Went to the range yesterday with two LPCs to sight in and function test. One a fairly lightweight 6.5 grendel, the other a LR build in 224 valkyrie.
The short 5rd metal ASC mags fit tight in both magwells, and I had two mags that wouldn't insert at all. They were all tight on the body, not on the spine, judging from the wear marks on the mags. Luckily I had two longer ASC mags (5/10) that seemed to work fine. Will see what I can do with a vise on the 5rd mags, because we don't have much selection for Grendel/Valkyrie mags up here. Tried 223 mags and they wouldn't feed worth a damn with either cartridge.
Had zero feeding or extraction issues with the Criterion 224 Valkyrie barrel. Tried 4 different boxes of factory ammo, everything worked as it should. Easy extraction with all of them, everything worked as I had hoped.
The Odin Works 6.5 Grendel barrel was a different story entirely. Very hard extraction with both types of factory ammo I brought out. Hornady 123gr SST (brown box) was the worst, I lost blood getting those to extract. Hornady 123gr Black was slightly better, as in it took 75% as much effort, but IMO completely unusable for hunting or camp defense. I bought the barrel a couple years ago, in anticipation of a Maccabee SLR receiver set that never appeared, and I'm wondering if I got one of the bad barrels that they recalled a while back. Will be measuring the spent brass and pulling the barrel to do the plunk test in the next few days to see if I got one of their bad barrels. IBI could be getting a call from me soon...
As others have noted, you need to be aggressive with them to chamber a round. For hunting situations where you're trying to quietly chamber a round, that won't be an easy task.
The round, cylindrical bolt knob does the job, but I'm hoping different knob options eventually come out. I, personally, wouldn't mind having a more rounded off end (an enlarged ball end, like alot of bolt knobs, would be my preference). The round cylinder is A-OK to pull back on for ejection, but I did slip once trying to eject a round out of that POS Grendel barrel, and cut my knuckle open. It could definitely see that smooth bolt knob get slippery if you're hunting in the snow, especially with gloves on. Needing to use some force to chamber rounds created a hot spot on my palm after 30-40rds. I have a bruise on one palm this morning. A enlarged, rounded end to the bolt handle would eliminate this, and also provide more grip. Just a suggestion. If anyone decides to build a ####-shaped bolt handle for these I will immediately buy two of them haha.
Curious to hear what others think once more are out in the wild.