CORE 15 Rifle Review

Great info! Please keep it up! I enjoyed reading about the positive responses to the experiences that you've had. Too many shooters will trash a manufacturer or dealer before they get a chance to make things right!
Let us mnow how your various reloads make out.
 
sigsauer226 said:
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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The 5/30 round mags I got are rivited.

On a side note, I noticed the other night that one of the p-mags is a little tight fitting in the magwell, and as a result, doesn't drop freely.The other p-mags I have, don't have this issue. I did use this mag last time I was at the range, but never noticed this til the other day while playing around with it. I was just bench shooting and wasn't on my mind at the time. I'll be contacting Wanstalls eventually about it, to see if there's something I can do, or that can be done. There were no feed issues with it, just a tad too tight.
 
slydwys said:
The 5/30 round mags I got are rivited.

On a side note, I noticed the other night that one of the p-mags is a little tight fitting in the magwell, and as a result, doesn't drop freely.The other p-mags I have, don't have this issue. I did use this mag last time I was at the range, but never noticed this til the other day while playing around with it. I was just bench shooting and wasn't on my mind at the time. I'll be contacting Wanstalls eventually about it, to see if there's something I can do, or that can be done. There were no feed issues with it, just a tad too tight.
Click to expand...
Take a file to the head of the rivet that is exposed on the out side of the mag. It is probally sticking out to much and needs to be flush with the mag.
 
Never bought a gun from Wanstalls, only a hard to find magazine, that they happily put aside for me, until I could make it out to the shop to pick it up but, I just wanted to say Wanstalls is great to deal with. Very cool people. In fact, on my very first visit there, I got some swag! And I didn't even purchase anything that day!! I'd happily deal with Wanstalls again. Just my 2 cents.
 
Ok, sorry it took so long, but here's some target groupings. Keep in mind, these were shot with the piston upper. 1:8 twist. All targets were shot at 100 yards on a bench, with the barrel on a rest and butt of the rifle dug into my shoulder. I stabilized the rifle with my left hand (I shoot right) against the butt of the rifle. I believe this rifle is much more accurate than I am capable of shooting, but will post the results anyways.

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55gr Hornady Z-MAX

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55gr Americain Eagle FMJ (red box)

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55gr Remington PSP R223R1

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45gr Remington JHP L223R7

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64gr Winchester Power Point X223R2

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69gr Federal Premium Sierra Matchking BTHP Gold Medal Match GM223M

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62gr Federal Fusion F223FS1

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55gr Federal Soft Point 223A

I did some sighting with some cheapo Winchester ammo, but realized that I forgot to do a group with it that I can post. It shot like crap, just so you know. I ended up fine tuning the sights with the Hornady Z-MAX, even though it was against the 'only shoot zombies with this ammo' warning on the box. I plan on going back to the range on a warmer day to do a second grouping and showing the results of all ammo shot, as weather was cold that day and though minimal, could affect accuracy slightly and can give me a fresh start, etc.

Now for the gas upper. I had already killed a couple hours on the bench, and at that point was wanting to shoot my pistol and check some reloads with that and then warm up a bit. It was about -1 that day and I basically just wanted to check function, as this was the upper that gave me the issues that provoked the piston upper testing. I shot in total of 40 rounds of cheapo Winchester, and was just shooting open sights at the 25 yard mark. The first 15 or so rounds went through without any problems, then I let the wife give it a try. Maybe it was just her bad luck, but she shot 1 round. The second round got jammed. It was to the point that I had to pry the bolt open with a screwdriver. It also damaged the next round to the point that I don't trust trying to feed it into the chamber to try it out.

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After this happened, I cleared the chamber and loaded another mag. I was able to shoot all 5 rounds, but the bolt didn't catch in the open position after the last round was fired. This also happened before I sent the upper back, but thought it was due to the misalignment of the gas tube. I haven't talked to Wanstalls as of yet about this as it hasn't been big on my priority list. I also want to shoot more rounds through it to confirm that there is a problem. 1 round that jams could be caused by a number of things, and not just the upper. I also ran another 15 or so rounds after the jam without a problem, other than the failure of the bolt catching in the open position on one occasion.

On a side note, comparing the two uppers against eachother, the gas upper is much louder than the piston. It sounds AWSOME. Even some of the other guys on the bench next to me commented about it. This thing defenatly attracts attention, both with operation and looks. The piston upper also looks as if I havent fired a single shot through it. It's very clean. The gas upper, even with only 40 rounds through it, looks a little gunky. Between that and the sound, those are the 2 major differences I've noticed between the two uppers thus far.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try and post at a later date, the second results with the piston upper, with the addition of the cheapo Winchester ammo. I'll wait for a posting of the gas upper until I'm satisfied that it's going to work flawlessly. In the meantime, I'll talk to Wanstalls about it and see what they say, but I think it needs some more rounds through it to make a valid confirmation of any persistent problems it may have.

