MRA renegade and Spectre ballistics builds
- Thread starter Mixter
- Start date
Looking at a 7.62x39 renegade build. Just looking for some other who went the same route. What did you use for barrels and parts.. anything to stay away from ..what worked an didn't work.. accuracy...feeding or ejection issues... Thanks..
You can legally build anything you can legally own.
I recently had a disappointing customer support experience with MRA (makers of Renegade) and would like to provide some insights for anyone considering their products.
I purchased a 12.5" barrel from them and had it installed by Kodiak on my WK-180C and have registered it as a restricted. Took it to the range and it shot 4" groups at 50 yards with three different types of ammo. It was bizarre. I asked MRA if they would test it out and see if there was a problem with the barrel, as when a gun is shooting that inaccurately, it seemed like the most likely culprit, especially given the stock 18" barrel was good for 2MOA. When I was talking to them on the phone before sending it, they made it clear that they thought the problem was surely the WK platform and said if they proved the barrel shot straight, I would have to pay the range fees, shipping, and their time, etc. I agreed as I wanted to get this sorted. I sent the gun off to them and a couple of weeks later they sent back a photo of a target showing 1" groups at 50 yards. I was blown away. I asked what they thought might be my problem. They said, it's your gun. I was like WTF? They said they took the barrel off, put it on one of their Renegade guns and it worked fine. Nothing wrong with the barrel. Well that's all fine and dandy but didn't help me at all. So they are re-assembling it and sending it back after I paid them $200 for their trouble (on top of $400 for the barrel). I feel like that's the bare minimum they could have done, and they're clearly not interested in supporting their own parts on some other platform. So while I certainly won't be buying anything further from them, I would caution that you may not get great after sales support if you add anything other than Rolls-Royce parts to your Renegade parts. I mean, sure the barrel may be just fine, but not even testing it on my gun and using their wisdom and expertise to help identify the potential issue is very disappointing.
I purchased a 12.5" barrel from them and had it installed by Kodiak on my WK-180C and have registered it as a restricted. Took it to the range and it shot 4" groups at 50 yards with three different types of ammo. It was bizarre. I asked MRA if they would test it out and see if there was a problem with the barrel, as when a gun is shooting that inaccurately, it seemed like the most likely culprit, especially given the stock 18" barrel was good for 2MOA. When I was talking to them on the phone before sending it, they made it clear that they thought the problem was surely the WK platform and said if they proved the barrel shot straight, I would have to pay the range fees, shipping, and their time, etc. I agreed as I wanted to get this sorted. I sent the gun off to them and a couple of weeks later they sent back a photo of a target showing 1" groups at 50 yards. I was blown away. I asked what they thought might be my problem. They said, it's your gun. I was like WTF? They said they took the barrel off, put it on one of their Renegade guns and it worked fine. Nothing wrong with the barrel. Well that's all fine and dandy but didn't help me at all. So they are re-assembling it and sending it back after I paid them $200 for their trouble (on top of $400 for the barrel). I feel like that's the bare minimum they could have done, and they're clearly not interested in supporting their own parts on some other platform. So while I certainly won't be buying anything further from them, I would caution that you may not get great after sales support if you add anything other than Rolls-Royce parts to your Renegade parts. I mean, sure the barrel may be just fine, but not even testing it on my gun and using their wisdom and expertise to help identify the potential issue is very disappointing.
Am I missing something or did you guys have an agreement and they came through with their part and you still feel ways? You agreed to pay for them to test it, it ended up being accurate.
Perhaps the reality is there are other factors that can affect accurate such as ammo or the way it was all put together. Or maybe you just couldn't hit that day.
And why would you R an NR WK to only take odd a few inches for gods sake??
Last edited:
Sounds like they did what you asked, test it and see if it was the barrel or the platform, which they did and determined it was the platform? I'm surprised they went that far with your request and actually took the WC apart and put it back together for you, from here that is "over and above" what most retailers would do.You know the barrel can shoot, now you need to figure out why it won't on that platform.
