beautiful piece
bought this after research of nickle boron...was not disappointed. This piece is impeccable. It looks great in the AR and cant wait to fire the weapon. It IS worth the money.
awesome upgrade!
This BCG rocks! Is WAY smoother than the phosphate one the rifle came with. Metal has a "greasy" feel even when dry, is really slick. Cleaned up in about 2 minutes with only a paper towel. Extraction/ejection in also a ton more positive than factory BCG was. Well worth every dime, don't know why they are not standard on every AR. Still would recommend lube on the locking lugs and a light coat inside receiver, they still need it, but the BCG is good to go. Very good upgrade, highly recommended.
works like you want it to
I gave it five for it is slick, cleans fast with wiping, Head spaced perfectly in my new barrel. I can find no major faults to ding it with a four star. I will say however that it came to me unopened in original packaging dirty. Brass residue on the bolt face as well as carbon on the FP and inside carrier. Some might not care about attention to detail, I am not one of those. Perhaps its WMD's SOP to test fire each and every bolt...which is fine with me but they should follow that with a minor cleaning prior to customer inspection. Otherwise, I am very satisfied with this product and even saved a buck over their competitor. Thanks Brownells for always continuing to try new vendors that are competitively priced!
Not awesome, but not total garbage.
I have used two of these BCG in both 5.56 and a 300 BLK build. While I have had more success with other brands (Fail Zero and ICE Arms), the WMD does do the job for which is was intended, mostly. Of the two I used, both had their own their own issues. The first one had a coating that didn't quite live up the hype. At some point during cleaning I grabbed the bolt carrier and put a nice thumbprint on finish that would not come off. It was very strange given the coating is supposed to be harder than chrome. The print did not in anyway inhibit performance, so I just went with it. The other one I used has yet to be fired, but it seems to lock up really, really tight. I don't know if it is a headspace issue or just the coating on the lugs forcing a tight lock. Due to this issue, I have not fired the weapon and will not until I get some decent headspace gauges. These two issues are why I cannot give this product more stars. I will update once I figure out the issue with the second bolt.
Not as good as claimed
Quality at first looks great, there is a super slick finish even after it has been fired. I bought this having been a 0331 grunt in the corps, and knew of ways to improve the platform. I had decided NiB was the way to go. Unfortunately this product does not live up to its hype. As claimed by the factory, cleaning involves a simple wipe down...totally not true. After firing there is definitely a lot of discoloration in the finish, something WMD doesn't tell you about. The biggest problem was that after 500 rounds my bolt began to seize in the carrier, hard, so hard that the only way to fix it was to disassemble the bolt. In fact the inside on my upper now wears a perfect little scar where this bolt would rub on cycling. No oiling was helping the bolt to function right. After inspecting it I found loads of stuck on carbon, which has taken a couple hours to scrape out. And no it was not a simple wipe off, I've been at it for hours with a reemer/scraper trying to get it all off, and still have yet to get it all off. Maybe I didn't break it in or lube it right, however, no factory information provided any insight into lube or break-in, just that I could drop it in and shoot. All in all it has taken just as much effort to clean as a standard mil-spec bolt would, which totally defeats the purpose of this expensive bolt in the first place. I would NOT spend this kind of money for another one, I feel like the factory claim falls flat on its face when presented with real world conditions. With the seizing, the discoloration, and no real performance or cleaning gains, I'd say you're better off with your existing bolt or a much cheaper standard coated bolt.
3 year review
I have had this bolt for 3 years and have tried it in 3 AR's. I initially had issues with carbon build up, and I think I've fixed that by running it wet with lube. In all 3 guns I have noticed that the cam pin chews on the receiver prior to the round recess in the receiver for it, causing shiny to come out within 100rds. 3 times I have replaced this bolt with regular parkerized bolts. I see they're out of stock, hopefully because they aren't made anymore, but if they do come in stock do yourself a favor and buy a better bolt.
Poor finish
Finish is definitely bad. Very rough, not easy to clean. Would prefer something slicker like a blacknitride finish.
Poor workmanship
Don't get this one if you want quality. Get the Spikes or Fail-Zero carrier. Poor machine work in carrier and bolt.
