14.5 Pinned and welded vs 16

[frozentundra]

I've been buying 14.5" mid-length uppers for our work guns for several years. We only run full power 5.56 ammo through them and they have run 100%.

If you don't mind me asking, what 5.56 pressure duty load are you using?

Also, I attended your performance under stress presentation at Paul-E-Palooza 2017. It was a real eye-opener! Thanks for that!

[rob_s]

Unless you live somewhere that will require you to pin anyway, 14.5” pinned is silly.

ETA:
I had what was, I think, one of the first BCM 14.5” midlength pre-production guns with a pinned PWS muzzle brake back when everyone was saying that a 14.5” midlength would never run right. I was one of those people, and even Paul wasn’t sure they could get it to work, so he sent me one to test. I don’t recall having any issue with it shottng Wolf or anything else. This was back in 2010 I believe.

[NH Shooter]

I seem to come across this combination frequently. 16 inch BCM mid-length and 75 grain Gold Dots. Just like I see, "Glock 19 and 147 HST". How long have you used your BCMs?

The current iteration for about five years. I've owned quite a few BCM uppers over the last 12 years or so and other than one that couldn't group better than about 8 MOA, they have all been great. Zero function issues with any of them.

I had a 14.5 mid-length that shot as well as my current 16-inch upper. I paid once to have the muzzle device changed, then me being me and still not happy, decided the 16-inch would be better for my never-ending muzzle device experimentation. The ironic part is I finally settled on a standard A2 birdcage on the current rifle (light weight, short and effective). The 16-inch with a birdcage is only about an inch longer than the 14.5 with the pinned muzzle device.

The 75 GD load isn't the best for super long range due to its ballistics, but for 300 yards and under the terminal ballistics from the 16-inch barrel are impressive. The load typically holds about 1.3 MOA in my current rifle, functions smoothly and reliably.

[rob_s]

Unless you live somewhere that will require you to pin anyway, 14.5” pinned is silly.

ETA:
I had what was, I think, one of the first BCM 14.5” midlength pre-production guns with a pinned PWS muzzle brake back when everyone was saying that a 14.5” midlength would never run right. I was one of those people, and even Paul wasn’t sure they could get it to work, so he sent me one to test. I don’t recall having any issue with it shottng Wolf or anything else. This was back in 2010 I believe.

More here
https://www.m4carbine.net/archive/in...p/t-56626.html

And my round counts. That 75 grain Wolf turned out to have problems In a lot of guns so 1 failure in 770 rounds is really good.
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...828#post939828

These are my words but not my pictures.
https://www.tactical-life.com/firear...ecce-14-556mm/

[John Hearne]

If you don't mind me asking, what 5.56 pressure duty load are you using?

We're shooting 5.56 off of the FBI contract. We've run the Winchester 64 gr BSB and Federal 62 gr Bonded Tactical for duty ammo. We have shot a boatload of the 62 gr OTM practice ammo.

Also, I attended your performance under stress presentation at Paul-E-Palooza 2017. It was a real eye-opener! Thanks for that!

The pleasure was mine. That is a labor of love.