If you do a lot of retro rifle builds — and I do — you may be excited to know that Luth-AR just dropped a new bolt carrier group (BCG). The new Chrome Slick Side BCG is designed for AR uppers without forward assists.
A Slick Side Solution
You can, of course, run a regular BCG in an early slick side AR upper. In fact the military switched over to bolt carriers with forward assist notches while still issuing rifles with slick side uppers. So it wouldn’t have been uncommon to find, say, an Air Force GAU-5/A or GAU-5A/A with a slick side upper and a notched BCG. They’ll work in basically any upper.
But if you’re doing a build of an early rifle, like my Colt 601 clone, then you want that smooth carrier with chrome finish. It’s an attention-to-detail thing for cloners, although it’s worth noting that these BCG’s will work just fine in a modern upper that doesn’t have a forward assist too.
Smooth carriers can be hard to find sometimes, so it’s nice to have another option on the market.
Luth-AR’s BCG is made of 8620 steel, and heat treated to Army specifications. It’s chrome lined with a chrome exterior finish. The BCG consists of a chrome bolt carrier without forward assist serrations, a chrome carrier key, chrome cam pin, and chrome retro firing pin retaining pin. Two bolt carrier screws and the firing pin are provided as well.
Bolt Carrier Specs:
- Carrier: 8620 steel
- Cam pin: 4340 Alloy steel
- Carrier key: 4130 Alloy steel
- Army Spec Heat Treatment
- Chrome Lined and Chrome Finish
- Auto or Semi-Auto cut (based on available inventory)
Bolt:
- C158 Material
- Mil-Spec heat treat
- Chrome Finish
Extractor:
- 4140 Chrome Moly
- Machined from bar-stock
- Mil-Spec heat treat
- Chrome Finish
Luth-AR’s Chrome BCG’s are made in the USA and have an MSRP of $189.99
A little ignorant here, I am. Would this work in an upper with the forward assist? I’ve never used mine but that’s what came with the uppers (Stag).
Would work fine.. But the forward assist would be useless because it doesn’t have the notches on it so nothing for the FA to ‘push’ against.
This is just a BGC without the FA needed notches.
They make a big deal in the marketing material about it being chrome. But the fact is for less you can get a standard BCG that’s black anodized with chrome on the inner friction surfaces and it will give the same service and life span.
Correction for : “But the fact is for less you can get a standard BCG that’s black anodized…”
Should have been…
But the fact is for less (about $60.00) you can get a standard BCG that’s black anodized color nitride…
Thanks. I was worried the FA might protrude into the BCG notches just a little, and if there are no notches, the BCG might not fit.