CORE 15 Rifle Review

I got my core AR last week. Dont know all that much about AR's so I can't comment that much. But I am really impressed with the finish, feels really nice holding it.
 
slydwys said:
Ok, so I got out to the range yesterday and was able to shoot the rifle. I shot a few rounds through while sighting in and then, to my surprise, it jammed.QUOTE]



Just wondering, how much oil, and what type did you use on your bolt carrier group and the bolt itself. If the bolt has too much oil on the front lugs, it will jam. It's the 6 O'clock lug "Around there" that pushes the round forward off the top of the mag and rams it into the chamber, and if that is dripping with oil it will jam.

I have a sugestion... you can try this out for yourself if you make out to the range with the same rifle, or others can if they are experiancing the same issues. Use break free/CLP, wipe the carrier down with a lite film... wipe behind the lugs but not on the lugs themselves. Secondly, add 1 drop of Break free down through the cam pin area. Make sure the bolt face, and lugs are clean and dry.. especially the bottom lugs and the chamber where the lugs lock into... bend a Q-tip and swirl it around in the journal just before the chamber... could be a blob of oil in the bottom.

Fire a few rounds.. the oil you put on will start to run, and you can use a Q-tip to further dry off the bottom lugs and the bottom of the carrier. This will give you a good idea of how certain amounts of oil react and spread around.

If there ends up being nothing with this rifle.... Its probly just got too much lube on the forward area of the bolt. This happend to me with a brand new armalite M15 and once I figured the extra lube problem... she NEVER jammed again.

Cheers.
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Hey panda1, was good to meet ya the other day. I'll let you know when I'm going back out to flog the other uppers if you wanted to meet up again and try this thing out. Also, the NEA's did look prety good and I did consider one for a while. Maybe I'll have to see if I can get ahold of one to do a side by side vs the CORE15 rifle.

skinnadoor, I was using hoppes 9 oil, and didn't coat the lugs much at all. Just a light film of the stuff with a rag, but will be buying some CLP next. Sounds like that and break free are working the best on the AR's from what I've heard. Also heard that the lighter oils work best as they lubricate well, and don't cause much restriction.
 
One quick question, does the flash Hider is welded or it's removable !? ( just threaded)
Really neat package, I just want to confirm before I put this on my wishlist.
Thanks
 
I already sent back my upper, but the new one should be here any day. From what I saw and remember, it's just threaded on. I did take a bit of a look at it, but didn't spend much time checking it out in detail, but no weld marks that I saw.
 
So, I got the new piston upper today. I'd have to say, it got here faster than the rifle initially did. Was a nice surprise tho. +1 for Wanstalls. Finished work early, picked up the new upper from the post office, took it home, shot some pics with it, and went and picked up some more ammo, and took it to the range. Basically all I had time for was a bit of function testing, and sight adjustment with the scope. After I got a couple targets put up, I loaded a couple mags with some Winchester 55gr FMJ, loaded the mag, lined up my sights and fired off a round. That's when I remembered that ear protection is a must. It did sound prety cool with the gunshot bouncing off the coulees though, but decided to strap on my muffs. Then I fired off another shot, and another, and another. All in all, I shot 90 rounds tonight without any failure to feeds, or malfunctions of any kind. I did try shooting a couple groups, but it was getting a little cool by the time I was able to get the sights lined up, and I wasn't able to steady my best. I am still trying to get used to the trigger as well, but don't think it will be a big deal. Just need to plug more rounds through it.

The piston action feels very smooth, if I move it by hand, there are no hang ups, or burrs to slow it down, or catch. The piston also goes into the upper reciever straight with no bendys. The best part, is that all that carbon associated with a gas system, doesn't get any where near the bolt. The BCG is spick and span clean, which makes clean up a breeze. There's alot to be said about the Adams Arms Piston kits, and I can see why. I believe it to be a really well designed setup.

I didn't get a chance to try out the flip up sights due to the scope mounted where it is. Once I get my gas upper back, I'll swap the scope over and try out the flip up sights on the piston upper. I shold also note that the front railed block looks to be very nicely made. It's set at the same height as the flat top reciever, so if one decided to add a railed forend in the future, it will blend nicely into both ends. The front block is also capable of switching settings for different firing modes. Norman, suppressed, and another setting for when you don't want the bolt to cycle.

The BCG also has a couple noticable differences compared to the gas BCG. It appears to be a little more streamlined, so to speak, mostly due to the fact that there isn't a need for anything gas related. No drilled holes, or anything like that. I've included some pics of the complete upper. Enjoy.

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slydwys said:
Ok, so I got out to the range yesterday and was able to shoot the rifle. I shot a few rounds through while sighting in and then, to my surprise, it jammed. I cleared the jam and tried a different mag. It jammed as well. I tried a couple different mags, mostly magpul P-mags and a steel mag of unknown brand, and they all jammed. In all, I shot about 80-90 rounds with about 15 or so of those being jamms. I kept shooting, thinking that things might just be a little stiff and need to "seat in" so to speak, but it didn't look good, so I took the bolt out, pulled it apart and set it back in the reciever to see if there was any sort of binding. Some of you mentioned that the gas tube going into the reciever was a bit crooked left to right, and as a result it was causing some binding with the bolt. This may or may not have everything to do with my failure to feeds.

