angryeyebrows
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Oscar Mike
So I got my non-restricted ACR just over a week ago from Questar and I have to say I am less than pleased. Upon initial inspection everything looked good, but then digging a little deeper, I found some issues. I remembered #### Proenneke's review about his wobbly Questar barrel (apparently due to an under sized shim). So I checked mine out. Yup, a definate wobble. Not to be confused or played down as a bit of flex, but a true, back and forth jiggle. I was definitely not impressed with that.
So I begin to disassemble the rifle to see what can be done as well as I wanted to have a good check over the other parts. The rifle came apart very much as anticipated, with little effort or problems. Quality of the components and the fit and finish were pretty good.
I started with investigating the barrel assembly, I referenced the manual, which states for reassembly of the barrel "turn the barrel locking lever clockwise until there is a positive stop". So I tightened it approx four more clicks and the barrel wobble was gone. Only now, the locking lever assembly is cockeyed and rubs on the hand guard's heat shield. Maybe I need a new spacer?
Over Adjusted Barrel Lever
Damage to Hand Guards
I disassembled the bolt group. Everything looked good, except the small o-ring that holds the firing pin retaining pin was slightly damaged. A chunk was ripped off. Not a huge deal, and it still preforms it's function, but worth mentioning on a $3000 dollar rifle.
Damage to O-ring
The other thing I immediately noticed was that the charging handle would smash itself into the front of its slot causing damage to the aluminum receiver. I'd only racked the action back once at this point to clear the rifle before disassembling it, so I assume the rifle had been manipulated quite a bit either at the factory or while in the inventory of Questar.
Damage at Charging Handle Slot
The lower receiver had no issues. Everything looked as it should. So with that, I decided to head out for a shoot.
Thinking that I would practice some drills after grouping and zeroing, I brought 500 rounds of Federal 55gr FMJ. If only I could have foreseen the future, I might have saved myself the weight!
I bombed up an Emag and loaded the rifle with the bolt at the rear. Hit the bolt catch and chambered a round. When I depressed the trigger, the first round fired as it should, I felt the action recoil, and readied myself for a second shot. This time, depressing the trigger did nothing. I checked the chamber only to find a round partially fed and crumpled up in the barrel extension. I cleared the stoppage, and continued with firing. The next round fired and the following round jammed up again. Ugh!
Round Partially Fed
Damage to Ammo
I checked the manual, which recommended re-installing the barrel, so I did just that. No luck. I tried a number of different magazines, including some Pmags, still no luck. I disassembled the rifle and checked over everything. I even tried putting the barrel back on so that the locking lever was centered. Still the rifle refused to make it all the way through a 5 round mag without a failure. At this point I'm starting to get mad and after about 10 mags or so, I decided to save the ammo and return home. Being the weekend, neither Bushmaster nor Questar was open to respond to my problem, so I waited until Tuesday, on account of Monday being a holiday.
The first thing I did, was call Questar. Their sales person told me that the only person who could help with my issue was out of the office until the end of the week and that I should send him an email. Deciding I'd like to hear from Bushmaster first I held off on the email. I called The Gravel agency, who is Bushmasters official warranty center in Canada. The rep I spoke to there, was very helpful and apologetic and he seemed genuinely interested in helping me. This was very refreshing, when compared to some of my other dealings with Canadian firearm companies. He took all of my info down and looked up the serial number of my rifle. He then informed me that my particular rifle was never upgraded and still had recall parts in it. This was very confusing as when I ordered it from Questar, I specifically made a point of confirming verbally on the phone that this rifle was a current production gun. The sales person assured me it was. Evidently this is not the case.
At the time I had also been researching online the causes for my rifles issues, and one of the more prominent ones was a misaligned gas system. It appears to me as though the front gas block is canted, either due to poor machining of the barrel or improperly installed barrel extension maybe? In any case, the piston rod definitely looks off center.
Off Center Piston
The Bushmaster rep, said they would honour the warranty and fix the rifle, they just needed time to order up some parts. They would not, however, cover the Questar barrel, if it was found that there are issues with it, or the cost of the shipping to get the rifle to the repair center. Fair enough, seeing as Bushmaster technically does not even have to warranty the rifle due to the aftermarket barrel.
I decide it's time to write Questar and get to the bottom of this. I inform them that the Bushmaster warranty center would cover the repairs and that if the Questar barrel was the problem, that I would like them to replace the barrel. I also thought it would only be fair for Questar to cover the shipping, when I send the rifle to the warranty center. After all, they did sell me a broken rifle and misinform me of its current condition.
When I heard back from Questar, there was no apology, no "sorry your rifle does not work", nothing. They said that they were informed by their US distributor that the rifle was a current production gun and that they can only accept what their suppliers tell them. Weird. Did no one test fire this rifle when the Questar barrel was installed? I would think that after their gunsmith swapped the gas system over to their Questar barrel, they would test fire it. Guess not.
Simply ignoring my request for them to pay the shipping to the official warranty center and to potentially replace the barrel, Questar's recommendation was for me to send the rifle to them for inspection and repair. This is contrary to the advice of Bushmaster USA and their Canadian reps. If I send it to Questar, who will be repairing the rifle? The same gunsmith who installed the new barrel? Certainly no one qualified to work on an ACR officially. I have sent Questar a response, reaffirming my intention to send the rifle to the proper factory warranty center and requesting that they help with the shipping cost as well as provide a new barrel if required. Now I wait for a reply from Questar and the parts to arrive at Gravel.
