Bear Creek Arsenal Offers New 7mm Magnum AR
Want an AR-pattern rifle but you also want grizzly-crushing hitting power? Or maybe you want to take a moose out at an extended range? Bear Creek Arsenal is here to meet your wildest dreams with the 7mm Magnum Huntmaster.
Bear Creek Arsenal @ TFB:
NEW Bear Creek Arsenal Rifles And Pistols In 10mm And .45ACP Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly: From Rifles To Pistols The NEW Bear Creek Arsenal GENES1S 9mm Pistol TFB Review: Bear Creek Arsenal 16-inch Complete Upper Receiver
Magnum force
The seven-mil-magnum is a punishing round—at both ends. Recoil isn’t at the level of the .300 Winchester Magnum or other big-bore high-powers, but the 7mm Magnum is still a hard-hitting belted magnum round that kicks hard. In their write-up on their latest addition to the HuntMaster line, Bear Creek Arsenal appears to be warning of this, saying “Recoil is more than most shooters want to endure.”
However, take note that despite a lightweight-profile barrel (20 inches long 1-in-10 twist), this rifle weighs 11.25 pounds. That should put a serious dent in the recoil, and no doubt many buyers will look to replace the flash hider with some sort of muzzle brake to make things even easier on the shoulder. It would certainly be lighter-recoiling than a bolt-action with a fixed breech, as the rifle-length gas system will also bleed off some of the kick.
The action used here is Bear Creek Arsenal’s BC8 design, a beefed-up AR-pattern arrangement they also use for other heavy-hitting cartridges. It has a forward reciprocating side charger on the right-hand side of the receiver, and a 15-inch M-LOK split rail for optics and accessories (see the layout in the photo below). There’s a 3-pound Velocity trigger and the rifle feeds from BCA’s proprietary five-round magazines.
The asking price is almost two grand, with a $1,989 MSRP in the U.S. market. For more details, check out Bear Creek Arsenal’s website here. They have recommendations for ammunition, and you can order the rifle directly from their site.