SureFire Optimized AR-15 Bolt Carrier Group: Can A $450 BCG Make The Difference? [REVIEW]

Without question, the heart of any rifle is the barrel. If it’s a semiauto platform, the argument can be made that the next vital component is the bolt and its carrier. We’ve seen variations across the spectrum with mixed results over the years. 

Everything from attempting to bring the AR180 to an AR15, to carriers with so many cuts in them you wonder if Ridley Scott had a hand in their design, the BCG has as much variety as there are veteran coffee companies. Fancy coatings and space-age materials don’t mean much if the rifle doesn’t run correctly. 

That’s where the Surefire Optimized Bolt Carrier Group has made its mark.   

For aficionados of firearms history, the name Jim Sullivan carries a certain gravitas. For those unfamiliar, Jim is the man responsible for working with Eugene Stoner on the venerable M16 design. Jim held 314 different patents on everything from the Stoner 63 to the Mini 14 and Ultimax 100. Ironically, that journey began when he read about firearms development in a magazine. He was one of the draftsmen who helped develop the AR15 from the AR10. 

This is the pedigree that accompanies the OBCG and the legacy where it’s rooted. Utilizing his deep well of knowledge regarding the platform, this is precisely why Surefire chose to work directly with him on the OBCG design before his passing in 2024. That lineage led to a focus on optimizing an AR15/M16’s operating mechanism, suppressed, in a select-fire configuration, or the combination of both factors. 

For most, suppression is going to be their biggest concern; however, the progress we’ve seen with forced reset triggers, which is something Jim likely hadn’t imagined would be a consideration, means the OBCG might be a good fit in that configuration as well. The key to your choice of BCG is going to be settling on an intended purpose and building around that desired outcome.

The first thing you’ll notice about the OBCG isn’t the carrier itself; in the box, you’ll also have a shortened buffer and receiver extension buffer spring. This is a departure from most carriers, which are designed to work with a standard (if such a thing exists anymore) buffer and buffer spring combination. 

The shortened buffer means there’s more travel for the OBCG in your receiver extension, which slows down the operation of extraction and rechambering the following round. Whether you’re running suppressed, select fire, or both, this almost imperceptible additional time equates to greater reliability under increased internal pressure.

The carrier also sports a handful of features you’d have to be paying close attention to otherwise you might miss them. First, the carrier feels noticeably heavier in the hand. This is due to the incorporation of a neutrally balanced counterweight in the tail of the BCG. 

This addresses the challenge of bolt carrier bounce, which is when a carrier is traveling too fast, causing the back of the buffer to contact the back of the receiver extension with the buffer spring fully compressed. Next, this set of improvements means you will no longer encounter bolt override where the carrier is moving too quickly and goes back into battery faster than the hammer resetting, creating a dead trigger and necessitating remedial action to get the rifle back up and running. Next, the gas key on the top of the carrier has been shortened at the tail end, giving the system more time to feed subsequent rounds, as well as generating more momentum in the carrier, allowing it to feed more reliably when the carrier is dusty or dirty. From a prone position in the Arizona moon dust, this was readily apparent, firing from non-traditional positions through barricades and around vehicles. 

Finally, Surefire has utilized a unique coating that resists dust and carbon remarkably well, as evidenced by running the carrier on a 12.5” Criterion Core barrel and an Irregular Defense Hesychia SIXK suppressor. This was all paired with a VLTOR A5 receiver extension, spring, and a VLTOR SH-1 steel buffer. Thanks to VBD Retail for their insight on running an OBCG with an A5 receiver extension. 

The result was a reliable, soft shooting, and a nearly imperceptible amount of gas to the face throughout hundreds of suppressed rounds. Similarly, the carrier with the included buffer and spring was placed in a 14.5” DDM4 upper unsuppressed, and it ran flawlessly. 

In select-fire testing, the OBCG performed exactly as advertised, surprising all who were present at how it felt noticeably better in recoil impulse, making it a breeze to keep on target. As mentioned previously, with the proliferation of forced reset triggers, users should put extra thought into the setup and desired performance; this is where an OBCG can contribute in a meaningful way to solve particular challenges you might encounter. 

When I first saw that the OBCG was available to the commercial market, I reached out to a contact at Surefire right away, who informed me that Primary Arms had an exclusive on the product. Whether or not more OBCGs will be made available is uncertain, so if you want one of the best BCGs on the market today, Primary Arms is your best opportunity. Some will undoubtedly balk at the price of $400. 

Still, if your desire is to build a platform that is as optimized for reliability and shootability as the current market offers, the OBCG is a component that is a serious contender for accomplishing that goal.

In a world currently awash with minor variations marketed as dramatic, the OBCG stands above the rest. It’s more than a new coating or lightening cuts, it’s a shift in how one approaches the process of extracting and feeding an AR15 reliably with a pleasant shooting experience. 

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