Bear Creek Arsenal sent over the all new Grizzly 9mm pistol for review.
Let’s take a look and test what the Grizzly is all about for carry and the range.
For this review I chose the Bear Creek Arsenal BC-101 / Window Cut 9mm Handgun / 9mm Black Nitride Straight Fluted Barrel / 1:16 Twist / 17+1 Capacity model. This sharp looking pistol was sent to my good friend Bill at Finest Firearms. You can check out all of his products and great deals on the Finest Firearms website.
So what does Bear Creek Arsenal say about the Grizzly?
BCA introduces the Grizzly, our polymer frame 9MM handgun. Built with perfect ergonomics and bear fur stippling for the perfect grip and control. Boasting the very best of BCA’s evolving handgun technology and best materials. Crafted from high-quality stainless steel, the Grizzly’s solid configuration makes for perfect balance with recoil and weight. We’ve made the Grizzly optic ready with our signature RMR cut and an additional Black Nitride window slide cut It comes with photo-luminescent aiming dots for low-light shooting for easy target acquisition. It is designed to accommodate all shooters. The barrel is black nitrided with straight flutes.
Right out of the box the Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly pistol was extremely familiar to me. To be honest it is very Glock-like in appearance with some variations. Supplied was two 17 shot capacity magazines, a cable lock, instruction manual and two decals.
Let’s take a close look at the magazines. They are made by KCI USA and they are listed on their website as “Glock Pattern Magazines”.
The apple sure doesn’t fall far from the tree as shown in the image below. The left loaded magazine is a Glock 17 factory magazine from my personal collection. It is next to the two supplied KCI USA magazines.
While handling the BCA Grizzly it was very comfortable right out of the box. There is plenty of grip texture to allow for sure grip. Forward and rear slide serrations allow for easy loading.
Disassembly of the BCA Grizzly is very easy and straight forward. With an empty handgun, pull the trigger to drop the hammer. Now on both sides of the frame slide the small takedown button downward and slide the whole barrel/slide assembly forward. Remove spring and slide barrel out of the slide. It’s that simple.
This takedown allows for easy cleaning. Assemble in the reverse order of above.
The flared magazine well allows for quick reloads.
Here is a close up look at the handgrip texture.
When palms are sweaty this texture certainly does it’s job very well.
The sights are photo-luminescent. This allows a flashlight or other light source to “charge” the front and rear sights for low light shooting. Notice also the window slide cuts. In front of the rear sight is a screwed on plate that can be removed for other optic options.
Here is an inside look at the disassembled frame. Once again, if you have fired Glock handguns you will find this handgun extremely familiar.
The forward light/laser mounting area is always a great option to have.
This Craft Holsters Hybrid Kydex Shoulder Holster fits the BCA Grizzly perfectly.
This proves that most Glock 17 holsters will likely fit this handgun well.
So how well does it shoot? Well when I first received the Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly I took it out to the small range on the farm to do the initial function testing. I loaded up the two supplied 17 round magazines with Winchester White Box Bulk 9mm (the 100 round white box) along with one standard Glock 17 factory magazine and also a Glock factory 33 round extended magazine. The targets were an old soup can and a small section of pressure treated 4X4 wood. These were placed on a backstop hill and targeted at around 25 yards away. Right away I was hitting what I aimed at without any problems. The soup can sailed into the air and had to be found multiple times in the grass. It was certainly perforated to say the least! The 4X4 wood chunk had 115 grain full metal jacket projectiles go clean through it. All mags worked flawlessly, including the Glock factory mags from my personal collection. Yes, this will run Glock factory magazines quite well! With plenty of ammo burned up in the early function testing, it was time to hit a real range for group measurements of various factory ammo.
On a hot humid summer’s morning full range day had arrived. After more impromptu target shooting I was ready to see what the Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly could do on paper.
I chose to fire 5 shots each at the Official 100-Yard Small Bore Rifle Targets at a range of 30 feet while standing, using both hands offhand with no supports, to simulate head shot accuracy at that distance. The first ammo up for testing was the Remington Golden Saber 147 Grain Hollow Point. It grouped with a 4″ average and a 8.25″ flier. The flier at that point I wondered if it was more shooter caused than anything else.
The next 5 shots on a fresh target was Winchester SXT 147 Grain Hollow Points. The group was 4.5″ with a 7″ flier in the same spot as the previous ammo tested. Maybe heavy weight 147 grain projectiles are not the best pick.
How about Winchester White Box Bulk Packed 115 Grain Full Metal Jacket cartridges? The 3.5″ group certainly was a vast improvement over the heavier projectiles.
The last cartridge to be fired at paper for score was the PMP 115 Grain FMJ ammo. With a four shot group of 2.75″ with one flier at 4.5″ it also had plenty of accuracy for plinking or defense.
What are my final thoughts on the Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly? Well it fired everything I fed it with no jams and without any cleaning during testing. My specific Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly preferred the lighter weight 115 grain ammo for better accuracy. The “Bear Fur Stippling” on the grip is quite aggressive for when retention and weapon control is paramount. For the bargain price it is listed for the Bear Creek Arsenal Grizzly is certainly a big win for your next truck gun, concealed carry or plinker.
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