BCM - Manufacturer or Assembler

[prepare]

When I started building years ago I felt I could build better rifles than many I could buy. Over the years that changed. The last rifle I bought was a factory Colt CCU from Grant. Even with a $1200.00 starting point by the time I add what I wanted in the way of triggers, sights, slings, optics, weapon lights, charging handles, selectors, etc., etc, I still end up around three grand.

I started by buying lots of BCM and Noveske components, then their complete uppers, and the price never seemed to change a lot. I'm still carrying as my main carbine purposely built BCM 14.5 LW and it's my go to for anything other then long range precision. My SBR's are there but really more of a range toy unless the whole world went upside down.

I considered myself a serious builder and have attended three armorer classes over the years. I've got more in specialty tools than most AR's cost. Now it's more of a hobby for friends and co workers. You can build fine rifles but the cost isn't the reason, it's the satisfaction of getting exactly what you want without drawers full of take off parts. But without the training, experience and proper tools you may get a good rifle but you may not. YMMV.

The knowledge you gain/learn along the way is also rewarding and its good to have a skilled/trusted armor in a community of shooters.

[ghideon]

For me personally, it doesn't matter. BCM sells me good stuff (when it's in stock). Take my money!

Professionally, it's different, as other people have pointed out. My company buys servers, by the rack (or dozens of racks) from our vendors. For that level of a purchase, we do get down in the nitty-gritty for the parts and testing that goes into those servers. Testing both on our side and the vendor side, in terms of memory, hard drives, solid state drives etc etc.

While the vendors like to obfuscate an HDD or SSD behind their own part number (and then use 3-4 different manufacturers to fulfill that part #), our own testing and qualification process doesn't like that. When I'm buying a rack of servers, with over 200 drives per rack, and I want 20 racks, I can get picky about the drives I want in those suckers.

We do this to minimize the risk of stuff not working when it lands in the datacenter.

Personally, I like to minimize the risk of stuff not working when I go to the range. So BCM and LMT it is.

[Mr McSimon]

I don't know how much of their business model is manufacturing or how much assembly is, parts of both it sounds like, but their customer service remains top notch in my experience. They may have some misses here and there, but I recently messed up the install of a Dead Air Keymo suppressor mount on my 9" BCM .300 BO upper, as my can wasn't concentric after my work. I was afraid maybe I messed up the threads because I KNOW I over tightened it a little bit, so I contacted them to figure out the best fix. They said send the upper in to let them have a look, after about 2 weeks I got the upper back with the flash hider re-installed properly, and now the can mounts perfectly. They didn't charge me a dime, not even for return shipping, for something that wasn't their mistake nor really their problem. +Rep, I'll buy from them again if I have the excuse.

[Savage018]

I know it’ll be an unpopular opinion on here but I think BCM is one of the most overrated AR15 manufacturers out there. They have a great marketing department though, I’ll give them that.

[n8vmind]

I was thinking more like Noveske

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[alx01]

All BCM parts I've purchased, have been a consistent quality. In my experience, BCM through the years has maintained its reputation for high quality. I haven't heard of any massive recalls or batch parts breakages.

BCM representatives and Paul personally, I believe, had been active previously on this forum with the comments and very transparent regarding the processes and technical details. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. I was very appreciative of the information which was provided. I found it to be very interesting and useful just for general knowledge.

In my opinion BCM products, quality control, and assembly are well above industry average. There are some products which might not fit your particular purpose, preference, use, price point, or esthetics. Or you might not like the marketing, company policy, or its representatives. But the same can be said about any other company out there.

I've been pleasantly surprised recently with BCM's customer service - they've always answered questions promptly, unlike a few years back when they used to ignore emails/calls.

[prepare]

What type of marketing does BCM do? I haven't seen any marketing or advertising from them in long time.

[Cokie]

What type of marketing does BCM do? I haven't seen any marketing or advertising from them in long time.

It seems like its less prevalent but they still advertise their gunfighting team, and I hear ads on Ben Shapiro and the daily wire podcasts still.

[JediGuy]

BCM is smart about their marketing. They have someone do cool pictures on social media, advertise on the quintessential right wing media outlet (Daily Wire), do videos of operators operating operatively with their operator-level gear, and also provide equipment to/do collaborations with respected trainers and media personalities, while then interviewing those trainers and personalities.
Of course, they also market in such places as...this very website.

[26 Inf]

I don't know how much of their business model is manufacturing or how much assembly is, parts of both it sounds like, but their customer service remains top notch in my experience. They may have some misses here and there, but I recently messed up the install of a Dead Air Keymo suppressor mount on my 9" BCM .300 BO upper, as my can wasn't concentric after my work. I was afraid maybe I messed up the threads because I KNOW I over tightened it a little bit, so I contacted them to figure out the best fix. They said send the upper in to let them have a look, after about 2 weeks I got the upper back with the flash hider re-installed properly, and now the can mounts perfectly. They didn't charge me a dime, not even for return shipping, for something that wasn't their mistake nor really their problem. +Rep, I'll buy from them again if I have the excuse.

That is great customer service.

Several years ago there was a guy who posted a litany of what he perceived as imperfections with virtually every BCM product he had purchased. IIRC he sent virtually everything he ordered back for repair or replacement, and was argumentative when they told him things were within their spec. So, finally they tell him 'we can't satisfy you, in the future you need to buy from one of our competitors.'

They fired him as a customer. Some people may disagree, but I felt that was perfectly within their right, and warranted.