If I were to buy a BKO, are there upgrades available? I see valves and boards by Vapor. Is a LPR necessary? I thought they came with one. Honestly, I know little about these.
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Yes, upgrades are available, but they can be a little bit on the tricky side to find a lot of the time. The two biggest and most meaningful upgrades are the regs. ICD did an amazing job with a LOT of things, but their regulators are almost always hot garbage without a ton of work, and compounding the problem, ICD no long has fresh reg seats available. The LPRs you can just throw money at to make the problem go away, AKA still stocks B2K LPRs. The absolute best LPRs are the PPS micro rocks with the vapor adapters, but those are hard to find. The MacDev LPRs are also super good. The HPRs are a different story. Prior to the 03/04 B2Ks, the bushmasters used a proprietary regulator. Aftermarket HPR reg adapters/vertical ASAs are one of the few parts I consider a "must have" when purchasing a B2K. The reg adapters themselves can have huge impacts on performance as well because of the airflow, the stock 2k3/4 reg adapters have a 3/16 banjo bolt air passage, but some companies used a banjo drilled out to 1/4", and have noticably lower operating pressures when using them. If I had to rank them in order, it would be as follows:
1: Zenitram 15 Degree Vert ASA -
Pros: Comfy, 1/4" Banjo
Cons: Expensive, Rare
2: Shocktech
Pros: Crazy Comfortable
Cons: Restricted airflow, Expensive, crazy rare (airflow can be fixed by a good machinest)
3: MacDev
Pros: adds volume, 1/4" Banjo.
Cons: Rare, expensive
4: Stock B2k3/4 reg adapters
Pros: Adds Volume, common
Cons: 3/16 Banjo (can be drilled to 1/4" by almost anyone with a good drill bit)
5: OTP
Pros: Small Profile, not terribly hard to find.
Cons: restricted airflow, can't be drilled.
5: Eclipse
Pros: Smallest reg adapter made. Big name attached.
Cons: Expensive, Rare, Decreased Volume, Restricted Airflow
Valves.....I have had most of them. Vapor, Zenitram, MacDev, Stock. Haven't bothered trying to find an empire balanced valve but they are out there. I personally I prefer the stock valves. 90% of the B2Ks you can find are going to have the airflow choked down too much at the HPR to see any meaningful difference in aftermarket valves. The Zenitram valves can be very problematic unless you get the right Gen, and even then they are touchy. Macdev valves are great, but starting to get old. Vapor valves are hit or miss on Q/C since a different machinest has made each batch. I like to just stick with the stock valves. They are reliable, high flowing, and ICD has recently made a fresh batch of cup seals.
In summary: Buy the gun based on the HPR reg adapter. You can completely replace all the electronics for relatively cheap with Vaporworks, and grab a new LPR from AKA if yours goes bad. If it doesn't already have a reg adapter, you'll need to buy an entire extra gun to steal the reg adapter off of it 9 times out of 10 otherwise.
That's my $0.02 anyway.Last edited by Myrkul; 10-27-2025, 11:30 PM.-
The Black MI BKO on eBay? That's a BKO. It needs a lot of work and parts.
There are a ton of similarities, but also a lot of key differences between a BKO and a B2K.
That one needs a gen 2 ram, an LPR modded front block, and a ramped bolt, and it should be good to go after that. The front blocks are a bitch to find though, and you'll likely need to kill an 04 BKO to get the Gen 2 ram. There is a reason it's been listed for so long with no bites. If you do buy it I have wild ideas on the places it could go....but they are all expensive and not for first time ICD owners.
Unless....no. it can't be true. You haven't found one of the 4 damn near mythical Murder Inc B2Ks that were made have you?
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Does the BKO have eyes?Comment
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Most don't, some late models do. You can always tell by visible external eye plates. The Murder Inc BKOs are blind, but they do have dual detents which is a big plus. The single detent BKOs have a reputation for being blenders.
If you have dual detents, a force feed loader, and a Bearded Works top ramped and "o" ring modded bolt, eyes are honestly kind of redundant and completely unnecessary.
Here my LPR modded Murder Inc BKO with the bolt mod shooting in semi auto a few weeks ago at my fields big game. Paint was about 0.682, and I didn't have a single chop or barrel break all day.
https://youtu.be/d8VQ7q455nM?si=PAfa8CVXmT_xr5pH
Edit: If I am being completely honest, I prefer my ICD guns blind. The wiring harnesses are the most failure prone part on every ICD gun, and adding eyes just adds complexity and 4 more wires to the weakest part of the gun. If we were still in the days of 15 BPS semi it would be a different story, but at modern 10.5 field caps....I want to run that blind every time just for simplicity. Paint handling and performance don't suffer even remotely.Last edited by Myrkul; 10-27-2025, 11:26 PM.
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It has been a while since I had my BKO, but I do believe that Vaporworks put eyes on my BKO when I sent it in for the complete package.
I'm pretty sure he isn't doing any of that sort of work anymore.
That little marker could sure sling some paint.
Wish I had never let it part from me.Comment
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Removable feedneck?Comment
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Yep. All models have removable feednecks in ICD threads. Threads are super close to impulse, but not quite, so you do risk stripping out the body if you use impulse feednecks. I typically just have the stock feednecks turned down into stubs so that I don't accidentally throw an impulse feedneck on them.
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Autococker or ICD threads on barrels?Comment
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Depends on the gun. The early BKOs were the superior (you won't change my mind on that) ICD thread. The later ones were cocker threaded. All the Murder Inc. Bodies are cocker threaded. You can spot the difference in the top tube milling. If the top tube and the bottom tube are flush, it's ICD threads. If the Top tube is milled back a hair, it's cocker threaded.
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Are the current BKO's on eBay the 04's? I think there's a red one, blue one and silver one. The black appears to be an 04 as well due to the lack of lpr mounted on the bottom of the vasa.Comment
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Good eye, yep, the lack of the LPR under the valve chamber means it's an 04.
Red one is a B2K.
Blue, silver and black ones are 04 BKOs. Rebuildable rams, cocker threads, B2K style LPR, single detent.
Single detent kills them IMO. That and they are priced way high. You can normally snag stock BKOs for sub $65/$70.
Personally I would skip them unless you are harvesting them for the rebuildable ram to build up the Murder Inc....even then though, there are better things to do with that Murder Inc. Body then just stick a rebuildable ram on it.
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I can mod the feednecks and bolts should you need that.BeardedWorks.com (Your Inception Designs and Shocktech Dealer)
BW Youtube
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I buy Automags and Mag Parts also.Comment
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Hopefully this isn't too much of an advertisement.
I'm currently taking pre-orders for a batch of 50 valves (There's only about 25 left). I'm waiting on cup seals to be made for them. It was a month long mess with the previous machinist that ended with him just saying "the shop burned down with your parts in it. Good luck. I'm dropping materials off at a new local machine shop tomorrow. Hopefully over the weekend he'll get samples made. I'm hoping to have parts soon.
I wish NWPB was still in business because for the longest time they made the cup seals for me. They were reliable to get made and a great addition to my valve.
I'm pretty much out of all the other hard parts but still am making boards. They're on sale now as well.
I've also started taking on work doing rebuilds and repairs. I'm not installing eyes anymore. If I had like 10 people that wanted the work done, I'd get things put together and go to work. Right now it's just not a frequent enough thing that I don't keep the machines setup for it.
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