Anybody have 5000 + rounds through WK180 yet?

I'm not sure how the rifle is eating the receiver - the AR18 design is such that the bolt doesn't ride on the receiver, it locks to the barrel and in recoil it rides on the two recoil spring guides. Hence the smoothness that you hear about. Is this contact at the rear we're seeing or what? Are the locking lugs peening? the barrel extension? Frankly the reason that they could use stampings in its construction is that the bolt doesn't ride the receiver, if it did it would eat the stampings faster than it would eat a forging. OK, just read the whole thread, the charging handle is wearing the C-H channel, on the outside of the gun. That isn't exactly "it's eating the gun" that's more like "my shiny new gun is getting all ugly" maybe put another CH in the offside slot?

Something is weird with them if they'll rub the receiver, I was just looking at my 180B-2 and I don't see how it's possible to rub anything unless Kodiak changed how it's held in.
I didn't look too close on the one I handled a couple weeks ago so can't say if it's different or not.

Owners, can you just grab the handle and pull it out?
Or do you have to remove the guide rods and pull the bolt back to the opening?

Is it just lionheart or have others had this?
Could it have been assembled incorrectly after cleaning or something?
Those pics look weird, I would think it would scrape all the way, not just in one spot.
 
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That isn't exactly "it's eating the gun" that's more like "my shiny new gun is getting all ugly" maybe put another CH in the offside slot?

Well, people were complaining about brass marks from ejection, so no surprise people will complain about it all

Owners, can you just grab the handle and pull it out?
yea, it's just held in by a weak magnet, can't pull it out of the slot unless you open the rifle up so that the bolt slide back enough to reach the slot meant for removing the handle
 
Well, people were complaining about brass marks from ejection, so no surprise people will complain about it all


yea, it's just held in by a weak magnet, can't pull it out of the slot unless you open the rifle up so that the bolt slide back enough to reach the slot meant for removing the handle

So the magnet holds the charge handle in tight in the bolt but if you pull outward on the charge handle it is still captured by the receiver?
The gouges in the picture look like it jammed in one spot and it was hammered to break it free, look at the direction it cut, that's not wear from cycling unless the pics make it look different than it really is.




I need to go visit my buddy that has one of these again and take a closer look, my 180B-2 doesn't have a magnet, it just floats in the hole captured by the receiver wall.
No scratches or gouges.

Lionheart, does your charge handle wobble in the hole in the bolt?
 
I have been debating about getting one of these. I am glad I didn't. I have not read many positive things about them. It really would be cool to throw some money at a Canadian made semi auto that was awesome, but that doesn't seem like something that will happen.
 
I have been debating about getting one of these. I am glad I didn't. I have not read many positive things about them. It really would be cool to throw some money at a Canadian made semi auto that was awesome, but that doesn't seem like something that will happen.

Weird, I've only heard a couple negatives and Kodiak has so far taken good care of owners with problems.
This latest one is a little fishy to me, I need more info as this could potentially be another one of the cases where a new owner who is not familiar with rifles like this screwed something up and thinks it's a fault of the rifle. I'm not saying that's the case here but the gouges look strange.
I would like to see more pictures or even better I'd like to hold that rifle so I can see what's going on.

I don't think you need to hold back on buying one, sounds like the new production ones have most of the bugs worked out. Just keep your expectations realistic, you're not buying an HK, this is not a top end product and it's price reflects that. I still think it's a great rifle for the money from my exposure to them so far including the few negative posts about them. There have definitely been a few rifles with issues but they seem to be mainly early production ones and Kodiak has been very helpful so far. I got a reply to my email in less than a day.

Give it shot, let us know what you think, then sell it for what you paid for it on the EE if you don't like it. CGN circle of life.

Don't forget, this is the internet multiplied by the CGN factor and there's no way you're going to please everyone. There are always guys that blame the tool rather than actually learn how to use it.
 
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So the magnet holds the charge handle in tight in the bolt but if you pull outward on the charge handle it is still captured by the receiver?
The gouges in the picture look like it jammed in one spot and it was hammered to break it free, look at the direction it cut, that's not wear from cycling unless the pics make it look different than it really is.

 

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That's a lot of wobble, could have tilted then jammed when fired causing the gouge.
I wonder why they left it that loose. My 180B-2 floats in the hole but doesn't wobble like that.
 
My wk's handle is nowhere near that loose. Is the magnet still present in the handle shown in the video? ISTR that a few of the first rifles had issues with the magnet coming out?
 
My wk's handle is nowhere near that loose. Is the magnet still present in the handle shown in the video? ISTR that a few of the first rifles had issues with the magnet coming out?

Magnet is there, when I drop it in the video that's the magnet pulling it back into place
 
That's a lot of wobble, could have tilted then jammed when fired causing the gouge.
I wonder why they left it that loose. My 180B-2 floats in the hole but doesn't wobble like that.

I took off enough material to make it shiny inside just by running the charging handle, nowhere like the gouge, just maybe a mm or half that.
I did this just by pulling a little away from the receiving while pulling the handle back.
So I'd imagine anyone under a little time sensitive match stress would cause the same wear.
I don't think this one of mine could actually jam the action to a stop - but a little more clearance for the handle to tilt(for whatever reasons, undersized part or something), I don't see why it couldn't happen.

