Akdas Alcor Handguard Removal - Is It Me or is This Harder Than It Should Be?

[thegazelle]

I just got a Kodiak handguard delivered in the mail today. Given the fact that many other handguards with a nut at the end just requires fingers to loose, I couldn't do so on this one. I took some hand clamps and try to turn it but stripped the paint off. I went to look at some videos online and sure enough they are hand loosened.

I noticed that swivel does something and it looks like you have to pull it up and that unlocks the nut. But everytime I pull it up, it just goes back down - there's no way for me to lock in place. So I used the vice grips again and one hand while holding the swivel up, the other hand is using the grips to loosen it. I can't hold that stupid swivel up and turn as it invariably pops back down, locking the nut.

Has anyone experienced this? I thought it would be as easy as my Supernova or any other guns I have that have a retaining nut there. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[1ABNDT]

 

[thegazelle]

Yeah I saw that video but it doesn't help. I finally got the handguard off, but the nut and the handguard came off at the same time and together along with this spring. This is so annoying. Every other video shows just the nut coming off, but everything came off with the retaining nut.

I wonder whether that stupid nut is seized onto what ever it screwed into and when I got off the handguard, the nut and whatever it is seized on on the handguard pulled everything off together. That would explain why that nut took tools to loosen as it was seized to whatever it was threaded on.

When I turn the front nut now, the whole thing it is attached to in the hanguard with the spring turns as well.

I looked at a disassembled photo off the internet (I wish mine looked like that) and the nut is supposed to come off that other threaded part with the spring and therein lies my problem. When I turn the retaining nut it turns that silver bolt thing...which tells me the nut is seized on it.. Because that whole thing is in the wooden handguard, I can't keep that silver hex part from not moving while I turn the retaining nut.

So the reason why it was so super tight and I had to use tools is because the nut is seized onto that silver bolt thing's threads. So as I was using tools to unscrew it, it actually unscrewed the other side past the spring, while the nut stayed on the bolt threads

 

[FungusAmongus]

that's a really strange situation you have, suffice it to say on my alcor I've never that issue when i've taken the handguard off to wipe down the spring and get rid of burnt powder residue, the black nut comes off more or less fine without getting seized to the rest of the assembly

i'd say get some degreaser and clean the front male threads that the black nut screws on to and then apply a little bit of blue loctite after its all clean and dry to prevent the nut from walking out after shooting, I suppose you have your new kodiak handguard and that thing looks like it doenst have the ball detent for locking

 

[thegazelle]

that's a really strange situation you have, suffice it to say on my alcor I've never that issue when i've taken the handguard off to wipe down the spring and get rid of burnt powder residue, the black nut comes off more or less fine without getting seized to the rest of the assembly

i'd say get some degreaser and clean the front male threads that the black nut screws on to and then apply a little bit of blue loctite after its all clean and dry to prevent the nut from walking out after shooting, I suppose you have your new kodiak handguard and that thing looks like it doenst have the ball detent for locking

Thank you very much for the input.

I ended up giving the handguard to a buddy a church who is probably the most handy guy I know (he literally built his two mansions of houses all himself) and has like 3 trailers as his tool box...anyways I figured if anyone can figure it out, he can...and certainly did - after church his wife handed me the handguard and said he needed his son to help him with it...he did add some penetrating oil to it before removal. Said it was real seized in there.

It took me no time to put the new handguard on...and the good news is, Kodiak includes a plate for the front, with a ball detent on it, which allows the nut to lock in. After seeing it all taken apart, I can see how it works now. I wouldn't have been able to get it off myself.

I did take your advice and check the nut to make sure it didn't walk out when I took the rifle to the club yesterday. I kept checking it and at the end, the worst it got was it popped off the detent but didn't come loose otherwise. One small click and it was back on. That handguard was super warm after I was done - I will remember to shoot this one in the winter - will be great to keep the hands warm outside.

The strange thing about the Kodiak handguard though, is that not all the 3 and 9 o'clock mlok slots are available - some seem to have the shape outline but they are blocked out solid (so running along the handguard - let's say there are 6 possible slots - only 3 are useable - the other three are just the outline shape with no slot). but the 6 o'clock ones run all the way down the handguard. Strange.

