That’s the first time I’ve ever won any kind of contest, and the prize is a $290 fancy-pants BCG from Lantac! The timing couldn’t be more perfect. I just finished building another AR carbine, and the BCG I scavenged from another upper didn’t want to go into battery reliably when I fired it for the first time this past Saturday. So I was going to order a new one yesterday anyway, and then they contacted me to let me know I’d won this one. It shipped today. I’m pretty stoked.
Looks cool. I’m kind of a lame builder of AR-15s...this appears chrome plated which indicates quality in my understanding. I understand the BCG, barrel and upper overall are the key components. So are you going to make this one a SBR? I know it’s outrageously expensive, but maybe get a registered lower and build a modern M-4!
4/13/1996 Completed CHL Class, 4/16/1996 Fingerprints, Affidavits, and Application Mailed, 10/4/1996 Received CHL, renewed 1998, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2016...). "ATF... Uhhh...heh...heh....Alcohol, tobacco, and GUNS!! Cool!!!!"
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. - John Adams
ScottDLS wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2019 3:47 am
Looks cool. I’m kind of a lame builder of AR-15s...this appears chrome plated which indicates quality in my understanding. I understand the BCG, barrel and upper overall are the key components. So are you going to make this one a SBR? I know it’s outrageously expensive, but maybe get a registered lower and build a modern M-4!
It’s nickel-boron coated (NiB), which gives it additional lubricity and surface hardness. Makes it a lot easier to clean. Most gunk will just wipe off with a rag. This particular unit also differs from standard in that the gas vents are a little oversized and angled forward a bit, making for less gas blowback into the shooter's face when firing suppressed—which I do a lot of.
There’s a review of its features here:
I’m not building a new AR around it. What happened was that I took an AR I already owned in a DMR/SPR configuration with a Wylde-chambered 1:8 18" stainless Odin Works heavy match-grade barrel, and I built a second lighter upper for it with a SOLGW md-length 16" gov’t profile barrel with a 5.56 NATO chamber. That way I can switch back and forth between light carbine and heavy SPR just by swapping uppers.
Here’s the original rifle:
Here it is with the lighter upper:
The existing BCG is a Smith Enterprises match grade unit in the SPR upper, and it was well worn-in to the shape and tolerances of the match-grade setup, such that when using it with the new, mil-spec upper's chamber, I had problems getting it to consistently go all the way forward into battery when testing/zeroing last Saturday. It would go forward enough to allow the hammer to fire the firing pin, but not forward enough for the pin to make contact with the primer. It was failing to fire about half the time.
So when I got it home, I tested the fit against some other BCGs I have from other ARs, and the others went into the new upper with varying degrees of greater ease than the match-grade unit. For instance, two completely Mil-Spec units I have from Daniel Defense and BCM seemed to seat the bolts into the star chamber much more easily, with the BCM being just a hair tighter than the Daniel Defense.
So I endeavored to order a replacement BCG, and just leave the match grade unit in the SPR upper. Frankly, I had forgotten that I had entered the Lantac contest, and twitter having something lime 330 million monthly users, I didn’t seriously expect to win anything when I entered it. They told me they shipped it yesterday, and since they’re in Fort Worth and I’m in NRH, I’d expect to have it by tomorrow.
I’ll test it, and if there’s still issues, I’ll try swapping it with the BCG that’s in my 5.56 SBR upper—an inexpensive DMPS unit that I had custom nickel-phosphate plated by a friend of AndyC's a while back.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