If there wasn't a magnet there - so the hole was deeper, and the handle base was bigger - I would think it wouldn't be able to pull out enough to tilt.
Bevel the edge and it wouldn't gouge as it rubs the inside. Make the cheap to replace handle a softer material than the more expensive receiver.
So just having it float in the hole would be a lot more sense than the current set up.
So, someone over thinks to solve a problem that doesn't exist it seems, and turns it into an actual problem.

I'd love to hear what the actual designers thought of all this talk.
 
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I took off enough material to make it shiny inside just by running the charging handle, nowhere like the gouge, just maybe a mm or half that.
I did this just by pulling a little away from the receiving while pulling the handle back.
So I'd imagine anyone under a little time sensitive match stress would cause the same wear.
I don't think this one of mine could actually jam the action to a stop - but a little more clearance for the handle to tilt(for whatever reasons, undersized part or something), I don't see why it couldn't happen.

If there wasn't a magnet there - so the hole was deeper, and the handle base was bigger - I would think it wouldn't be able to pull out enough to tilt.
Bevel the edge and it wouldn't gouge as it rubs the inside. Make the cheap to replace handle a softer material than the more expensive receiver.
So just having it float in the hole would be a lot more sense than the current set up.
So, someone over thinks to solve a problem that doesn't exist it seems, and turns it into an actual problem.

I'd love to hear what the actual designers thought of all this talk.

Ya, it sounds like they fixed a problem they created themselves with a band-aid.
As I've said, my 180B-s has nothing holding it in other than the receiver and I have zero wear inside my receiver from it after well over 1000 rounds.
If the carrier and CH were machined to tighter tolerances and bevel/radius the edge of the CH a little it should be a non-issue.
The stamped steel receiver of my 180B is going to be a better material for that type of thing but since the Aluminum is anodized it should be hard enough that the CH should just slide along it.

Almost need a sleeve for your CH, that's way too much slop.

I would think a spring clip/ snap ring (whatever you want to call it) on the CH that has a groove to snap into inside the carrier would be better than a magnet and or threaded bolt. Or as I suggested earlier something like a QD cup setup so it's retained. Threaded is not ideal on something like that where you'll be grabbing with gloved hands and yanking it during reloads, unless it's torqued in it's just going to come loose and if it's torqued in you no longer have the ability to field strip your rifle without tools.

They should have let me be a beta-tester. I don't pay for that though, I like to get paid to do stuff like that.
I was on the list to be a tester for Canada Ammo when they were working on a 180 upper, payment was going to be a completed upper at the end. Unfortunately they gave up when this rifle and the RWA upper started coming to market. Guess they didn't think there was enough market for another one at the time. I think it would have sold, especially if the price was right and barrel swaps were easy or if different calibers were offered.

In my opinion you should get a free replacement carrier and CH at minimum, if there is actual damage from it maybe a new receiver. That's not acceptable and I would guess that based on my communication with Kodiak so far they would take care of you if they knew how much slop there is in your system, that's not normal wear, that's wear from an out of spec part rubbing where it shouldn't be.
I'm kinda guessing that they don't realize how loose that CH is in the carrier, I doubt there are many others like that, seems like a machining oops.
 
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Or as I suggested earlier something like a QD cup setup so it's retained. Threaded is not ideal on something like that where you'll be grabbing with gloved hands and yanking it during reloads, unless it's torqued in it's just going to come loose and if it's torqued in you no longer have the ability to field strip your rifle without tools.

Yea, I experience the threaded bolt handle coming out of a jr carbine before, and it's not retained by the receiver(iirc) so it's a nightmare when that happens.
The qd cup idea would of been really neat to see in practice.
 
I know the RWA receivers have reinforced the inside of the receiver along the charging handle channel with steel. Drift117, HeK, and Anoymouse have 3d printed brass deflectors for the WK. Maybe one of them could develop a beveled 3D printed channel protector that can bracket the edge of the channel? Alternatively, maybe a 3D printed charging handle with a stronger magnet embedded in it could would be soft enough to not wear out the handle channel?
 
I thought about getting rwa 80 b but I still have hope wk180 c will have better parts or what not in the future. No offence haven’t even a shot yet with my wk! Right now pros and cons are my homework.
 
I know the RWA receivers have reinforced the inside of the receiver along the charging handle channel with steel. Drift117, HeK, and Anoymouse have 3d printed brass deflectors for the WK. Maybe one of them could develop a beveled 3D printed channel protector that can bracket the edge of the channel? Alternatively, maybe a 3D printed charging handle with a stronger magnet embedded in it could would be soft enough to not wear out the handle channel?

I thought about it, but it's not really a good application for FDM 3D printing. The weakest part of a 3D print is between the layers. Since you'd want to print a charging handle standing up on it's end, it means you would be applying the majority of the force on the weakest area.

I was also thinking about turning handles out of acetal (delrin, a self lubricating plastic) or a softer metal like brass or bronze. I recently acquired a lathe, but I still need to set it up and actually learn how to use it.

Not sure if a magnet is the best way to go for retention. It's a trade off from something that's easy to remove but also robust. Threaded sounds nice, but involves a threaded hole in the bolt. I'm not sure how a spring detent or a compressed o-ring would work either.

Might need to pick up a drawing board one of these days.
 
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