What should I do with this BCG?

[royta]

In December of 2006 I bought a Sabre Defense upper from Talon Arms. Since then, I have learned there is a chance the upper receiver might not be manufacturered by SDI. Nevertheless, the barrel is SDI, and it is all I have for the moment. Robert at Talon told me the uppers were not available from SDI with Auto bolt carriers, but he did sell them seperate and would swap out the Semi carrier with an Auto carrier.

The bolt itself is marked with a CM. Please look at the pics and tell me what items I should probably replace. At the very least, I'd like to replace the bolt with a BCM bolt. However, I'm not sure if I should replace the gas key and/or the carrier too. To my untrained eye, the carrier seems fine, and perhaps the gas key would be fine too.

Thanks for the advice and help.

There are other pictures HERE which you may find useful.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I have put over 80 but under 100 rounds through this upper, using the exact bolt carrier group you see. Does the wear seem to match 100 rounds of SAAMI spec .223?



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[Robb Jensen]

I'd just use it. If it doesn't work then fix it.

[markm]

Since then, I have learned there is a chance the upper receiver might not be manufacturered by SDI.

If the upper doesn't say SABRE DEFENCE in white lettering on the left side, then it's probably not an SDI upper. I'm not sure what that would matter though. I don't know what would make an SDI upper rec. any better than a CMT or whatever.

(Like Ralph said... I'd just shoot it. As far as the bolt group goes... there's just WAY TOO MUCH unecessary bolt/carrier replacing going on these days.)

[M4arc]

Shoot it. If you're not experiencing any failures it's good to go. You might replace the extractor spring eventually but slap it back in the upper and shoot the piss out of it.

[JBnTX]

I'd just use it. If it doesn't work then fix it.

How it works is a better indicator of it's quality than how it looks.

Shoot it, don't replace anything unless it breaks, which is highly
unlikely.

[Fringe]

Yep. I shoot all mine in hopes of breaking them. I have not been able to do this yet.

[KyAKGuy]

Wear?
What wear...?

Shoot the shit out of it.

KyAKGuy

[markm]

Update:

UVvis just pointed out to me that there are older Sabre uppers that have NO MARKINGS at all on them.

[UVvis]

Update:

UVvis just pointed out to me that there are older Sabre uppers that have NO MARKINGS at all on them.

I have a Sabre bolt carrier group that came with a SDI factory upper. I think the bolt had the same markings as yours. Your bolt carrier, key and fasteners all look good. Shoot the snot out of it.

I swapped to an auto carrier with my SDI middy, but kept the cam pin, firing pin, retainer and bolt. I've since put a bunch of rounds through it, at least 6k. Everything has worked fine, with the standard extractor spring and gas ring replacement.

[royta]

Update:

UVvis just pointed out to me that there are older Sabre uppers that have NO MARKINGS at all on them.

Yes, I believe the transition to the marked uppers took place in early 2007.



Thanks for the advice folks. I was a little worried because the bolt was not MP or MPI marked, and the finish on the gas key was really nasty. I wasn't sure if that was indicating the carrier assembly as a whole was of lower quality, something I might not to stake my life upon.