The Templar Thread, 5.56 by Crusader Arms / Spectre LTD

Fmulder said:
I'm hoping they can pull it together and correct these issues.

I'll update this as it progresses
Click to expand...

A few things. Firstly, crappy that you're having these issues; it's frustrating when you want to support and encourage a company and you don't get prompt communications/replies. I hope things turn out better for you sooner rather than later.

Crusader Arms sales comms and general comms has been reportedly pretty bad throughout the two or three years I've been watching/following them closely. Ordering from them direct has been especially fraught. I'm very glad I bought from NAS Outdoors instead of ordering direct from CA - I received mine from NAS within 3 business days. If you are reading this thread and thinking about buying from CA directly, be aware that it is not uncommon for direct purchasers to wait anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks from time of purchase to receiving the firearm. 9 weeks is slightly more uncommon, but not unheard of.

My communications with CA tech support (Which is actually Spectre Ltd. tech support) has been fairly rapid whenever I've tried - usually same day or next day. When you are sending email, are you emailing their info address or crusaderarmscompany@gmail.com or some other address?

Re: your timeline for communications - you sent something on the 10th and received multiple replies the same day. Two of the days in between have been weekend/non-business days. Now I think the expected window for email replies is same or next business day in general, so CA is definitely outside that window at this point, but here's my guess: they probably went in, checked their existing stock and found one or more of the same stock adapters are machined to the same incorrect dimensions/tolerances and are therefore out of MIL-STD-1913 specifications. I surmise they're debating internally how to respond. I further guess is that they don't have anything they can send right away - they may even have to do something CNC/tooling wise to be able to fix the issue, which might take a while.

The best thing for them to do is to admit fault, give you a timeline on replacement, and send you something as compensation. I'm going to be real here and based on what I've read and experienced with CA customer service (again, not technical service, which has been pretty good on the whole for me) - it's probably going to be a little while before you have anything in your hands which resolves the situation.

Or maybe this badly machined stock adapter is a one-off. Who knows? Whoever is in charge of CA's general customer communications needs to improve on both promptness and effectiveness. See zupermann's comment above as well. It's almost like they're losing a potential sale just because of the failure to answer questions promptly.

I enjoy my CA firearm. I wish CA had a communications/customer service team that could back them more effectively.
 
MacPapRonin said:
My communications with CA tech support (Which is actually Spectre Ltd. tech support) has been fairly rapid whenever I've tried - usually same day or next day. When you are sending email, are you emailing their info address or crusaderarmscompany@gmail.com or some other address?
Click to expand...

With the machining error, I originally submitted the question on their question box on the website. After they stopped replying I then started CC'ing spectre sales and spectre service department on the follow up emails as well. I wanted to make sure I was reaching as many as I could in the company. side note to this, I was going to call them one day to also follow up that way, as I saw spectre had a phone number listed on their website. well its a bogus phone number. its 1 123 456 78 90. that really made me uneasy with the company. you can see for yourself here https://spectreltd.ca/contact/


they probably went in, checked their existing stock and found one or more of the same stock adapters are machined to the same incorrect dimensions/tolerances and are therefore out of MIL-STD-1913 specifications. I surmise they're debating internally how to respond. I further guess is that they don't have anything they can send right away - they may even have to do something CNC/tooling wise to be able to fix the issue, which might take a while.
Click to expand...

I assumed the same thing. Figured behind the scenes they were running to check any others they had in stock to see if there was the same issue.

The best thing for them to do is to admit fault, give you a timeline on replacement, and send you something as compensation. I'm going to be real here and based on what I've read and experienced with CA customer service (again, not technical service, which has been pretty good on the whole for me) - it's probably going to be a little while before you have anything in your hands which resolves the situation.
Click to expand...

this ordeal will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth, but im really praying the overall performance of the templar makes it a fleeting memory.

later in the day after my first post i received an email from crusaderarmscompany@gmail.com asking me to send the adapter back to the and they will establish what the issue is and get it back to me corrected. Shortly after that email, I also received an email from service@spectreltd.ca stating their shipping dept will be sending me a return shipper. I follow up the emails asking for clarification on if they wanted the whole rifle back or just the adapter as each email was just a reply to me with no one else CC'ed. ive since been waiting for a reply or for the shipping label to be sent.
 
Last edited:
55recce said:
Maybe you should try cleaning it.....
Click to expand...

Follow Up on the cleaning process:

So, after that post I spent 2 days scrubbing the gunk off the barrel and gas block and it looks "good as new".

Materials:
- 1 brass cleaning brush (small size)
- 1 plastic cleaning brush (small size)
- 1 aerosol cleaner/lubricant (CLP)
- 1 roll of paper towel
- 1 pair gloves (high recommended)
- 1 shop mask (old N90 lying around?)

Setup:
- find somewhere you can leave the rifle (or upper) muzzle down for a day or two
- layer a few pieces of paper towl on the floor to catch the drips

Steps:
1) spray CLP (or your preferred cleaner/lube) up on the outside the barrel (towards the receiver) and work your way down to the gas block
- goal here is to soak all the dirt and rust bits
2a) after sitting for an hour or so, take the brass brush and fit it between the bigger diamond slots scrubbing the barrel down from the receiver towards the gas block
2b) repeat this process 4 times: cleaning the barrel from the leftside at the top, left bottom, right top and right bottom
3) repeat step 1 and let it soak at least over night
4) repeat steps 2 with a small plastic brush
5) fold paper towel pieces to fit into the diamond slots and wipe down the barrel from the receiver to the gas block

After all this, I still had some super tiny rust spots on the block since it's got so many hidden angles, but pretty sure it's surface rust from dirt/debris. I've had 2 matches since and, now, I spray the barrel down right when I get home and let it sit muzzle down on paper towel over night to let the gunk drip down to the block. I'm too lazy to full clean the night after a match, so the next day I wipe down the barrel and gas block with paper towel and haven't seen another rust spot since.
 
