First off I want to thank the gang at Canada Ammo for their great customer service. When I ordered the rifle I was out of town but wanted to get in on the deal they were offering so they delayed shipment until I got back home. Box of goodies was at my door 2 days after I got back from vacation.
This is my first AR so I'm no expert but I've learned a lot about the platform in the last couple months and I love the design. Dominion Arms (Norinco) has done a pretty good job considering the price point. Although I make a few criticisms of the rifle in this report , don't get me wrong, I quite like it and think it's a good value for someone wanting to get a cheap AR. From most of the reports I've heard these Chinese rifles run well and in my experience so far I've found the same.
On my first trip out to the range I fired 140 rounds of mostly AE223J and some Norinco out of 3 different brands of Mags and had no function problems. The front sight on this rifle was canted so far to the right that even with moving the rear sight as far as it would go to the right the shots were still hitting 6" left of point of aim at 25 yards. I put a 24x scope on it to see how well it would group and it was grouping about 3" at 100 yds.
I sent Canada ammo an email and they sent me a prepaid shipping label and told me to send the rifle back and they would replace the upper. I had the new upper back to my door 4 days after mailing mine in. They replaced the barreled upper and returned my previous lower and BCG. On this one the front sight was straight enough to get it on target.
On my next trip to the range with this new rifle I had a couple FTE's and a double feed in the first couple Mags. I guess as the used bolt carrier broke in with the new upper. After that there have been no more malfunctions in about 300 rounds. During that range session I shot about 150 rounds and with a 24x scope on it 5 shot groups at 100 yards were averaging 2.1". Pretty respectable for an assembly line Chinese AR.
My next range trip was to sight in a new Vortex Viper PST 1x4 I bought for use in 3Gun and Tac rifle competition. The rifle started to spread the groupings with some pretty wide fliers and with the same AE223J that was grouping fairly well before. I figured it was just that I couldn't see the target as well at 100 with the 4x scope.
When I got home and started cleaning the rifle I realized the barrel nut had come loose and was finger tight. Canada Ammo again offered to exchange the rifle for a new one when I contacted them but I opted to just take the rifle apart and torque the barrel nut down myself. The front sight gas block was fairly easy to get off by punching out the taper pins holding it on to the barrel and punching out the roll pin holding the gas tube. When those were off the sight was a bit tight but came off the barrel by twisting it back and forth slightly as I pulled it off the barrel after taking the muzzle device off. Quad rail hand guard then comes off by unscrewing the ring that holds it on to the barrel nut. The barrel nut was just hand tight and moved back and forth against the gas tube. After pulling that all apart I took off the barrel, cleaned everything up, put a bit of anti-seize on the barrel nut and receiver threads, replaced the quad rail ring, put the barrel back in and torqued the barrel nut to 30 ft./lbs. which lined it up to the next gas tube hole past the one it had been in before. When I put the quad rail back on, I left off the front quad rail ring which leaves the barrel free floating.
Next range trip (today) I was able to get 2" groups again at 100 and with the 4X scope and the Federal AE223j. I think the rifle can actually do better. The trigger is really bad 7.5lbs and very creepy gritty, I'm waiting for a Timney 3lb to show up. After I get the new trigger on it I'll throw the 24x scope on it again an see what it will do with some handloads.
Quite happy with the gun and Canada Ammo is hard to beat for customer service and good value.
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