So, I called Gary at Wanstalls. I explained to him the problem and that I believed there was a simple solution. In all, it was a good conversation and my experience with Wanstalls remains to be a good one. I've been very happy with the service and how fast things have been dealt with. This does have a happy result as well.

After I called Gary, about an hour or so later I get a call from a guy from CORE15. Immagine my amazement and surprise when he tells me his name. It's Izzy! Izzy Anzaldua. The president of sales and business development for CORE15. For those that don't know, Izzy spent 22 years with Bushmaster prior to him working at CORE15. What a cool guy. I explained my problem I was having to him thinking that maybe there is something I could do to fix the problem. He was quick to tell me that he would rather just replace the rifle. Again, I was surprised. Most of the time when I deal with some sort of a waranty claim with a manufacturer, they want to expend all possibilities before they do a product replacement. All too many of us have been in this same situation. I'd have to say though, the guys at CORE15 and Wanstalls have gone above and beyond just your average customer relations experience.

Then I get another call from Wanstalls. These rifles are so popular, they don't have another one in stock to replace mine with, but they do have a piston upper they are willing to send me in the meantime. Im told to try it out and see what I think. In the meantime, I've sent my upper back to Wanstalls. They will attempt a repair on the upper and try it out. If everything looks good, they will send that one back to me so that I may do a side by side comparison of the gas upper and the piston upper.

All in all, I think this is the best route, as it would be a month and a half wait for a new rifle, when I'm sure it's just a minor problem with the upper. For those that are haters out there, all I can say is that this is the first problem Wanstalls has heard of with the CORE15 products. As far as I know, there hasn't been any other issues with the rifles at all, and that every manufacturer has their problems. As much that can be done to ensure a 0% failure rate, there may be the odd one that slips through. It happens, and I'm satisfied with the course of action that's been taken.

I'm looking forward to recieving the piston upper and trying that out and will now include in my review both the piston and gas upper assemblies on a side by side review. If anyone has any questions or concerns, let me know, and I'd be happy to address those.

Thanks guys, and stay tuned for more to come.
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When you were having jamming issues did you try a different setting for your gas system?
 
The jamming issues I had were with the gas operated upper assy and not with the piston driven upper. There are no changable settings on the gas upper, only the piston.
 
thanks for the pictures . i want one too, maybe tac m4 but the #### helps. good work, hope it treats you well.
 
Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since my last post, but life kinda got in the way a bit. I do, however, have some good news. I got my gas upper back and am told it's good to go. Also, the range got approved to be reopened, so I'm hoping I can get out there this weekend to give both uppers a try and check out the accuracy of different loads and bullet weights. As for the gas upper, it appears that the gas tube was bent back into position, and when I talked to Gary about it, was told that they were able to shoot multiple mags through it without any hiccups. We will see what the weekend brings.

In the meantime, I've been playing around with paracord and slings and crap, and I'll have some pics of that next post. I've also spent some time dry firing the crap out of this thing. I previously reported that there was little to no creep, but as it's setteled in, and loosened up a bit, I'm noticing that there is a bit of creep. The trigger weight hasn't changed much, and is the only aspect of the rifle I'm not 100% satisfied with. That's not a bad thing though, and I knew that I wasn't going to be completely satisfied with the trigger, but will shoot it and try it out for the year. If I'm still not happy with it, I'll start shopping for a drop in trigger assy. As far as everything is concerned, it's not a big deal.

Again, a big thanks to Gary and the guys at Wanstalls for getting everything squared away as far as repairs go and making me one very happy customer.
 
slydwys said:
I've also spent some time dry firing the crap out of this thing. I previously reported that there was little to no creep, but as it's setteled in, and loosened up a bit, I'm noticing that there is a bit of creep. The trigger weight hasn't changed much, and is the only aspect of the rifle I'm not 100% satisfied with. That's not a bad thing though, and I knew that I wasn't going to be completely satisfied with the trigger, but will shoot it and try it out for the year. If I'm still not happy with it, I'll start shopping for a drop in trigger assy. As far as everything is concerned, it's not a big deal.
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Before you start dropping money on a new trigger, clean out any grease/oil that may be in the current trigger ass'y and take some of that paracord, loop it around the cocked hammer and pull up as hard as you can (within reason) and dry fire the rifle. Do this taking care not to smack the hammer into the bolt catch (lest it break on you). Rinse and repeat.

This will do a fair bit to smooth out the pull. Once you are satisfied, put a spot of grease in between the sear and the hammer and you should have a decent stock trigger.

There is also a different way of manipulating the trigger to make up for heavy gritty pulls if you are interested. I'd attempt to explain it but I'm certain I'd just get tongue tied and butcher the meaning. :p
 
Are the extra magazines you ordered have the same limiting device as the one that shipped with the firearm? The CORE rifle I looked at had a magazine limited to 5 rounds by way of a Magpul limiting device inside the magazine.
See: http://store.magpul.com/product/MAG280/22

Were the extras modified in the same fashion or were they riveted?
 
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