Last edited:
I used to own a WK180-C that I put a MRA 18.6" barrel on. The gun shot really well with the MRA barrel. I'm not sure what the issue is with your barrel but if it shoots well on a different platform I think something is going on with your WK. Perhaps make sure the gas block was aligned perfectly when assembled as it could be pushing against the handguard (there's very little clearance so not much margin for error) or causing the op rod to be slightly out of alignment and not move freely enough. Also wondering if headspace has been checked?
I don't know what else to add other than it seems that MRA has done everything they could do for you in regards to inspecting and testing their product.
Perhaps send the whole rifle back to Kodiak for testing since they did the assembly for you? But I suspect they would most likely blame the barrel that you supplied them with.
Good luck.
Seems like you're disappointed with the results and your gun not MRA...
There are a number of things that could be throwing accuracy all over the place. And at least with modular firearms you can swap pieces around and see what has the problem and what doesn't. Besides the different barrel itself, maybe a muzzle brake is causing trouble, check barrel-nut torque, maybe a different bolt might make a difference (what happens if you assemble a .223 gun with a 7.62x39 bolt?), try different ammunition (preferably a box of match-grade), maybe the scope is wonky so try a different one, maybe see if it patterns differently with a friend shooting it (I may be the loose bit!). What other things should a shooter check in a many-MOA situation?
Yeah, thanks... that's probably the next step - sending it to Kodiak. I'm not sure you can say MRA did everything possible... I'd say they did the minimum required to point fingers elsewhere.
All good points... will be double-checking all of that and have Kodiak do the same.
Understandable to be bummed out by the accuracy, but I'm not sure what else you can really expect MRA to do for you. They checked the barrel, which was their product and found it to be fine. You can't really expect them to fine tune or fix up your WK.
I thought they would test their barrel on my gun, to confirm my findings and to help rule out anything related to how I tested, or ammo type... and maybe try swapping another barrel from their test collection to see if it changed anything. Testing the barrel on a different platform doesn't help me narrow down my issue at all... and it's clearly some interaction between the barrel and the gun. Maybe there's some bizarre interaction with the WK gas system, or hand guard, or something?
Once the bullet is in the chamber, it goes where the barrel sends it. So if it's going all over the place, the barrel is sending it all over the place.
If you sell replacement barrels to replace stock barrels, and charge a premium for them, don't you want to know under which conditions they work well and don't? The attitude I got from MRA was like, your rifle platform is crap... you're an idiot for putting our barrel on that crappy gun. What they are missing, is that I'm trying to upgrade my gun with their barrel and spending a lot of money to do it. But they don't care. I wish they would have told me not to put their barrel on my rifle before I paid them $400 for it (and I exchanged emails with them to make sure it would work with the WK before I purchased).
Last edited:
They did test it. To make sure the action cycled. I gather they do that at the factory as part of the QA on all their rifles. However, this didn’t reveal an accuracy issue. I haven’t dug into it yet, but it’s possible they don’t test at a range with much distance. Not sure. In hind sight, it would have been great to ask them to do some accuracy testing but neither of us expected this at the time.
MRA Maverick .308 Build...
Just put together my first MRA "Maverick" .308 rifle.
The "donor" rifle was a Knight's Armament Corporation (KAC) 7.62MM SR-25, Mk. II, Mod. 1 (basically the KAC M110, but in black finish). A tragedy to pull apart, but the only way to be able to shoot it.
Everything went together pretty well, but still around 3-1/2 - to 4 hours work to pull things apart and rebuild. The slow, painful part is the KAC SR-25 Barrel Nut and Flash Suppressor are "Loctite'd/Rockset'd" in place, so a fair bit of heat was needed to loosen things up.
I'm impressed with the MRA Maverick receiver set tolerances - Barrel fit snug in Upper Receiver, and SR-25 Railed Forend aligned with Maverick Receiver Rail pretty well spot on.
The only negatives I can say is that the Charging Handle Screw supplied with the Maverick kit was way too short to work. However, being a common 8-32" TPI, I was able to fit a longer screw.
