. Primary Arms provided the SLx 1-6x24mm LPVO used for the review. And Ammo To Go, with whom I have no monetary relationship with, supplied the ammunition. All of those items were provided at no cost to me with the understanding that I would review, write about, and discuss those items honestly and transparently.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the BC-15.
What is a Bear Creek Arsenal BC-15?
The Bear Creek Arsenal BC-15 is a very budget friendly AR-15 pattern rifle. While they are available in various cartridge configurations, they are, for the most part, a no frills entry level rifle that can be had for somewhere in the $300 to $500 range.
By no frills, I literally mean no frills. Take the 16″ BC-15 chambered for 5.56 NATO that Bear Creek Arsenal (BCA) sent to me for instance. The retail package was consisted of:
- A cardboard box,
- a manual,
- a cable lock,
- and the rifle.
The package is hardly range ready since it didn’t include a sighting system nor a single magazine. Thankfully there are budget friendly remedies for that. Magpul 30-round Gen 2 PMAG magazines retail for under $13 and can be found for as little as $8 on sale. A decent set of sights, like the Magpul MBUS flip ups, can be acquired for under $100. Alternatively, for another $100 one can go with a budget friendly red dot sight, like the Primary Arms SLx MD-25 G2. Or for yet another $100, an low-powered variable-optic (LPVO), like the Primary Arms SLx 1-6x24mm SFP Gen IV Rifle Scope that Primary Arms provided me with and I mounted on the BC-15, is yet another option. Which option is best depends on one’s personal budget constraints and use case, but the range ready solution is entirely possible for well under $900 regardless of which route is taken.
Let’s walk the rifle from tip to butt to get a better idea of how plain Jane this no frills rifle really is.
Starting with the business end we have an A2 bird cage muzzle device which is by far the most common flash hider found on AR-15 patterned rifles. That flash hider adorns the muzzle of the 5.56 NATO chambered 16″ barrel.
The gas block and gas tube of the mid-length gas system along with the barrel are shrouded by the BCA MLOK rail. Two small Picatinny rail sections can be found on the foremost and rearmost portions on the top side of the octagonal rail which is otherwise vented. The remaining seven sides of the rail have MLOK compatible slots. There are quick detach sling mount points on the front and rear of 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock sides of the rail. The rail is secured to the upper receiver by four hex screws on each side of the rail. In my opinion, the rail feels a bit clunky and heavy, but it is something I can overlook for a rifle at this price point assuming that it functions reasonably well, which it does.
As far as I can tell, all the current BC-15 offerings, at least at the time of writing, use standard mil-spec upper and lower receivers. However, the one on this particular BC-15, which is at least one year old, uses a non-standard receiver that has no forward assist or dust cover. But, it does have a full length Picatinny rail section on top of the receiver.
The lower receiver on this particular BC-15 is also non-standard with an integral trigger guard but accepts the standard controls.
As far as I can tell all of the internals are standard mil-spec. That includes the A2 buffer and tube, bolt carrier group (BCG), charging handle, trigger, safety, bolt catch, and mag release. The grip appears to be an AR-STONER A2 plastic grip while the stock appears to be an AR-STONER M4 collapsible stock.
This is about as plain Jane as it gets minus the non-standard receivers.
How well does the BC-15 perform?
Ultra budget firearms catch a lot of heat and hate on the internet. Some of it is well deserved. But some of it is misplaced. I’d even argue that some of the misplaced negativity is prematurely assumed. The assumption being that just because it’s cheap it must be trash. After all, you get what you pay for, right?
There is certainly some truth behind the old adage of “you get what you pay for”. But it doesn’t hurt to balance that adage against expectations. Expecting an ultra budget rifle to deliver sub MOA performance flawlessly for hundreds of thousands of rounds is unrealistic. Frankly, that’s probably not realistic for any AR-15 regardless of lineage, roll mark, or price tag.
Expecting reliable and practical performance from an ultra budget rifle is, on the other hand, realistic. And that is something that this BC-15 did with the ammunition that Ammo To Go provided which consisted of a half dozen boxes of the lowest priced .223 Remington and half dozen boxes of lowest priced 5.56 NATO ammunition they had in stock at the moment which were:
Why the lowest priced ammunition? Because that is most likely ammunition that some one who procured an ultra budget AR-15 would purchase.
The BC-15 proved to be a 2 MOA AR-15 pattern rifle capable of chewing through 240 rounds of the lowest priced factory ammunition without a single hiccup which I would chalk up as passing my personal reliability evaluation for an AR-15. Meaning I would rely on this particular rifle to train with or for home defense.
Closing Thoughts
While 240 rounds is enough for a reliability check, I can’t yet speak to this rifle’s durability or longevity. Even though that round count is still relatively low and the BC-15 is an ultra budget rifle, I think it would be prudent for those who plan to train and practice regularly with it while it serves double duty as a home defense rifle to work towards procuring a second one to take over the home defense rifle role after assessing its reliability as soon as it is feasible to do so.
Outside of that, I think the BC-15 works well as an entry level and value priced AR-15 patterned rifle. Yeah, it’s a little ugly, a little clunky, and nothing to write home about, but it works.
Leave a Reply