Help me out. I recently received my BCM middy. Fantastic upper, but after asking for advise on this board, I went with the standard barrel instead of the cold hammer forged option. I figured I would never appreciate the advantages of the better barrel, so I saved $100. Now I’m wondering if I was penny wise and pound foolish. Anyone skip the cold hammer forge option and later have a reason to regret it?
you will have to do lots and lots of shooting to regret it. which will mean spend thousands more on ammo than that 100 dollars you saved to wear out either barrel.
I wouldn’t have buyer’s remorse. You purchased a solid upper with a barrel that should serve you quite well.
Shoot two mags and call me back in the morning. 
Did you think that this was your last upper you’d ever buy? Start saving your pennies for the next BCM Upper.
Consider yourself lucky that you realize the differences in the barrels, and that either one is better than almost any other barrel you’ll run up against at the range.
Buy a Noveske and you wont be worrying about silly shit like that
;)<-----<< wink
Your BCM middy upper will serve you well with a standard barrel.
Here’s a blurb from one of USMC03’s posts about the one Pat Rodgers uses in his school.
On 12-24-09 I contacted Pat Rogers to see what the current round count of the BCM 16" Mid-Length that he has been loaning out to students. Pat refers to this BCM Mid-Length as “Filthy 14” and provided me with the following information on this gun:
************************************************** ************************************************** ************************************* "Filthy #14 is the most used, and has (as 12-24-09) 28905 rounds down range. The barrel is original. It has never had a brush put through it. -At 16,400 rounds bolt lug cracked. Replaced the bolt carrier group
-At approximately 26,000 rounds fired a 5 shot 50m group that went into 0.5". This might not be that tight at 100 meters.
-At 26,450 rds had 3 failures to extract. Replaced BCG and cleaned gun for the first time
We use only SLip2000 EWL for lube and Slip 2000 725 to clean.
All of the rounds were fired during class (at the rate of approximately 1,250 rounds every 3 days)
I do not recommend allowing the gun to go this long without PM (preventive maintenance). However, we wanted to see how far we could take this particular gun (#14) without being burdened by the myth of meticulous cleaning."
Keep in mind the punishment that Pat Rogers’ BCM mid-length has been put through. The gun is being shot approximately 8 hours a day in a tactical training class environment at the rate of approximately 1,250 rounds every 3 days. Very few people have the time, money, or effort to run a gun like that for 28,905 rounds. This upper has the standard barrel, not the new BFH (cold hammer forged) barrel.
I shot “filthy 14” over the course of three days in November, not a damn thing wrong with that rifle barrel.
Has anyone here even heard of an actual barrel failure, not counting firearms used by the military? I’ve never heard of one.
Thanks, guys. I feel better.
Shoot two mags and call me back in the morning.
This is funny.
Your barrel will take some time to wear out, perhaps a lifetime should you be a casual shooter. But if you are looking to put it through the works (classes, excessive range shooting, regular combat ;)), then you might want the upgrade now.
Shoot it up! Spend the difference in price on ammo and practice.
It depends on what you mean by barrel failure.
Most heavy duty shooters will rebarrel when their accuracy drops to unacceptable levels (throat erosion) or their weapon fails to function properly (gas port erosion).
Barrels that are fired with a bore obstruction will and have failed to remain a continuous structure.
But if you mean, “barrel blows up due to wear”, then no, they do not happen.
casual shooters wont even come close to wearing down a standard barrel, HF barrels last twice as long as standards
What was the hammer forged version going to do that this one won’t for your needs?
Standard here…no regrets
What was the hammer forged version going to do that this one won’t for your needs?
Other than possibly lasting longer, I’ve no idea. I always figured an AR15 barrel of high quality would last for at least 20,000 rounds of 5.56 ammo fired in a non-FA mode. With a 1,000 round class each year (I wish) and another 100 + rounds a month in training, thats about 10 years of useful life. At my age, thats enough.
I then got to thinking about my kids, and leaving my rifles to them. Suddently, doubling the rifles useful life seemed like a good idea. On the other hand, as a previous poster said, if I really want “the best” I should buy a Noveske and be done with it. Sometimes I think I just worry too much.
What’s better about a Noveske? His gimmicky double thick chrome-lining? What will that get you over the BCM besides a higher price tag? If you shoot the barrel out, buy a new BCM barrel or upper and go to town…
I always took the ‘Buy Noveske’ line to mean the same thing as ‘Buy IBM’. The old line was that no one was ever fired for buying an IBM. If you are willing to chuck money at the problem and have the greatest chance of having a good rifle with little chance of issues, a Noveske seems to be the preffered choice.
Technically, I don’t think the buyer has classical ‘buyers remorse’ because that is usually related to spending too much. Here he is wondering if he didn’t spend as much as he should have.
I personally like spending enough on gas guns, more on glass, and too much on precision guns.
Did my prescription work? 
You’re worrying about nothing. This gun will serve you exceptionally well. Be happy and shoot up a bunch of ammo.
Exactly how are Noveske double lined chrome barrels “gimmicky”. Have you ever fired rounds through one?