So I begin to disassemble the rifle to see what can be done as well as I wanted to have a good check over the other parts. The rifle came apart very much as anticipated, with little effort or problems. Quality of the components and the fit and finish were pretty good.
I started with investigating the barrel assembly, I referenced the manual, which states for reassembly of the barrel "turn the barrel locking lever clockwise until there is a positive stop". So I tightened it approx four more clicks and the barrel wobble was gone. Only now, the locking lever assembly is cockeyed and rubs on the hand guard's heat shield. Maybe I need a new spacer?
Over Adjusted Barrel Lever
Damage to Hand Guards
I disassembled the bolt group. Everything looked good, except the small o-ring that holds the firing pin retaining pin was slightly damaged. A chunk was ripped off. Not a huge deal, and it still preforms it's function, but worth mentioning on a $3000 dollar rifle.
Damage to O-ring
The other thing I immediately noticed was that the charging handle would smash itself into the front of its slot causing damage to the aluminum receiver. I'd only racked the action back once at this point to clear the rifle before disassembling it, so I assume the rifle had been manipulated quite a bit either at the factory or while in the inventory of Questar.
Damage at Charging Handle Slot
The lower receiver had no issues. Everything looked as it should. So with that, I decided to head out for a shoot.
Thinking that I would practice some drills after grouping and zeroing, I brought 500 rounds of Federal 55gr FMJ. If only I could have foreseen the future, I might have saved myself the weight!
I bombed up an Emag and loaded the rifle with the bolt at the rear. Hit the bolt catch and chambered a round. When I depressed the trigger, the first round fired as it should, I felt the action recoil, and readied myself for a second shot. This time, depressing the trigger did nothing. I checked the chamber only to find a round partially fed and crumpled up in the barrel extension. I cleared the stoppage, and continued with firing. The next round fired and the following round jammed up again. Ugh!
Round Partially Fed
Damage to Ammo
I checked the manual, which recommended re-installing the barrel, so I did just that. No luck. I tried a number of different magazines, including some Pmags, still no luck. I disassembled the rifle and checked over everything. I even tried putting the barrel back on so that the locking lever was centered. Still the rifle refused to make it all the way through a 5 round mag without a failure. At this point I'm starting to get mad and after about 10 mags or so, I decided to save the ammo and return home. Being the weekend, neither Bushmaster nor Questar was open to respond to my problem, so I waited until Tuesday, on account of Monday being a holiday.
The first thing I did, was call Questar. Their sales person told me that the only person who could help with my issue was out of the office until the end of the week and that I should send him an email. Deciding I'd like to hear from Bushmaster first I held off on the email. I called The Gravel agency, who is Bushmasters official warranty center in Canada. The rep I spoke to there, was very helpful and apologetic and he seemed genuinely interested in helping me. This was very refreshing, when compared to some of my other dealings with Canadian firearm companies. He took all of my info down and looked up the serial number of my rifle. He then informed me that my particular rifle was never upgraded and still had recall parts in it. This was very confusing as when I ordered it from Questar, I specifically made a point of confirming verbally on the phone that this rifle was a current production gun. The sales person assured me it was. Evidently this is not the case.
At the time I had also been researching online the causes for my rifles issues, and one of the more prominent ones was a misaligned gas system. It appears to me as though the front gas block is canted, either due to poor machining of the barrel or improperly installed barrel extension maybe? In any case, the piston rod definitely looks off center.
Off Center Piston
The Bushmaster rep, said they would honour the warranty and fix the rifle, they just needed time to order up some parts. They would not, however, cover the Questar barrel, if it was found that there are issues with it, or the cost of the shipping to get the rifle to the repair center. Fair enough, seeing as Bushmaster technically does not even have to warranty the rifle due to the aftermarket barrel.
I decide it's time to write Questar and get to the bottom of this. I inform them that the Bushmaster warranty center would cover the repairs and that if the Questar barrel was the problem, that I would like them to replace the barrel. I also thought it would only be fair for Questar to cover the shipping, when I send the rifle to the warranty center. After all, they did sell me a broken rifle and misinform me of its current condition.
When I heard back from Questar, there was no apology, no "sorry your rifle does not work", nothing. They said that they were informed by their US distributor that the rifle was a current production gun and that they can only accept what their suppliers tell them. Weird. Did no one test fire this rifle when the Questar barrel was installed? I would think that after their gunsmith swapped the gas system over to their Questar barrel, they would test fire it. Guess not.
Simply ignoring my request for them to pay the shipping to the official warranty center and to potentially replace the barrel, Questar's recommendation was for me to send the rifle to them for inspection and repair. This is contrary to the advice of Bushmaster USA and their Canadian reps. If I send it to Questar, who will be repairing the rifle? The same gunsmith who installed the new barrel? Certainly no one qualified to work on an ACR officially. I have sent Questar a response, reaffirming my intention to send the rifle to the proper factory warranty center and requesting that they help with the shipping cost as well as provide a new barrel if required. Now I wait for a reply from Questar and the parts to arrive at Gravel.
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