 

[FungusAmongus]

glad you got the new kodiak handguard installed, half the fun with these weird turkish designs is fixing the gremlins, am I right?

did you or your friend figure out why the black nut was seized in the first place? one culprit could be gunpowder residue (this is a known thing, look up "carbon lock" but only really happens if you are shooting 100s or 1000s of rounds of dirty ammo in an overgassed gun), though it may have also been some left over gunk or preservative oil from the factory that got baked in from heat of rapid fire

either way I find that the ball detent is still quite bad at locking the nut and I put a little bit of blue loctite on mine to prevent it from walking out and me having to retighten it after every 50 rounds or so, I havent had time to shoot it too much since early summer tho.

finally not to disparage all turkish guns, a long time ago i had a hatsan 12ga semi auto that had a similar barrel nut design and that thing was hand tightened with no threadlocker but never came loose even with high power buck and slug loads...

 

[thegazelle]

glad you got the new kodiak handguard installed, half the fun with these weird turkish designs is fixing the gremlins, am I right?

did you or your friend figure out why the black nut was seized in the first place? one culprit could be gunpowder residue (this is a known thing, look up "carbon lock" but only really happens if you are shooting 100s or 1000s of rounds of dirty ammo in an overgassed gun), though it may have also been some left over gunk or preservative oil from the factory that got baked in from heat of rapid fire

either way I find that the ball detent is still quite bad at locking the nut and I put a little bit of blue loctite on mine to prevent it from walking out and me having to retighten it after every 50 rounds or so, I havent had time to shoot it too much since early summer tho.

finally not to disparage all turkish guns, a long time ago i had a hatsan 12ga semi auto that had a similar barrel nut design and that thing was hand tightened with no threadlocker but never came loose even with high power buck and slug loads...

Thanks for your feedback and for the original recommendation.

Yeah the Turkish guns are interesting - I have an EGE revolver .410 shotgun whereby the cylinder gap is shielded by a protective plate, but it completely burns and melts the hulls of any 3" round. I got a couple of other Turkish guns as well for shotguns. I have found this Alcor though to be excellent in terms of reliability and function - better than most of the black semi autos that are now banned, with the exception of the X95, which will always be my favourite. The Derya .22s seem to be very reliable and a good value proposition.

For the Alcor - gunpowder residue is very likely the issue - I have never cleaned the gun and yes, I have gone about 1600 rounds since I bought it.

It is funny, when I initially installed it, the ball detent allowed me to clear the clicking/ratcheting of that nut. But since I took the handguard back off, and hung a Streamlight on it with not MLOK but what I think were keymod plates - the handguard goes on much more stiff and I can't hand tighten the nut to the point of hearing the ratcheting. I may have overtightened those spinning plates/backings, since the screws for these are MUCH longer. That may have slightly warped the MLOK frame, who knows. If I loosen one of them, the handguard goes on more easily, but one of the securing screws is now spinning around. I may find proper MLOK screws and pieces for the flashlight.

Any guess why they blanked out some of those mlok slots, but left the outline? That is strange - I thought maybe they pop out with force, but make it like that...strange...

A range buddy was asking me if I was going to replace the stock as well. I quite like the Alcor wooden stock and I don't see any functional reason to replace it, aside from protecting the wood from scratches and what not, but I keep it in its original soft case rather than having it banged around in the safe.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[FungusAmongus]

weird, I suppose with these cottage industry aftermarket parts theres always some odd thing about them... for the MLOK sections that are "fake" I think they just decided to not mill them out to save cost. I have basically the opposite setup you have I kept the wooden handguard but I have Fox Operator pic rail stock adapter and a folding stock, the LOP of the original stock is too long by at least 2 inches and makes eye relief on optics a PITA

 

[1ABNDT]

Happy to hear you got it sorted out.

 

[thegazelle]

weird, I suppose with these cottage industry aftermarket parts theres always some odd thing about them... for the MLOK sections that are "fake" I think they just decided to not mill them out to save cost. I have basically the opposite setup you have I kept the wooden handguard but I have Fox Operator pic rail stock adapter and a folding stock, the LOP of the original stock is too long by at least 2 inches and makes eye relief on optics a PITA

I wanted the handguard with MLOK to hang a light. I ended up using the fake MLOK outline sections to stick on a tapeswitch. I wish I knew what Streamlight uses as the default tape on their tapeswitches, as I had to pry my tape switch off the receiver (where it was originally mounted) and ended up scratching it a bit in forcefully prying it. I ended up getting some other double sided tape from home depot that apparently was pretty good on automotive metal, so hopefully that stays on as well as the stock tapeswitch tape.