The Black Creek Labs (BCL) Bison is a bolt action, magazine fed rifle made in Canada by BCL. It takes STANAG mags as well as a proprietary magazine made just for it. Right now, these retail for around $1000. Note: this specific rifle has had the stock replaced and a different flash hider installed than what comes from the factory. The factory brake on a 12″ barrel is like a slap in the face every time you shoot it so you may want a flash hider instead.
Update April 2023: BCL has revised the bolt, now using 2 ejectors for stronger ejection and they’ve added a shim to preload the firing pin to give more reliable hits on primers. They also swapped this early gen barrel for a newer one that gave better accuracy.
If you have an early gen BCL Bison, contact BCL and get the upgrades.
Specifications
- Adjustable Triggertech trigger (2.5-5lbs)
- 3 lug bolt design (shorter 60 degree throw)
- Standard buffer tube can take other AR-compatible stocks
- Available in 5.56, 300 Blackout, and 7.62×39
- Available in 12.5 and 16.5″ barrels in 1:8 twist. (12.5″ barrel version pictured)
- Available with top rail or without
- Grip compatible with non-beavertail AR grips
- 6.9 lbs
- Aluminum chassis with mlok slots on the forend, flat bottom forend, decently long top pic rail for optic & accessories
Pros
You get a lot for your money. $1000 for a rifle with aluminum chassis is very good.
The bolt is very slick. It glides in and out of the action smoothly and locks very positively.
The proprietary MRX mags can hold 20 rounds. For Canadians who want to shoot action rifle sports with a bolt action, it’ll be hard to beat this combo.
It’s upgradeable. The mlok slots on the forend, AR grips & stocks, you can adjust or replace the trigger, you can pull the top half of the forend off to fit a low mounted scope.
The magwell and mag release are great. The bevelled magwell is easy to ram mags into and the mag release is perfectly positioned for quick use.
Cons
Accuracy. Factory spec is 1.5 MOA and that’s just not good for a bolt action rifle. I tried lots of different types of ammo and couldn’t do any better than that spec. I had the best results with 65 and 70 grain reloaded ammo.
Update April 2023: With the new barrel, I’m now getting 1 MOA.
The bolt release is a bit catchy and can be hard to use. You can’t just press it in, you have to kind of press it forward as well.
Reliability was hit and miss for this one. Sometimes, I had failures to eject where the case wouldn’t eject out the side and you’d have to shake it out. Other times, I’d have fail to fire where the hammer would strike but the primer would fail to go off. Hard military primers may give you issues.
Update April 2023: the new double ejector design flings brass out with the power of 1000 suns, and the shimmed firing pin strikes out primers reliably. Way better.
The safety is not labelled at all. A simple red dot to indicate when it’s in Fire or Safe would be nice.
Weight. Not a huge downside at all, but 7lbs is just a bit heavy for a 12″ barrel rifle.
Conclusion
Well, there’s not much out there like the BCL Bison MRX, doubly so for the cost. It’s hard to make a recommendation within a niche of 1 because there’s nothing to directly compare to. The Ruger American Ranch is about the only other rifle that is short & quick to use, priced similarly, and takes AR mags. The Ruger is the more reliable, accurate of the two, but the BCL Bison is far more extendable and adjustable and it has those 20 round mags available. It’s hard to recommend one over the other as they’re very different rifles trying to do different things.
If you have a higher budget and want a MUCH better gun, you could consider the Sig Cross (~$2500) or CZ 600 Trail (~$1400).
