Originally Posted by
slydwys
Ok, so I got out to the range yesterday and was able to shoot the rifle. I shot a few rounds through while sighting in and then, to my surprise, it jammed. I cleared the jam and tried a different mag. It jammed as well. I tried a couple different mags, mostly magpul P-mags and a steel mag of unknown brand, and they all jammed. In all, I shot about 80-90 rounds with about 15 or so of those being jamms. I kept shooting, thinking that things might just be a little stiff and need to "seat in" so to speak, but it didn't look good, so I took the bolt out, pulled it apart and set it back in the reciever to see if there was any sort of binding. Some of you mentioned that the gas tube going into the reciever was a bit crooked left to right, and as a result it was causing some binding with the bolt. This may or may not have everything to do with my failure to feeds.
So, I called Gary at Wanstalls. I explained to him the problem and that I believed there was a simple solution. In all, it was a good conversation and my experience with Wanstalls remains to be a good one. I've been very happy with the service and how fast things have been dealt with. This does have a happy result as well.
After I called Gary, about an hour or so later I get a call from a guy from CORE15. Immagine my amazement and surprise when he tells me his name. It's Izzy! Izzy Anzaldua. The president of sales and business development for CORE15. For those that don't know, Izzy spent 22 years with Bushmaster prior to him working at CORE15. What a cool guy. I explained my problem I was having to him thinking that maybe there is something I could do to fix the problem. He was quick to tell me that he would rather just replace the rifle. Again, I was surprised. Most of the time when I deal with some sort of a waranty claim with a manufacturer, they want to expend all possibilities before they do a product replacement. All too many of us have been in this same situation. I'd have to say though, the guys at CORE15 and Wanstalls have gone above and beyond just your average customer relations experience.
Then I get another call from Wanstalls. These rifles are so popular, they don't have another one in stock to replace mine with, but they do have a piston upper they are willing to send me in the meantime. Im told to try it out and see what I think. In the meantime, I've sent my upper back to Wanstalls. They will attempt a repair on the upper and try it out. If everything looks good, they will send that one back to me so that I may do a side by side comparison of the gas upper and the piston upper.
All in all, I think this is the best route, as it would be a month and a half wait for a new rifle, when I'm sure it's just a minor problem with the upper. For those that are haters out there, all I can say is that this is the first problem Wanstalls has heard of with the CORE15 products. As far as I know, there hasn't been any other issues with the rifles at all, and that every manufacturer has their problems. As much that can be done to ensure a 0% failure rate, there may be the odd one that slips through. It happens, and I'm satisfied with the course of action that's been taken.
I'm looking forward to recieving the piston upper and trying that out and will now include in my review both the piston and gas upper assemblies on a side by side review. If anyone has any questions or concerns, let me know, and I'd be happy to address those.
Thanks guys, and stay tuned for more to come.
