So I have been looking to get a NIB bcg for a while now for the ease of cleanup, maintenance, etc. I've been looking at Toolcraft and Fail Zero but then saw the email from aim this afternoon. Does anybody have first hand experience with any of the above? Thanks.

I've owned all 3. I no longer own any of them. I'd say the AIM was the best of the 3, but I chose to remove NIB finished BCGs from my collection.

The Nickel Boron coating is slick, and hard, which makes cleaning easy. They do pose a few issues, some of which are more common, some of which are true for any coating that isn't part of the metal. NIB coating can flake off, which sends hard, slick shards/chips/flakes into the action of your gun. The NIB can tend to build up in the gas key threads on the carrier, which can give a false reading for torque and essentially the screws bottom out instead of stretching to hold the key tight. The high hardness also brings brittle qualities, which can limit how much metal deformation you can achieve without breaking the coating, so carrier key screw staking on NIB BCG's tends to be shallower. The NIB bonding process creates stress in the surface of the steel, and NIB coated bolts can have weakened lugs that will shear sooner than normal.

I would recommend hard chrome or NP3 over NIB for a slick, durable, more "duty-grade" finish on a BCG.

Fail Zero has a reputation for early failures, I sold mine without using it for a number of reasons, including known bad fasteners, weak staking that didn't pass reverse torque, long firing pin protrusion, and a rough bolt bore. Toolcraft is now owned by PSA, I had a recent example NIB BCG in my hands that a friend wanted me to inspect and gauge, and it had an oversized gas key, it had very rough machining marks that were finished over, and it was short for headspace- wouldn't close on a .223 go in any 5.56 barrels I tried it in. My AIM BCG was well executed, though I didn't use it very much before selling.

That's only anecdotal evidence based on one example of each, but I can point you to some videos of BCG diagnostics if you care to go down that rabbit hole.

I bought a few fail zero ones when that was what I could get. Simply do not buy those. Others I can't say.

I bought one of the silver ones from AIM a few weeks ago. Super Easy to clean. So far so good.
It was $100.

Thanks guys, sounds like more analysis needed on my end.

I have one I have never used. Bought one awhile back on sale as a spare.
Looks like they staked the gas key with a toothpick but other than that seems alright.

If you’re looking to research Bolt Carrier Groups, I would suggest check out the YouTube channel School of the American Rifle . He has done evals of many available BCGs.

Toolcraft would be my choice out of that list, consider they prolly make the AiM one.

Be sure to check the staking on the gas key of the AIM BCG's. None I ordered were done correctly and they offer no warranty, only a 30 day return policy.

I have no direct experience with Aim's bolts. I do own parkerized BCGs from Wilson Combat and Rock River. I have NiB BCGs from LWRC, JP, and Wilson Combat.

NiB bolts definitely clean up faster and easier than parkerized ones. There really is no difference on the bolt carriers, as they just don't build up carbon residue. But both types work just fine, and I see no difference in accuracy between the two finish types.

If you shoot suppressed, I highly recommend a coated BCG. The first reason is for cleaning. The second reason is for cycling reliability. Suppressed shooting gets the bolt much dirtier and burns off lube faster. A dry and dirty NiB BCG has a better chance of cycling than a dry and dirty parkerized BCG.

I find that my parkerized bolts wear faster than my NiB bolts. For the first barrel I shot out, I retired the parkerized bolt with the barrel. There was visible wear on two of the lugs.

I had a NiB bolt on the second AR15 barrel that I shot out. The bolt still looks good, and I used it with the new barrel. Both bolts were from Wilson Combat.

Ultimately, both bolt/BCG types work. If you regularly clean and lube your bolts, you probably won't see any difference over the lives of many ARs -- and after shooting out multiple barrels. I clean my BCGs lightly after every day of shooting, and thus they don't build up carbon residue. I've never had an AR go down during training or competition. However, I see dirty and poorly lubed ARs go down in every competition I've attended.

My experience mirrors Fritz. I also shoot my ARs suppressed.

However, I too have moved away from NIB BCGs.

I did not experience any flaking or out-of-spec parts.

I standardized on black-nitrided BCGS for a number of reasons. In my experience, they were just as inherently slick as NIB BCGs, but they did not burnish like NIB carriers (turn brown). Additionally, the black-nitride BCGs tended to cost significantly less than NIB carriers. I also liked that if I had to run the gun dirty, the BCG didn't look horrible and streaky.

I did have a DLC coated carrier for a while, but also did not see any additional benefits with that carrier over the black-nitride carriers.

IMO, there really is no reason to run a phosphated BCG anymore, except if you can't get something better.

I use both Toolcraft and Fail Zero.

No problems.

But I haven't had problems with standard BCGs, either.

Clean up is easier.

The only reason I use them is in the event an action goes long and lubricant is depleted, they may afford some additional run time.

I've had a NIB BCG from LWRC for my 6.8 AR for a good number of years now. It doesn't see as much use as my other ARs, so I'm not concerned about the finish flaking off any time soon.

Now, for my 'working' ARs, I have dd hard chrome BCGs in them.

With the availability of quality nitrided bolt carriers and bolts, I don't see any reason to buy NIB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quench_polish_quench


Nitride is a tremendously good surface treatment, and superior to a coating IMHO.

Back in the late 80's the Army still had some hard chromed bolt carriers floating around. I never saw flaking chrome on either a carrier or a barrel. Correctly done, industrial hard chroming needs to be machined to remove it.

I had a gas key shoot loose on one of the light weights after 2 seasons of three gun. They sent me a replacement and am on year two with this one.
No finish flaking on either unit.

I owned 4 or 5 sets of NIB carriers at one time. Today, I own zero. I dont think they made the carriers smaller to account for the extra thickness of the coating. To me, they seemed out of spec, too thick, didnt improve anything.

If its done right and manufactured right, then yeah, its a good coating and probably a nice thing to have. BUT, and this is a big but, I have Colt and BCM rifles with standard carriers with thousands upon thousands of rounds down range and the regular carriers just flat work if properly lubricated.

Put me in the camp that you just cant go wrong with a standard Toolcraft BCG with standard coating.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:


Put me in the camp that you just cant go wrong with a standard Toolcraft BCG with standard coating.

I agree with Bubba, I shoot my BCM bcg 99.9% of the time suppressed and it doesn't take that long to clean and it is smooth as butter.

94hokie and everyone else who posted in this thread - Thank You.

This thread made me realize that for the various AR uppers and rifles I have I did not have a backup BCG....I do now...Just received a Wilson Combat Black Nitride unit for $145.95...Thanks Again for this thread and discussion points....Mark

https://shopwilsoncombat.com/B...R%2DBCA%2DSBN%2D556/