Bear Creek Arsenal/Moore Manufacturing

I just wanted to share an incident that my middle son has been suffering through to hopefully prevent some of you from having to go through like he has.

Back on 2/9/2018, my son ordered a 7.62x39 complete bear creek arsenal upper receiver from classic firearms.

In fairness, classic has tried to help some, but ultimately, it is up to them to make this right because they are the vendor that he purchased it from.

The original barrel was chambered short. meaning, wrong. He loaded the gun, but the bolt wasn't closed all the way. It wouldn't chamber the round.

We had to mortar it so badly that the charging handle bent in the process of finally getting the round out. Seperating the upper and lower was not an option since the bolt carrier group was too far rearward and prevented the lower from separating.

Here you can see where the bullet dug into the rifling lands near the arrow. Obviously, the chamber did not enough room for the widest spot on the bullet to clear and chamber.



And for reference that I'm not just making this stuff up:



He contacted classic, and they referred him to bear creek to send it back for repair.

Fast forward several more weeks.

Other than an email saying they got his upper the day it was delivered, he tried contacting them. They said it'll go out in a few days.

Fast forward another week, still nothing. Even though bca's website shows that they have the uppers in stock.

He calls Classic again.

Classic must've contacted bca because later that evening he got a tracking number.

Fast forward until today when UPS dropped it off.

He got a new upper and a magazine.

He thought, great, let's go shoot.

We go up to the range, round chambers,

bolt does not close.

WTH?

Bolt does not remove live round from chamber.

Even bigger WTH?

We use a rod to tap out the bullet easily.

We then take the upper off and I look at the bolt.

It's a 223 bolt, not a 7.62x39 bolt.

I contacted classic because ultimately, it's up to them where this goes from here, but I recommended to my son to dispute the charges.

He said he'll wait to see what classic does but at this point, he's disgusted with trying.

Just for reference, here is the bolt that was in the upper.





It is in fact a 223 bolt. A 7.62x39 cartridge rim is .443" in diameter.

I look up bear creeks address to see what kind of joint the place is. If you get on street view, you can see that the building is marked MMC corporate HQ. Not, bear creek arsenal.

So, when I look up MMC, comes up moore manufacturing. Which also has AR15's listed on their website.

So, apparently, someone either has a marking variance approved with atf, or someone is doing business as bear creek arsenal to pad their liability.

There you have it.

http://www.mooresmachine.com/index.html

Notice the building that google lists on the streetview if you search for bear creek arsenal is one in the same.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bear creek arsenal&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&ie=&oe=

https://www.bearcreekarsenal.com/

After some more internet sleuthing, I find this on the better business buereau.

https://www.bbb.org/raleigh-durham/...in-sanford-nc-90279494/reviews-and-complaints

7 negative, 1 positive.

02/23/18
Jon L.
Negative
I purchased a gun from this company got the gun shot two shots in the gun blew up on me. The gun was short chambered . I am still trying to get a refund .

He called classic firearms again today.

And again, classic referred him straight back to bca, where they sent him another return shipping label. I can tell you now that I won't ever buy anything from classic or bear creek after this circus.

For what it is worth, I wrote Tim Perry, Moore's plant manager an email this evening. If anyone is interested in reading it, speaks volumes and is a lot nicer than I wanted to be.

------------------------------------

Good evening Mr. Perry.

I am contacting you this evening on behalf of my son.

He purchased a bear creek 7.62x39 complete upper receiver from classic firearms on 2/9/2018. The classic firearms order number was 1004014XX. As you can see by the date of my email, has been more than 6 weeks since he purchased it, and he has yet to be able to use it.

The chamber was cut short in the first upper receiver, and was unable to chamber a round. Thankfully, the bolt would not close enough to allow the firing pin to hit the primer, which would have almost certainly caused a catastrophic failure if it had.

This was despite having 3 spent cases in with the upper when he opened up that would indicate that it was test fired, however, that would not have been possible since the bolt would not fully close on a chambered round. And this would also indicate that the upper was not properly headspaced when it left your company.
He returned the upper back to you upon discovering this to bca. The fedex tracking number for that was 1zre88799090381XXX. It was addressed to Andi Penix/warranty.

After almost a month and a couple of phone calls later, bca finally returned the upper receiver to him. That tracking number of the replacement upper was 1zre88790363610XXX shipped on 3/21/17. It was received by him on 3/23/18.

Upon trying to fire the second upper receiver he got from you, we discovered that someone from your company had installed a .223 bolt carrier group in the upper receiver instead of the correct 7.62x39 bolt that the upper was chambered in.

Again, would not have been possible to headspace the upper with an incorrect caliber bolt and is more than a coincidence. That is down right negligent.

This being the second upper receiver that was not headspaced properly and having to return it too this is abysmal. Both would have showed up defective if your company had taken enough care and pride in your work to have taken 3 minutes to have checked it.

I am enclosing several photographs that I have also shared with classic firearms in hopes that you will stand behind your product and get this properly resolved quickly because it is obvious that whoever you have QC'ing these uppers and assembling them are not checking these assemblies and doing their job.

After doing more checking, it looks like he is not alone because there was another report to the better business bureau dated 2/28/18 just after my sons purchase from another upper receiver that did have a catastrophic failure due to you not checking the headspace. https://www.bbb.org/raleigh-durham/business-reviews/gun-dealers/bear-creek-arsenal-in-sanford-nc-90279494/reviews-and-complaints?section=reviews

See the photos that are attached. I would appreciate hearing from you about this. You may call me at -------- or by replying to my email. Thank you.

If it doesn't come back fixed this time, he is going to dispute the charges. Though it will be through classic rather than bear creek.

And what he informed the girl at classic, this was their last chance to make it right because while it may be a warranty issue, classic sold it and is ultimately responsible for it.

He has spoken at length with classic, who keeps referring him to bca, who it bothers to answer the phone or reply to emails.

He is much more patient than I. I would've had my limit when it got here last week.

FWIW, I haven't gotten a reply or a phone call from Mr. Perry today either. I'm not holding my breath that it will happen, but he was told.

I see bear creek stuff for sale all the time, I might even have a barrel in my inventory, still unused. Thanks for the heads up

Would you believe that he still doesn't have the upper back from bca the 2nd time?

True story.

In 2 days (4/9) will be exactly 2 months to the day he purchased it and is yet to fire his first shot.

Totally unacceptable.

I believe Monday he is going to call classic, ask for a refund, and if not given, will probably dispute the charges and let classic and bca figure out what to do with it.

When going over my part list for my 308 build I realized that the barrel I bought was a Bear Creek Arsenal Barrel from Primary Arms.

Guess I better check the chamber specs.

I believe that I would Mike.

If nothing else in the time being, ensure that you can insert a round in the chamber and it seat properly.

Just to update the topic to put it to an end.

On 4/9, exactly 2 months to the day that he purchased it, bear creek still had the upper (the 2nd time). Classic did finally give him a refund.

He gave bear creek every ample opportunity to fix and return it, they failed miserably. Two minutes of attention would have likely solved the problem of it having the wrong caliber bolt in it.

I don't even think classic was interested in refunding the money until he told them they could either refund it or he was going to hang up and go straight to the bank to file a claim with the bank/card because he was tired of excuses and BS.

They changed their tune and that's that.

I have not even used my barrel yet and already want to ditch it and go with a more reputable brand.

Yeah, bear creek is a proven flop. Classic wasn't much of an improvement either.