Adcor B.E.A.R. ELITE First Impressions Review/Issues

[RD62]

Badly made rifle is badly made rifle. Piston or direct impingement has nothing to it - both can be made good or wrong.

You are absolutely right, and there are many fine piston operated rifles, however a piston on an AR is unnecessary and a solution in search of a problem (at least in my opinion).

[morbidbattlecry]

I almost went for one of these a few months ago... until I realized I would lose 25% of the useable rail space and checked the lower's machining.
Went with a "plain Jane" LMT with FA BCG and H buffer from the get go.
No regrets...

You can remove the charging handle if you don't want to use it. It doesn't affect its function. Thats what i was going to do if i got one.

[tvfreakarms]

WOW when i first saw this i was impressed. The concept was really cool and i like that fact that the side charging handle can be switched since i'm a lefty. But wow talk about some major issues. Putting a rail cover caused the side charging handle not to work properly among other things that was mentioned.
Bad QC and customer service. That's a deal break for me. Spending that kind of money and you get service like that.

Before releasing this they should of done some major testing and functionality before releasing it to consumers. Its like they wanted to release it quick to make a few bucks.

I'll wait a few yrs and see where this company goes first before even thinking of buying one.

[variablebinary]

If I can get a decent deal on the 10.5" model, I might pick one up.

[ares armor]

Just a question...

The catch for the front side charger is what is getting shaved off.

Does this actually affect anything that is not aesthetic? If i remember right from watching their video on the rifle, I dont think that it will make a difference because what is holding that part there is the spring behind it not the catch... I may be wrong though. Does anyone know for sure?

ETA: One of my friends has one of these on order. he just got the upper though so this is the only thing that would matter. I will pass on any info to him. If it makes a difference other than aesthetic i will try to talk him into cancelling, if not who really cares what it looks like. thanks.

[Freerunner]

Just a question...

The catch for the front side charger is what is getting shaved off.

Does this actually affect anything that is not aesthetic? If i remember right from watching their video on the rifle, I dont think that it will make a difference because what is holding that part there is the spring behind it not the catch... I may be wrong though. Does anyone know for sure?

ETA: One of my friends has one of these on order. he just got the upper though so this is the only thing that would matter. I will pass on any info to him. If it makes a difference other than aesthetic i will try to talk him into cancelling, if not who really cares what it looks like. thanks.

For me, this was not a aesthetic issue, this was a functioning issue. Unfortunately, the pictures I took of the metal being taken off the front charging handle catch did not show up as well as I had hoped (the glare from the light on the metal did not allow great detail to be shown, such as the dimples in the metal). In my case, the front charging handle on this particular rifle was taking chunks of metal off of the catches rear ledge. You can see the flakes of metal all over that particular area of the weapon (enlarge the picture and you will see what I am talking about). If you take a close look at the fifth picture down you will notice the dimples (chunks of metal being removed), and if you compare both rounded sides of the charging handle catch, you will notice that the side with the damage no longer is rounded but jagged due to the metal being hammered and basically destroyed. In fact, I had wiped most of the flakes off after the initial first dozen racks of the front charging handle, the metal flakes that are shown (within the pictures provided) are after the second dozen racks of the slide.

The amount of metal that was coming off with each racking of the front charging handle lead me to believe that after a hundred or more racks that the front charging handle catch would not longer function because the rear ledge would no longer be present. Remember, this is an assumption, and further testing would have to be done in order for me or anyone else to tell for sure.

Also, the forth picture down will show what had happened to the charging handles cover. On the bottom side of the charging handle, you can see where the cover became torn and worn from the contact with the catches ledge. It seems pretty silly to put a cover over the charging handle if it is only going to become ripped and torn. The more I racked the slide back, the more damage there was to the charging handle cover. I could see it just falling off in the future.

Side Note: The front charging handle catch (cut out in the front of the rail system) is used to hold the front charging handle in place when not in use. If this catch was not there the front charging handle would move around freely.

I hope this answers your questions.

[Ed L.]

If I can get a decent deal on the 10.5" model, I might pick one up.

After reading about the issues with the gun and the company's response on the first page?

I like exotic guns, but if a modern longarm doesn't offer the reliability/durability of a Colt/BCM, I'm not interested.

[Freerunner]

Shouldn't have bought that contraption in the first place.




If you get a refund what are you going to buy with it?

I will be using the refund money to buy a Daniel Defense DDM4 V3, and I will put the change towards an Arsenal SGL21-61.

[eternal24k]

thanks for the writeup. How unfortunate, but as suspected it's another pass for me.

[snakyjake]

Thanks for saving me the trouble of buying this gun. Sorry that you weren't treated well by the manufacturer. If I'm going to spend a lot of money for a brand I don't recognize and a proprietary design....I want EXCELLENT and trusted manufacturer support. They don't sound like they care about quality or the customer, and only the design.