Ryanscholar said:
Follow Up on the cleaning process:

[TRIMMED]

After all this, I still had some super tiny rust spots on the block since it's got so many hidden angles, but pretty sure it's surface rust from dirt/debris. I've had 2 matches since and, now, I spray the barrel down right when I get home and let it sit muzzle down on paper towel over night to let the gunk drip down to the block. I'm too lazy to full clean the night after a match, so the next day I wipe down the barrel and gas block with paper towel and haven't seen another rust spot since.
Click to expand...

Thanks for describing this in detail. I was going to do something similar myself (my barrel and a few of the heads of screws had some minor rust spotting) but seeing you describe the process was reassuring. After following your instructions my firearm looks very clean. I appreciate the pointers.
 
So finally had a chance to take the Templar out again and put the most rounds in a single seating so far-275rds. Have now done over 1500rds in 2 months (going to slow down, for my wallet’s sake). Here is my 1500rd report, LAR-15 and Cross Industries 10rd mags work perfectly I tried two old steel mags and it did not like either one-would not even cycle in the first round with either mag so I did not attempt to use them. Zero FTF or FTE still. And no other issues. When cleaning the rifle this time I decided to take out and clean the piston rod (see pics). Gas valve pin was tight but came out without issue, the piston rod was dirty but not bad for over 1500rd without cleaning. Sprayed down the rod and valve pin and after 5min gave them a scrub with a toothbrush and wiped them down. Improved my 5 shot groups a little more-I did 8 5 shot groups this outing and averaged 1.73” at 100m (previous groupings average 1.80”). Next report at 2000rds but probably won’t be for a couple of months.

3s6DMY8l.jpg

bXvfhb4l.jpg

ItUVCDBl.jpg
 
Thanks for the report, Fig33. Congrats on getting to 1500 rounds. I'm sure you were careful but do keep an eye on that gas valve pin after removing it and replacing it - the way that everything else seems to back out eventually on Templars/Crusader 9s, I would wager that might over time as well. There was that one report of a user firing their gas pin down range when it backed out. Retrieved, screwed back in, firing normally, but definitely something to watch out for.

Love that you're doing 8 x 5-round groupings and taking an average. So many posters I've seen do one or two, drop a flyer and call it a day. Nice to hear feedback on the MoA - do you mind sharing which ammo you were using to get those results?

I'm going to clean my piston after the next two range visits; I should be just over 1100 rounds or so at that point. As some of my friends joke, I'm a little worried about letting out the magic firearm demons if I open it up, but I'm going to have to do it eventually, so I figure I should get it over with and know how to deal with it.

Did you just use a socket key head with some sort of extension to get in there to the top of the pin? It's a little recessed.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I just used a standard socket extension to unscrew the pin. I haven't yet but I'm thinking I might put a couple of drops of purple or blue loctite on the pin just to add some retention. I'm a third generation reloader all the 223 that I've put through the Templar have been my reloads (can't afford factory ammo, recently I've been finding some great deals on primers, powder and bullets so my reloads cost me around 46 cents each). My reloads are 55gr CamPro bullets with 27.2gr of BL-C(2) powder COL 2.245".
 
That's a nice price for the cost/round for reloads - cheapest I'm getting are bulk buys of PMC Bronze that work out to $0.72/round. Appreciate the extra detail about your reloads. I may get into reloading for .303 British for my Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk I*. When you're throwing a toonie down range with each trigger pull, it starts to sting a little.

I had not heard of purple loctite at all - only red, green and blue - so I looked it up. Thanks for the new info! https://tameson.com/pages/threadlocker#selection-guide

Yeah, when I take off the gas valve pin, I'll put on some blue, maybe not the whole length of the thread, but a portion of it.
 
Canadian Caliber interviewed Crusader about the Gen 2 Templar, https://youtu.be/yyBjD5FSjoU?feature=shared&t=490. Finally, the screw at the end of the charging handle track is a hex, not a Phillips! Even Admin Results made fun of that :p . Plus it has a lightened handguard, optional pencil barrel, and will use a standard AR-15 bolt release.
 
Bratwurst said:
Reminder, Code Of Arms has in the past stated they are on the sales team for Crusader arms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_XPvwUEH8I&t=259s

That's not to say they still are but it's quite possible that this entire video is a member of the sales team interviewing their own boss
Click to expand...

I got the sense that their reviews seemed a little biased, and I suspected that perhaps they were a bit closer than was proper for journalistic/reviewer integrity but I didn't realize they were actually outright on the sales team. Good to know, thanks.
 
Last edited:
MacPapRonin said:
I got the sense that their reviews seemed a little biased, and I suspected that perhaps they were a bit closer than was proper for journalistic/reviewer integrity but I didn't realize they were actually outright on the sales team. Good to know, thanks.
Click to expand...

hey man, i thought you worked for them as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom