Cosmetics/Quality/PriceOverall the upper appears solidly built and is definitely "mean" looking. I like the FAL like hand guards and the full length rail. Fit and finish are about what you would expect for the price. I didn’t fine any "uglies" on it anywhere. There were a few small gaps between the hand guards on the bottom side, but they were not objectionable. I think Chris has done very well with the Far 50, especially considering what he is asking for them. |
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Finish / MaterialsThe finish on the steel parts is a semi gloss hot blue with shiny black anodizing on the rail, and a nice looking matte black finish on the robust, 0.2" thick molded plastic hand guards. I like the way it looks on my AR receiver. An adjustable cheek piece stock with an off hand projection would be nifty or one of the various skeletonized offerings out there. Virtually any AR-15 stock will work, but I don’t think I would want to use a telescoping one with something that kicks as much as a 50 BMG does. |
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Free Floating BarrelI like the way he has handled the hand guards – The barrel is totally free floated from the action forward. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Savage type barrel nut holding the barrel in the upper receiver. This means that you can easily swap barrels and set headspacing yourself with the proper tools. It also means that you could have a 50 DTC barrel for use in Calif. and a BMG for use when you leave the left coast. |
The BarrelPer the Bohica web site, they are making their own barrels. I don’t have a bore scope but to the naked eye the bore looks excellent. I was not able to see any rifling chatter or tool marks anywhere. Headspacing was tight but not to the point of causing any difficulty in chambering any rounds, exactly how I like mine set. Here are the barrel specs from www.BohicaArms.com
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The BoltThe bolt flops loosely in battery on an empty chamber, like most (all?) rifles and uppers of this design. With a round chambered, it stays put. Some kind of a positive detent would be nice for the bolt when in battery but it isn’t an absolute necessity. There is a safety cam surface on the hollow bolt body that prevents the hammer from striking the firing pin unless the bolt is in battery. The bolt is a two piece design, similar to the Savage with a hollow bolt body and a sold bold head that fits inside the hollow body, held in place by the bolt handle which screws into the bolt head. I immediately thought about asking Chris if he could provide a 338 Lapua or standard magnum case sized bolt head and a barrel in 338 LM or 338 RUM. The Savage type barrel nut and two piece bolt assembly were just screaming for a swap barrel setup. I don’t know if they plan on offering the stuff to do this or not, but the possibility is definitely there. |
Hand guards/RailThe hand guards are removable by taking out 13 Allen head screws. The long picatinny rail looks pretty decent. I don't think I would trust the rail way out front for repeatable accuracy with removable iron sights unless the rifle were supported right next to the front of the lower receiver. It moves visibly up and down or right to left when you apply thumb pressure to the hand guard assembly. For close range backup iron sights, it should work just fine as long as you aren’t shooting from the bipod or with a rest out near the end of the hand guards at longer distances. If you want precision long range iron sights, you will probably want to attach the front sight directly to the barrel. The rail makes a nice spot for a removable carry handle, a flashlight, varmint light or whatever you might think of. I am going to attach a laser on it down the road to see how much movement there is when using the bipod. The back end of the rail is solidly attached to the receiver with three hex head screws. It isn't going anywhere and provides a good platform for optics. Just don't put a scope ring further forward than the last screw before the barrel starts and you should have a very solid install. It shouldn’t be too difficult to add some slope to the rail, something that I think Chris mentioned he would probably offer once he gets caught up.
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| There are large cooling vent holes on the bottom of the hand guards that go through the metal bar of the hand guard support system. No vents on top. The air flow will have to go out the gap between the hand guard support assembly and the barrel. A few more air vents might be in order if you shoot a lot, but they would be very easy to add with a router or drill press. You can actually shoot the rifle from a bipod or a bench rest with the hand guards removed. There is a nice flat metal surface on the bottom of the hand guard hanging assembly that would ride nicely on narrow front rest bag. |
Buffer TubesThe owner’s manual cautions you against bent buffer tubes not allowing the bolt to be retracted easily. My AR just happened to have one (an OLD surplus A1 buttstock assembly). I replaced it with a new straight buffer tube I had on hand and it works fine. I doubt you will have any problems with good quality AR stuff but be aware that you might.
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HammersThe owner’s manual also talks about hammer faces. Many current hammers have a secondary notch in the hammer face. This will snag on the bolt when you open it to the full rearward position. You have to bevel it slightly until it cycles easily which is easily done with a Dremel tool. If you have a rounded face hammer, you don’t have to do anything. Be aware that the notch is a secondary sear that will prevent the AR from firing on bolt closure if the primary sear fails, so you may want to get an extra hammer, preferably a rounded face one rather than modifying your existing one. I would recommend getting a heavier than normal hammer and spring if you are going to shoot original military ammo. |
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Bolt Stops and Buffer RetainersThere is a small metal tab (see photo below) at the back of the upper that at first puzzled me. When I figured out what it did, I was pleased. You do NOT need to remove the buffer retaining plunger and spring to use this upper. You DO need to remove the bolt hold open parts. Bohica will be providing a at no charge to everyone who bought a Far 50, a special bolt hold open that allows you to instantly swap your BMG upper for a 223 without installing or removing the bolt hold open device. Just replace the buffer and spring and click the 223 upper in place and you are good to go. – I have not seen one, but if it works as advertised, it will be a must have if you want to switch back and forth quickly. This part is of course not needed for a dedicated lower, nor do you need the mag catch parts, unless you want to put a lead filled 20 round mag in there for added weight. |
BipodThe bipod seems plenty rugged, very simple two piece design held in place by springs pushing a slot against two positioning pins on the aluminum hand guard hanging assembly. The legs appear to be solid steel rods and are not height adjustable. Each leg rotates on a heavy hex head screw that looks plenty strong. Again, for the price it is great. Many rifles and / or uppers don’t come with a bipod. Just pull each leg out to release it and rotate it from the stored position to the ready position. The legs have triangular metal support plates on the bottom to keep them from sinking into soft dir. In the stored position the legs fit into recesses in the hand guards, and look good there. There is enough room on the hand guards behind the legs to shoot off hand if you want to.