Until next time...
 
Just a quick update. As you all know, I wasn't really a big fan of the trigger, so I polished it. It's one of the easiest trigger jobs one can do to his/hers AR. I didn't take off any material, or change angles or anything, just polished with a very fine stone to make sure the angles were infact how the factory intended them to be, then with the use of a drill and a small buffer wheel, on low speed, and with some polishing compound (GT88 scratch remover), polished to a literal mirror finish. I didn't bend springs, or swap out to lighter springs, cuz I want to see what the factory trigger is capable of in it's intended form. WOW. That's all I can say, really. It made a huge difference. Not so much on the weight, but how smooth it is. It got rid of the slight grittyness and a good chunk of the creep I experienced before. I'll also note, I put a dab of lube where the sear makes contact with the trigger. I didn't even take a file or anything to the sear, just hit it with the polish and the wheel. If there was any mod that one should do, it's these simple enhancements to the trigger, just to clean up an otherwise excelent rifle.
 
Good advice on the trigger polish. Wanstalls said mine might be in around April. I can hardly wait. I traded a Harris benchrest bipod for 200 rounds of 55gr American Eagle.
 
I made it back to the range today with some good results. First off, I'll mention that I've mad a previous trip to the range to do some function testing with the gas upper which went very well. Everything worked as intended. I'll also mention that I did some testing as to resting positions. I found that the gun liked it best shooting off the mag. I also found that if I rested the barrel on a rest of any kind, it skewed the results slightly. So for the remainder of my testing, I'll shoot from the mag. That being said, I reshot all my previously tested ammo through the piston upper with the addition of some Americain Eagle black box ammo and some Hornady reloads that I wanted to test out. Here's the results.

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Americain Eagle red box 55gr FMJ BT

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American Eagle Black Tactical AE223 55gr FMJ

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Remington L223R7 45gr JHP

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Federal 223A 55gr soft point

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Winchester USA 223R1 55gr FMJ
This was 5 shots, only 3 landed.

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Federal Premium GM223M 69gr Siera Match King (Gold Medal Match)

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Federal Fusion F223FS1 62gr

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Remington R223R1 Express Rifle 55gr PSP

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Winchester X223R2 64gr PP

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Hornady Zombie Max 55gr

This is the start of the Hornady reloads I did. I used 55gr Varmint, 55gr V-Max, and 68gr Match BTHP. I loaded 5 different powder weights for each bullet and these are the results. Didn't have time to try my max loads, but will report next range trip.

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55gr varmint, 22.8gr Varget, Federal Primers

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68gr Match, 22.8gr Varget, Federal Primers

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55gr V-Max, 22.8gr Varget, Federal Primers

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55gr Varmint, 23.7gr Varget, Federal Primers

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68gr Match BTHP, 23.4gr Varget, Federal Primers

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55gr V-max, 23.7gr Varget, Federal Primers

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68gr Match BTHP, 24.2gr Varget, Federal Primers

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55gr Varmint, 24.6gr Varget, Federal Primers

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55gr V-Max, 24.6gr Varget, Federal Primers
Yes that is 5 shots on the paper.

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55gr Varmint, 25.5gr Varget, Federal Primers

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68gr Match BTHP, 24.5gr Varget, Federal Primers
This is also 5 shots on paper.

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55gr V-Max, 25.5gr Varget, Federal Primers


As you can see, this rifle is very capable of getting the job done. Keep in mind, this is resting off the mag, and I'm not the best shot out there. The scope also has a 5MOA dot and covers a bit of the target, but is an awsome scope none the less. (Thanks Kevin!) Other than that. I'll post more results as time permits.
 
What was with the single flyer in your factory groups? Do you recall if it was the same shot in each magazine? IE. First shot/last shot.
Did you clean or boresnake the barrel before switching brands.

Either way it looks like that is one accurate rifle.
 
Sorry for not clarifying, Everything was shot at 100 yards, sitting at a bench, resting on the mag and butt in shoulder, and used my fist to vary elevation. I drink alot of cola which makes me a little jittery most likely. I haven't cleaned the rifle in a while, because I wanted to see how 'dirty' the piston upper actually gets after shooting several rounds through it, then will document the results, and do the same with the gas (DI) upper. Every group shot was with a single mag, but used about 10 mags in total. (Some P-mags, some steel) I figure if I can shoot this rifle this accuratly, it's actually capable of grouping even tighter, so as always, results will vary shooter to shooter, but this gives a good indication of how well these rifles were intended to shoot.
 
Not without pulling the lower appart. Might be something to ask Gary at Wanstalls, as I haven't even seen that spec on Core 15's website. Good question though. Now I'm curious.
 
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