Brief Can-Am Socom 18 review:
Got it today. I had the day off so I spent the majority of the day monkeying around with this thing.
The good:
- Finish is fantastic for a Norc. Receiver and gas system have nice even surfaces, there are some machining marks but that’s to be expected. The parkerising is also well done, very even and very black. I was going to send this to armacoat for the Nitron treatment but looks like that won’t be needed ( Sorry Barret
)
- Trigger is great. Nice dark finish and al parts in spec… doesn’t even feel that gritty
- Sights actually work! I don’t know if I’d shoot a match with them but they feel great and function well so far.
- Gas system is in spec and has good compression (Vacuum?) Splines are way tighter than previous generations, didn't even really need to be peened.
- Factory navy sight is awesome. Locks up tight without shims.
- I like the Can-am faux brake. Makes this thing look like a M1A socom… just more non-restrictedesque
The Bad:
- I hate the black plastic stocks… they feel like they belong on a toy. Deep sixed that piece immediately and replaced it with a spare GI stock sporting a rattle-can multicam paint job.
- The included front sight is a POS… totally crooked. Replaced with spare GI one.
- It looks like my bolt was over slightly overbmachined on the right lug when they were cutting the bolt roller knob. The bolt roller should be somewhat flush with the side of the right lug… as you can see in the pics, mine is not. (edit: this isnt as bad as i initially thought. there is slight overrun when cutting the nolt roller knob, but is very similar to a few GI bolts that I have). On the bright side I have solid lug contact on both sides, and by the looks of it this shouldn’t really affect anything.
- My op rod is unusable. The tube part at the front is machined at a very bad upward angle. Once I got the op rod guide mounted straight and solid, the angle of the rod would cause it to jam up at the rear of it’s travel… I replaced with a spare norc one I had and it’s all good.
- I think the splines for the gas system are machined slightly off of center. When I index the barrel so the navy sight is as close to level as I can get it, it appears to me based on other barrel features that the barrel is in fact over-indexed. Took some fiddling but I got it to where I’m happy with it: Barrel now is properly indexed and front and rear sights are centred. The front sight is slightly canted to the right but I think that's due to the machining on the gas lock front sight
I also replaced most of the pins and springs with GI ones, and added an NM guide rod.
I ran to the range quickly at the end of the day and only had time to run 50 rounds of Norc surplus through it before i lost daylight. It ran like a champ. I won't be able to do any accuracy testing till later, but it functioned very well.
Overall I’m happy with this purchase. You really can’t go wrong for the price. IMO, like any of these rifles the receivers alone are worth what we pay. Anyway… that’s what I got. Like every other run of these things, YMMMV depending on which high school shop class assembled your rifle
Cheers!
Got it today. I had the day off so I spent the majority of the day monkeying around with this thing.
The good:
- Finish is fantastic for a Norc. Receiver and gas system have nice even surfaces, there are some machining marks but that’s to be expected. The parkerising is also well done, very even and very black. I was going to send this to armacoat for the Nitron treatment but looks like that won’t be needed ( Sorry Barret
)- Trigger is great. Nice dark finish and al parts in spec… doesn’t even feel that gritty
- Sights actually work! I don’t know if I’d shoot a match with them but they feel great and function well so far.
- Gas system is in spec and has good compression (Vacuum?) Splines are way tighter than previous generations, didn't even really need to be peened.
- Factory navy sight is awesome. Locks up tight without shims.
- I like the Can-am faux brake. Makes this thing look like a M1A socom… just more non-restrictedesque
The Bad:
- I hate the black plastic stocks… they feel like they belong on a toy. Deep sixed that piece immediately and replaced it with a spare GI stock sporting a rattle-can multicam paint job.
- The included front sight is a POS… totally crooked. Replaced with spare GI one.
- It looks like my bolt was over slightly overbmachined on the right lug when they were cutting the bolt roller knob. The bolt roller should be somewhat flush with the side of the right lug… as you can see in the pics, mine is not. (edit: this isnt as bad as i initially thought. there is slight overrun when cutting the nolt roller knob, but is very similar to a few GI bolts that I have). On the bright side I have solid lug contact on both sides, and by the looks of it this shouldn’t really affect anything.
- My op rod is unusable. The tube part at the front is machined at a very bad upward angle. Once I got the op rod guide mounted straight and solid, the angle of the rod would cause it to jam up at the rear of it’s travel… I replaced with a spare norc one I had and it’s all good.
- I think the splines for the gas system are machined slightly off of center. When I index the barrel so the navy sight is as close to level as I can get it, it appears to me based on other barrel features that the barrel is in fact over-indexed. Took some fiddling but I got it to where I’m happy with it: Barrel now is properly indexed and front and rear sights are centred. The front sight is slightly canted to the right but I think that's due to the machining on the gas lock front sight
I also replaced most of the pins and springs with GI ones, and added an NM guide rod.
I ran to the range quickly at the end of the day and only had time to run 50 rounds of Norc surplus through it before i lost daylight. It ran like a champ. I won't be able to do any accuracy testing till later, but it functioned very well.
Overall I’m happy with this purchase. You really can’t go wrong for the price. IMO, like any of these rifles the receivers alone are worth what we pay. Anyway… that’s what I got. Like every other run of these things, YMMMV depending on which high school shop class assembled your rifle
Cheers!
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