Is it something you bought or did you print it yourself? Would not mind trying it on my WS MCR
i bought it. can’t seem to post a link but, go to gun post dot ca, search ws mcr and it’ll be there
WK-180C piece of junk
- Thread starter fonestar
- Start date
i bought it. can’t seem to post a link but, go to gun post dot ca, search ws mcr and it’ll be there
Travis Bickle
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Upper Lower Middle Alberta
Had all the exact same issues with mine with regards to feed angle, mag catch machined too low and mag sitting too low. Charging handle eating away at the butter soft aluminum like a drill bit. FTF, FTE. Just trash.
It was one of the early ones.
####ing garbage. I don't care if SOME of them were okay. I hate playing roll the dice lottery on North American made products.
Then being told to #### myself "it's your mags that are faulty" (mags that have worked in every other STANAG rifle Ive ever owned including an original AR180b lol...) pay for the shipping to send it to and from the manufacturer to assess their zero quality control product.....
####ing forget it. Cool concept sure. I'll give credit for what they tried to do. A great idea very VERY poorly executed.
Sold it at a loss with disclosure and went back to my $200 Chinese SKS.
I call a spade a spade and I won't make excuses for this "just because it's a Canadian product, you should be THANKFUL yadda yadda" BS.
Good riddance!
After it was announced I had 14 months of "maybe next week?" before I received my rifle. It was a pretty big let down after sending it back for the third time for repairs. Chamber was cut wrong and the damn thing just wouldn't stop breaking charging handles. I lost 3 in under 3500 rounds. Something that terrible doesn't get to stay in my collection. I don't care if it's cheap or Canadian, if it sucks it sucks!
421SuperDuty
Regular
- Location
- 中华人民共和国加拿大省
That is why non-reciprocating charging handles are the best for tubular "pull bolt out" designs whereas "lift bolt up" designs like the AK and SKS can use a fixed charging handle. The AR, HKs and FAL have non-reciprocating handles. That would fix the problem permanently.
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I can't speak for the WK as I do not own one but my MCR (sample of one) has been awesome so far. No problems and very accurate.
The WK ain't junk there's just a group of online engineering & mechanical experts who are very vocal about their experience and definitely don't exaggerate in the slightest. Or even if telling the straight truth won't accept that the guns being made 3 years later are not the same.
These are the kind of people that the term Karen has evolved around. There are many people who have had some issues with the WK but haven't devolved into shouting, swearing and tantruming.
All in all you'll be fine with either.
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421SuperDuty
Regular
- Location
- 中华人民共和国加拿大省
I wonder, many are reporting they're working fine, no problems, but how many are basing that on low round count? Can you really judge based on having 100, 250, through it? Of course it's working fine if it's almost brand new.
I'm 8000 rounds in. I've had
- A broken piston
- 3 broken cocking handles
- A broken joint
- A loose rear stock
Now I 100% understand that it is frustrating to have cocking handles break, no doubt that is the weakest part of the WK-180C rifle. But everything got fixed by Kodiak very quickly.
I got a magnetic cocking handle system and then never had an issue since then.
I've put $3500 of ammo through this rifle, if I had put that ammo through another rifle that cost $3500 from the go I would likely not have had the cocking handle issues. But I also wouldn't have been able to spend an additional $3500 on ammo.
My honest thoughts are that with a reliable cocking handle the WK-180C would be the best value for money rifle on the market. I still think it is great, I really enjoy mine, I just understand that $1200 with development costs included and an excellent warranty service really isn't much.
I sold my WK180 and bought two WS-MCR's, wayyyyyy better guns
Just so I understand and not mis-read...
Your WK180 came originally with a magnetic charging handle system and that's the handle that broke three times? Or did it break three times and they retrofitted it with a different charging handle system? (from what I understand the original one was the magnetic style - are they going back to that instead of the threaded system)?
I am curious whether the rifle has had any revision changes since initial release. If it's the same gun now as it was 3 years or so ago when it was released, that's bad. Unfortunately I have not been able to attain any type of historical service bulletin indicating what improvements came out with certain batches, or releases, etc. When I asked about this to Kodiak, I didn't get a direct response as to whether a WK180 bought this year would have been manufactured with certain parts improved?
I asked for a magnetic handle after my screw in one broke 3 times in 3000 rounds.
They only changed from the magnetic to screw in because of some people having a hissy fit over some metal shavings that had no functional impact on the rifle.
Basically CGN whingers successfully whined until a worse rifle was made.
Looking at the history entirely from the outside, especially the early production of the WK would be impossible to delineate in this manner. In order to pursue its initial sub $1000 price point initially asked by for Wolverine, Kodiak put the WK out in job lots, using a stamped steel design which had been translated to a combination of steel parts riding in machined aluminum. The original production was consistently inconsistent, with some rifle coming out as smooth running machines, others cosmetically shredding their interiors, and some having material problems actually causing failures, like shattered BCGs from improper heat treatment.
Complaints about how loose the magnetic charging handle was, possibly causing some of the cosmetic damage coincided with the intermittent bolt control failures caused Kodiak to redesign their BCG with a screw-in bolt handle. Many rifles had their BCG swapped for this new model, further complicating the history of the rifle. And what appeared to have initially been an upgrade with the charging handle started causing problems of its own, with the threaded charging handle flying loose in use or, worse, breaking off and needing to be drilled out. Again, this is an intermittent problem, not with all rifles. Some rifles will have OEM replacement handles from the manufacturer or purchased from True North Arms, while some will have the high strength steel with larger 3D printed outer plastic handle cover variants from Spectre Ballistics International.
Finally, their are intermittent reports of gas pistons snapping, with visual evidence being provide here and in other forums. These may be related to intermittent failures of all fasteners in the gas system not being properly tightened from the factory. This failure may be partially alleviated through the use of Loctite after a through disassembly and re-assembly.
Although the MCR may have somewhat better QC then the original WK models, their are still some issues with sub-standard or kludgy parts. 3D printed spacers in early models in regards to some hand guards are a cosmetic issue, but it is unknown if their will be any long term or any at all functional problems from this. Some of the butt stocks have been poor in quality, breaking after only light use. And a key retaining pin in the bolt control group was using a roll pin that broke after only a few hundred rounds for some runs of this rifle; this has since been rectified with cotter pins from the factory, and can be remedied quite readily by the user and under warranty.
However, what has to remember that forums like these are where people go if they have problems. Although some enthusiasts come here with stories of happily using their firearms without issue, the vast majority of people with rifles with no problems will not be visiting here. Considering the sheer amount of the firearms that have been produced in anticipation of and in response to the OIC on a platform that had not been mass produced in these number or previously converted to modern material and manufacturing methods, the manufacturing issues have been relatively limited, understandable, and have been generally addressed by the manufactures involved.
Question: would switching gas piston to direct impingement on one or both of the Canadian 180 designs increase or decrease reliability? Sylvestre Sporting Goods will be importing direct impingement competition for the WK and MCR in the form of the direct impingement in concert with 180 dual guide rod/returns spring Jard J180, which just got its FRT approved. Setting aside the issues people have had with Jard products in the past, their design indicates a straightforward conversion of the WK or MCR to direct impingement may be possible. Would DI be more reliable in this case, or less? Would it be worthwhile for Kodiak, or Wolverine in concert with Xtreme or Spectre LTD, or to pursue this matter? Would it make sense for ATRS or Maccabee to make their own J180-"ish" receiver to swap their other parts to more readily then a pure piston design?
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Thank you for this most excellent post. As a newer owner of the WK, I bought it without knowing the full history and potential iterations of the development of this gun. I guess there is no way to definitively tell whether the threaded charging handles have gone through some interations/modifications/improvements. It is scary to read the poster who indicated 3 breaks within 3000 rounds. It is good to know if I experience a breakage, I can request a different type of handle / system be put in - I suppose this is not something that is a DIY for someone who has no DIY experience. Similarly the disassembly of the rifle to apply loctite...I know as new owners we shouldn't have to do these type of preventative measures, but I don't mind doing it if it saves a problem with something breaking while shooting it and then have to send back to manufacturer.
I will be shooting mine for an extended period in less than a couple of weeks, so it should be interesting...not sure if there is any rhyme or reason to when if something is going to break, it will break approximately within a certain period of time. Or whether there is any common situation which increases the likelihood of parts failure (ie. weather and temperature conditions, etc.).
You may want to purchase a replacement charging handle prior to firing the rifle. It's a relatively inexpensive part, but not one you want to be without should you have a failure. TNA is out of stock on the OEM handle, and SBI it out of stock on basic black, but you can get it in grey or one of their high visibility colours. Here's the link: https://spectreballistics.com/wk180c/79-39-wk180-c-enhanced-charging-handle.html#/53-wk180c_charging_handle_color-grey
Edit: SBI just posted basic black charging handles are back in stock: https://spectreballistics.com/wk180c/79-37-wk180-c-enhanced-charging-handle.html#/51-wk180c_charging_handle_color-black
The install instructions for the SBI handle are below, but they could likely be modified for the OEM handle, should people have problems with it flying loose:
SBI said:
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The initial business model was a semi auto blaster in .223/5.56 that took stanag mags for $1000 Canuckistani pesos. Pretty basic.
They could have (and probably should have considering the falling out between Wolverine and Kodiak) spent a bit more on quality stuff, parts, QC, jigs, etc. - whatever - to get an overall better product.
That doesn't equate to every part - just the stuff that matters most. That also doesn't mean going from $1000 to $3k - that's just ridiculous.
So now that they've learned their lesson and have paid for it in lost sales, dycking around with returns and warranty claims, soured business dealings, etc. quality has gotten worse and prices have risen....yeah, it went from great idea that was a little under-done to full-on half-baked.
They could have (and probably should have considering the falling out between Wolverine and Kodiak) spent a bit more on quality stuff, parts, QC, jigs, etc. - whatever - to get an overall better product.
That doesn't equate to every part - just the stuff that matters most. That also doesn't mean going from $1000 to $3k - that's just ridiculous.
So now that they've learned their lesson and have paid for it in lost sales, dycking around with returns and warranty claims, soured business dealings, etc. quality has gotten worse and prices have risen....yeah, it went from great idea that was a little under-done to full-on half-baked.
