Tell me what you do not like about your WK180C and what you do like

randyhub

randyhub

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Had some great responses back on the Type 81 thread I started, also looking at the WK180C now, and owner feedback before laying out some money.

Both are decent deals, read a bunch of reviews watched the videos, but always like hearing from trusted CGNers as well.

Thanks
Randy
 
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So far i'm liking my rifle. Out of the box, the things i didn't like was the fact that the upper had quite a bit of wobble, no dust cover/brass deflector, its got a heavy/gritty trigger and i just realized recently that my gas block is touching the rail. I need to email kodiak about that. Another thing i wasn't really a fan of was the rail, though it does the job, i wanted something that matched the rifle a little better and a bit longer.

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Having said all that here are somethings that i did:

1) I designed and made my own dust cover/brass deflector. I didnt like how there was a huge gaping hole on both sides of the receiver, so having this dust cover seals up the internals on one side at least, which is better than having that opening. The brass deflector made the gun a bit more enjoyable for me, knowing that the brass won't nick up my receiver :p, some may not agree with this. But the most important thing is that the casings now, instead of ejecting backwards, eject forward at the 1-2 o clock position, which makes it more fun to shoot for a left handed person as well.

2) i didn't like the rail so i replaced it with a TNA mlok rail. With the new rail i'll need to see what kind of accuracy i'm getting. It looks like the gas block is still touching the rail so i'll figure this out when i hit the range this weekend.

3) Changed the stock and grip to something more comfortable. Currently using a mgapul ctr and a magpul moe K grip. With the moe k grip, it is a tad bit shorter than a normal pistol grip, so i do not recommend it to anyone with smaller hands.

4) I found the mag release button to be a tad bit far from my index finger. I found that i had to shift my hand a bit just to get solid contact on the button, so i added a magpul enhanced mag release button which solved this issue.

5) I added a thin shim (tape) to the lug on the upper receiver. Which fixed the wobble issue. There is a lug on the upper that fits into a hole in the lower and i found that the the lug is just slightly smaller the hole by 0.0050", which was enough to cause that amount of play in the receiver. The tape is just a temporary solution until i find a better one.
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With these upgrades above, the wk180c is almost set up to my preference, though i am missing a couple more parts at the moment but for now the rifle feels pretty good. I'll need to double check on the accuracy. Obviously, the gun will still work without the upgrades i listed, but the gun feels even better now with them so i'm pretty happy with it.

Is it worth it? In my opinion yes, because for the price you're getting a pretty decent rifle and the best part its NR which is nice. I would recommend it.

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I didn't like:
The heavy trigger
The receiver extension is noticeably mis-indexed, making for a canted stock. I have the wrench to sort it out so that I don't need to ship it and wait, but it's annoying.

I do like:
Fit and finish of upper and lower. Mine's great, 0 wobbling and very positive engagement on the takedown lug
It came with 2 magazines, you can never have enough of those
The aluminum lower receiver. I have a lot of faith in that pivot pin's hinge
The price

I can't tell if my gas block is making contact with the handguard inner or not. It certainly looks very close.
 
So far mines been a ####ing jam o matic with any mag other than the blocky 5 round hera mags that it came with.
Sent it back to have the overly tight chamber reamed open and the feed ramps remachined to be flush with the inside of the receiver to try and fix the issue.
Essentially what would happen is the round would jam up on the bottom edge of the feed ramp or jam directly into the feed ramp and lock up. Pulling back the bolt and releasing it would still not force it up the ramp into the chamber.
It did this with every metal STANAG mag I had including the LAR15 10 rounders, 5/30 pinned NATO mag, actual Colt 5/20 mags etc etc
These mags all feed 100% perfectly in my other STANAG mag rifles including my dirty beater Norc AR.
After warranty work the problem still persists.
The only way to get it to feed is to keep constant pressure upwards on any metal mag while firing. This results in perfect function.....which tells me it sure as #### is NOT a magazine issue.
Essentially what is happening now (same as it was before) is every single mag I've tried tilts forward too much in the mag well. When the bolt rides over the mag tries to strip a round, it invariably tilts the mag forward as it tries to ram it up the feed ramp and chamber it. Before the ramps were jutting over the void under the extension the tips would jam up just under it, now they make it to the ramp but jam up on the ramp as the mags are tilting in the well (bolt pushing forward, mag tilting forward and round tip wedging on the ramp with the cart case still under the feed lips of the mags)
I bought a couple of the "better quality" snake oil plastic MFT 10 round mags. Will be trying them this weekend.
If the problem remains then I'm asking for a new rifle or complete upper. It's starting to piss me off which blows because I really REALLY like this rifle when it works (ie only with the Hera mags it came with....)
More to follow on that for now.

The trigger was terrible. I polished the hammer sear and the trigger contact areas with a dremel cotton wheel and some light paste though and changed the ungodly stiff hammer spring for a standard AR hammer spring I had in my parts bag. Improvement was night and day difference for the better. I'm thinking whatever spring they put on the hammer is WAY too stiff or tight coiled. Test yours out and compare it to one in your AR if you have one by just coking the hammer with your thumb (receiver opened) you'll see.

