Side charging AR?

Anyone do a side charging AR pistol?
Looking for some feedback…pros/cons etc.
Any recommendations on dealers?

 

Not a pistol, but I put together a side charging 7.62x39 for my dad. Used a PSA AngryJoe-14 lower and a Bear Creek upper. They didn't use shims (edit- between the barrel nut and shoulder on the barrel) when they assembled it, so the barrel was loose even with the nut tight. After adding shims and cleaning it up a bit, it has run very well.
I plan to get one of their left side charge uppers to build a straight pull bolt action.

 

Ive heard of bear creek. Recommended by a buddy of mine. Pretty good prices from my little research

 

Prices are decent if they have it in stock.
Just be sure to go over it before using, or you'll end up like me, wondering why it can't hit a 12x12 piece of paper at 100m. I will say that their customer service is pretty good. Had a set of shims en route to me the day after I contacted them about the issue at no charge.

 

Friends don’t let friends buy ANYTHING from Bear Creek Arsenal. Absolutely no quality control and parts with tolerances all over the place. Most of them are barely even safe to operate.

You really shouldn’t shim a barrel to an upper. I highly recommend finding a better set of parts to assemble the upper. If you need help, you can PM me and I can help you find better stuff that still remains at a decent price.

 

I'm actually ordering two more next payday. One that I will turn to a straight pull bolt action, one that will end up a SBR.

 

What the heck are the shims for. If the barrel did not fit the upper receiver then one or both are Way out of spec. A good upper and a barrel with a milspec barrel extension shouldn’t need Shims, besides that could cause some head spacing issues.
There’s a guy on YouTube Kotaboy32, he runs a bore scope through a BCA barrel and it was fracking horrible, it looked like it was finished with a couple of rocks by a one eyed monkey.

 

The fit of the barrel into the upper is not the problem. The problem is the barrel nut for the free floating handguard is cut too deep. Same alignment shims used by Aero to clock the barrel nut to get proper torque while aligning the gas tube with the holes.
The shims go between the barrel nut and the shoulder on the barrel, NOT between the barrel and the upper.

 

Check out cbc industries……see if they have what you’re looking for. I believe it’s a veteran owned company that employs veterans. I built mine with their parts and was very impressed with the quality and fit and finish. Very fairly priced and really good customer service.

 

Ok I was thinking you were talking about the barrel not fitting not the handguard.

 

My apologies for not clarifying that in the initial post. It is 100% an issue with the barrel nut and NOT a spec issue with either the upper or the barrel itself.

 

Copy that, glad you got it all worked out.