There is a threaded hole in the center bottom of the hand guard hanging assembly that accepts a standard machine threaded sling swivel stud. I installed a Harris bipod in less then two minutes which made sitting, and kneeling shots comfortable. The Harris can remain installed with the standard bipod legs also installed if desired.
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Bench ShootingThe complete rifle sits solidly on a front rest with a rear rest bag. The hand guards are flat on the bottom, about 2.8” wide, and should prove stable in use. I will let you know how it handles on a rest once I shoot it. With a longer barrel you would probably want to add some lead to the cleaning kit storage area in the buttstock to balance it out. With the bipod legs folded back and an empty chamber, the center of balance is about where the cutouts are for the bipod feet with this 24” barrel and no scope. Adding a scope will shift the point of balance substantially to the rear most likely. |
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Range TestI borrowed a Leupold Mark 4 8.5-25x50 mil dot from my AR-30 and dropped it on the Far 50 upper using Burris 30mm Signature Rings to get some slope in the mounting since the rail is flat. As I always do with hard kickers, I dusted the ring inserts on both sides with powdered rosin. |
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| I grabbed my range box that had a few dozen mixed loads in it and headed to the range. Temp was about 80 degrees, sunny, light breeze. The majority of the ammo I took was Santa Barbara API. Unfortunately, the primers in the SB ammo were too hard for the hammer / spring combo that was in my lower receiver. First round tried, click – no bang, waited for a hangfire, then carefully opened the bolt with my body on the other side of the rifle and removed the round. The indentation on the primer was anemic. I tried the same round again, click, nothing, then tried three more new rounds, click, click, click. Muttering under my breath, I decided to shoot one of the CAL 50 rounds that had CCI primers in them from what I could tell – BOOOM! - Success ! | |
| Without bore sighting that first shot out of the barrel mentioned in the paragraph above, at 20 yards was centered and 2.5” below the aiming point so I proceeded to 100 yards. Fired one shot of FN 99 API for placement and it landed within 4” of the aiming point. So far so good, on the target with two shots so I fine tuned a few inches without firing then put four rounds of FN API military ammo through it. All four shots fell within 1.93”, which isn’t bad considering that they were military loaded API bullets and the barrel now had only 6 rounds through it including the four just fired. | |
| After letting the barrel cool down (it did cool fairly rapidly despite the covering by the hand guards), I fired the only two LC original military API rounds that were in my range box, two different headstamps, producing a 1.13” group. This was followed up by the only two CAL 50 headstamp ball loads I had with me, for a 0.225” two shot group. Everything else in the box was SB which was no go because of the hard primers, so I was done for the day. | |
| Once the SB ammo was abandoned, there was not one misfire from the ten rounds fired. All cases extracted easily with no signs of high pressure anywhere on the case. There was slight primer flow back into the firing pin hole which is fairly common with hammer fired guns / uppers, but it was nothing to worry about (see photo above). The extractor lightly drops the cases a few inches from the ejection port, which for me is perfect. If you open the bolt slowly you can easily catch them before the leave the bolt face. | |
| As for the misfires on the heavy primer cups, I think just adding a heavier Wolfe hammer spring would probably be enough to get the SB rounds to fire, but a heavier hammer and spring wouldn’t be a bad idea if you plan on shooting lots of mil spec ammo. | |
RecoilMy particular setup weighs exactly 17 lbs and 19.5 lbs. with the scope and a Pachmayer Decelerator pad installed. It has been a while since I have shot a Serbu, but this setup definitely kicks more than the Serbu BFG Carbine. The felt recoil was less than the Ferret I had with the original brake, but more than the Ferret with the new brake. My Ferret was quite a bit heavier than this upper. The Serbu Carbine also weighs 17 lbs without optics installed. After four rounds I put a sissy pad between the gun and my shoulder because it was starting to get irritating. Not too painful, but at least the felt recoil of a 3” hunting load in a non semi auto shotgun. |
The scope didn’t budge a bit in the Signatures. That being said, for a permanent install I would prefer using some Badger Max 50 Ultra High rings in steel to add weight and for a more secure hold on the scope tube. The “borrowed” scope already had the Burris rings on it. |
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The 30” barrel Far 50 with a couple of pounds of lead in the cleaning kit cavity of the stock should be a lot easier to shoot. A brake that is more like the shark brake or the Armalite would most likely tame the 24” upper down to “fun”/wimp levels of recoil. The gas blast in the face was about the same as the BFG brake, significantly less than the Armalite brake. I am guessing that the two large ports per side and the shortness of the brake, makes it not quite as efficient as the longer BFG brake with more, smaller ports. With a sissy pad I could have fired another dozen rounds without discomfort, but I would not want to fire that many with just the Decelerator pad. Overall the brake offers a good compromise between gas in the face and recoil reduction for a hunting / plinking gun, but not for a 100 round session, at least not for me. |
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ConclusionIt looks good, shoots and functions well and is economically priced. For the cost and performance based on ten rounds fired --- The Bohica Far 50 is definitely a keeper.
Link to Bohica Far 50 and Nightforce Scope combo packages
All text and images -Copyright 2007 Long Range Supply and/or Bohica Arms and may not be used without permission |
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