The things I like about it are:
1. Well built for toughness anyhow
2. Accuracy is very good for a semi auto blaster. Better than most AR's I've shot and I've shot a lot of them.
3. Light, simple, balanced.
4. Very affordable for what it is!
 
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Jube said:
I didn't like:
The heavy trigger
The receiver extension is noticeably mis-indexed, making for a canted stock. I have the wrench to sort it out so that I don't need to ship it and wait, but it's annoying.

I do like:
Fit and finish of upper and lower. Mine's great, 0 wobbling and very positive engagement on the takedown lug
It came with 2 magazines, you can never have enough of those
The aluminum lower receiver. I have a lot of faith in that pivot pin's hinge
The price

I can't tell if my gas block is making contact with the handguard inner or not. It certainly looks very close.
Click to expand...
dam 0 wobble? Lucky
 
Drift117 said:
dam 0 wobble? Lucky
Click to expand...

No wobble here, either.

What I don't like:

It's HEAVY. I mean compared to a 16" AR I would expect it to be, but it's even heavy compared to my Maccabee SLR with the same length barrel.

No dust cover/brass deflector. Someone (hint, hint), should do a run and sell them on the forum.


What I DO like:

Price point, NR status, Wylde barrel, no functional buffer tube, bulletproof build quality.
 
Question(s) for Drift-
- In order to dial your rifle in to your liking how much extra did you have to spend (roughly)?
- are the 3D printed dust cover/brass deflector available for purchase?
- how long is the TNA MLok rail you installed?

Thanks for any info!
d
 
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dbala said:
Question(s) for Drift-
- In order to dial your rifle in to your liking how much extra did you have to spend (roughly)?
- are the 3D printed dust cover/brass deflector available for purchase?
- how long is the TNA MLok rail you installed?

Thanks for any info!
d
Click to expand...

I have cash in hand for a brass deflector, really need one as well.
 
The housing which holds the actikn rods (yhe circular portions where the rod heads seat) is too thin and soft. Accidentally dropping that piece will deform the housing and tbe rods wont seat.
 
I am pretty sure he 3D printed it himself. Mabe drift would share his .stl file with us? I have a friend who has 3D printers who would probably make one for me, I'm sure a few other guys have a similar situationavailable to them. If not, guys have been using Magpul type 1 mlock covers cut to fit or 2 type 2 mlock covers with the tabs sanded down a bit. I will probably do that when my rifle comes, but a shell deflector made to fit this would be really nice.
 
Well got mine yesterday.

Overall I really like it, but the trigger is pretty heavy compared to my AR. Going to have my gunsmith buddy see if he do something with it.
 
randyhub said:
Well got mine yesterday.

Overall I really like it, but the trigger is pretty heavy compared to my AR. Going to have my gunsmith buddy see if he do something with it.
Click to expand...

I polished the contact surfaces on mine. It smoothed out the grittiness but I don't think there's anything you can do about the heavy pull besides from changing out the springs.

I understand having a heavy trigger pull for reliability but 10 lbs. is ridiculous.
 
What I didn't like:

Trigger was awful- replaced with aftermarket
Finish is all right, it is a low cost rifle but I have a PSA carbine that was cheaper but a much nicer finish
I would have preferred a shorter barrel, 16" or less, no one is expecting this to be a tackdriver after all.
It's heavy, heavier than a comparable AR

What I do like

Reversible charging handle
Ambi safety
feeds from all the mags I have tried
No ammo issues except for federal independence ( it would get stuck and require forceful removal- the charging handle is strong!)
accuracy is decent
 
Zee705 said:
I polished the contact surfaces on mine. It smoothed out the grittiness but I don't think there's anything you can do about the heavy pull besides from changing out the springs.

I understand having a heavy trigger pull for reliability but 10 lbs. is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

It's the hammer spring they use.
It's 3 x the tension ish of a stock ar15 one. It's waaaay too stiff
Swap the hammer spring and the trigger is not bad at all.
The hammer spring pushing forward/up on the bolt with all that force was also slowing the action down and contributing to feeding issues (among other flaws in the design) with mine.
When I swapped the trigger assemblies the sluggish and sticky feeding and cycling of the bolt improved as well noticeably
 
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My advice is just buy one... i won't rehash all the issues already detailed in this thread but there is a fix for all of them (replace trigger, brass deflector DIY, etc.)

But more importantly, Kodiak has great service.
I had an issue with FTE out of the box. Basically the empty cartridge shell was not being ejected and jammed up the next cartridge coming in.
I emailed Kodiak and within 12 hours they responded.
They suggested checking the extractor spring and using the O ring that came with the spare parts kits. If that didn't work, they wanted me to send the rifle back to them.

I made the modification (took 10min) and its been running smoothly since. Using both metal and poly mags. This rifle is fun to shoot.

Besides if you end up not liking it, sell it... there are alot of buyers looking for one.
 
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