This Saturday will be the day to test fire and zero this build. So far, cycling the action with dummy rounds is flawless, and 'feels good' - no issues with binding, feeding, or ejecting.
When I started this project, my original donor rifle was going to be an Armalite AR-10 SuperSASS (Semi-Automatic Sniper System).
I pulled it apart - that's when I discovered the Armalite Barrel Nut Thread Pattern is different from the one used on the MRA Maverick Upper Receiver.
MRA based their .308/7.62mm "Maverick" Receiver on the DPMS manufactured Upper Receiver...
DPMS and KAC (SR-25) use a 1-7/16"x16 TPI (threads per inch), while Armalite and Noveske use a 1-7/16"x18 TPI for their Barrel Nuts.
I still want to build a Maverick based on the Armalite AR-10 (I have two), but will need to source someone to copy the AR-10 SASS Barrel Nut, but with a DPMS 16 TPI instead of the Armalite 18 TPI.
As you can see in the photo below, the Armalite AR-10 Barrel Nut is somewhat complicated to machine for a "one or two"-off manufacture.
Since there are a fair number of Armalite AR-10's in Canada, hopefully MRA will decide to manufacture a compatible Barrel Nut, or compatible Upper Receiver with the 1-7/16"x18 TPI.
Cheers!
Just put together my first MRA "Maverick" .308 rifle.
The "donor" rifle was a Knight's Armament Corporation (KAC) 7.62MM SR-25, Mk. II, Mod. 1 (basically the KAC M110, but in black finish). A tragedy to pull apart, but the only way to be able to shoot it.
Everything went together pretty well, but still around 3-1/2 - to 4 hours work to pull things apart and rebuild. The slow, painful part is the KAC SR-25 Barrel Nut and Flash Suppressor are "Loctite'd/Rockset'd" in place, so a fair bit of heat was needed to loosen things up.
I'm impressed with the MRA Maverick receiver set tolerances - Barrel fit snug in Upper Receiver, and SR-25 Railed Forend aligned with Maverick Receiver Rail pretty well spot on.
The only negatives I can say is that the Charging Handle Screw supplied with the Maverick kit was way too short to work. However, being a common 8-32" TPI, I was able to fit a longer screw.
This Saturday will be the day to test fire and zero this build. So far, cycling the action with dummy rounds is flawless, and 'feels good' - no issues with binding, feeding, or ejecting.
When I started this project, my original donor rifle was going to be an Armalite AR-10 SuperSASS (Semi-Automatic Sniper System).
I pulled it apart - that's when I discovered the Armalite Barrel Nut Thread Pattern is different from the one used on the MRA Maverick Upper Receiver.
MRA based their .308/7.62mm "Maverick" Receiver on the DPMS manufactured Upper Receiver...
DPMS and KAC (SR-25) use a 1-7/16"x16 TPI (threads per inch), while Armalite and Noveske use a 1-7/16"x18 TPI for their Barrel Nuts.
I still want to build a Maverick based on the Armalite AR-10 (I have two), but will need to source someone to copy the AR-10 SASS Barrel Nut, but with a DPMS 16 TPI instead of the Armalite 18 TPI.
As you can see in the photo below, the Armalite AR-10 Barrel Nut is somewhat complicated to machine for a "one or two"-off manufacture.
Since there are a fair number of Armalite AR-10's in Canada, hopefully MRA will decide to manufacture a compatible Barrel Nut, or compatible Upper Receiver with the 1-7/16"x18 TPI.
Cheers!
Attachments
Last edited:
- Location
- Prairie drifter
14.5" 7.62x39
Barnaul Steel Case 123Gr @ 100M
No issues cycling steel case ammo. Was getting light primer strikes 2-3/10 rounds per mag(USGI trigger).
Barnaul Steel Case 123Gr @ 100M
No issues cycling steel case ammo. Was getting light primer strikes 2-3/10 rounds per mag(USGI trigger).
Last edited:
