The TNW Aero Survival rifle thread

LordEvilPepper

LordEvilPepper

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Under a rusty barge in BC
So i picked one of these up not to long ago in .45 ACP


Not a bad rig. I like the weight and balance. At less then 6lb it comes in much lighter then most other PCCs.

Pros:

-Very light
-when broken down the parts are shorter then a rugger PCC (fits in my motorbike panniers)
-glock mags
-takes AR furniture
-threaded barrel for tight indexing
-configurable for left or right hand ejection


CONS:

-very small trigger guard and short back of grip to trigger distance
-no stock sites, top rail is to short for irons
-not quite enough room on the front for a good grip
-can be more picky with ammo then other PCC's
-open receiver on "face side" spits carbon and oil in your eye
-forward grip accessories suck
-barrel retention nut has very small, very soft groves for the locking pin


Function

Overall reliability is pretty good, most FTF, FTE is caused by improper main spring tension.
rear spring tension is achieved by screwing the rear stock tube in or out. Once you find the sweet spot function is flawless. However this requires an AR stock wrench to do. It can also be annoying if you change ammo frequently.
So far I have had no issues with the safety, magazines or any part coming loose while shooting. which lets be honest... seems to be a major issue on most PCCs

this thing will spit crap in your eye, its definitely "wear safety glasses" while shooting kinda gun. if your the kinda person that closes your off eye it might not be such a big deal, but the first time i got an eyeful of oil and carbon I was like "what the ####ing duce?" as I tried to wash the burning concoction out of my eye.

take down is easy, just turn the locking nut a few rotations and the barrel pops off. indexing is achieved by a lug in the receiver that meets a slot on the barrel. although it hasn't backed off when shooting, the final lockup of the nut isn't very tight, so you have to watch that you don't twist it while shooting.

- The trigger is stiff, 6-6.5 LB. it is one of the parts not AR compatible, so you are stuck with it. the two stage available apparently isn't much better

- I was surprised at how cool the barrel stayed, even after 150 rounds fairly quickly it was barely warm. The rifle zero did not wonder which was a definite plus.



Accuracy

So far with 230gr agula ammo it puts out a 5 inch group at about 100m.
with blazer 230 gr it did much better at 3 inches

Overall this is worse then a ruger PCC in my experience... but acceptable for plinking.... I will be running +P 185gr soon and i will update how well those shoot.


Accessories

It takes AR part, which is awesome. pistol grips, rear stocks, buffer tube and with the company adapter FF handguards.
- the company makes both a proprietary hand guard, and an AR adapter

I bought the AR adapter, what a waste of money. The locking lugs to keep it indexed (remember the easy of turning the nut) didn't lock up tight so the hand guard had side to side wiggle. it wouldn't release and took a gouge out of my receiver, it required the use of a punch and hammer to get it to unlock in the first place as the retracting lock bar was so stiff i couldn't budge it by hand.
Add in the fact that all ar15 handguards are of greater diameter then the TNW receiver. So not only do they look ugly, its uncomfortable to grip.

If you want a extended hand guard, buy the TNW one. although apparently it uses the same crappy lock bar so you might have issues anyways. (I purchased one, the lock bars move freely by hand, so clearly something was wrong with my AR15 adapter one)

If you buy a larger pistol grip, it doesn't work well with the beaver tails. you need to cut the tail off to make it work, which is what i did to my new mag pull one.


Conclusions

Overall its a functional gun

Its super compact and light weight format is defiantly a boon for those looking for an easy to carry backpacking option.

Small quarks really take away from the appeal of this gun and it comes off as a "designed with good intensions" rifle but lacks the fallow through. It almost feel like aa early version kel tec... but with less plastic.

CGieWJT.jpg


damage the adapter does
j6amuPZ.jpg


lowest profile grip i can find still doesn't meet flush.
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My ASR experience lol Im sure many have already seen it. Its been 2 years now since I reviewed and sold that gun. I still get criticized for not trying this, and not trying that. Well short of sinking MORE money into that already regretful purchase... di#cking around with buying different springs, buffers etc. I sold it at a loss and bought a new JRC that functions FLAWLESSLY in comparison. And since then Canadas PCC selection just keeps growing and growing, and reasons to take the risk and buy one of these survival guns diminishes more and more...

 
Had 2 of them . Thought maybe the 1st on was a dud built on a Friday afternoon. Nope both were a POS . Got rid of them and bought a Ruger 9mm carbine should have done that to begin with .
 
interesting....

once i adjusted the stock/spring FTE issues went away, I ran 150 rounds last day out, no issues.

but we are comparing .45 to 9mm

my ruger was pcc9's was a much nicer shooters, and more accurate for sure...but i gave up waiting for a.45Acp and decided to pick this one up.
9mm is cool but its a paper puncher only ... 45ACP has more options for hunting...


my mags are super tight...all brands.
 
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No mechanical issues with mine in 45ACP, I'm really happy with it. It's crazy light and balances like no other NR PCC - Except maybe the KelTec Sub2000 (which I like quite a bit, and would own one in a heartbeat if their price corresponded to their build quality even remotely).

I wish the trigger on the TNW ASR was better out of the box (I think it can be improved), but aside from that I really have no complaints. Adding a forend for more rail and grip space would be nice, but then it would be heavier and change the balance, which is not what I wanted from this PCC.

With some ammunition I did notice it spit stuff out the unused ejection port (both sides are open for the reversible ejection option). I've since rearranged my WML in that area and I don't notice it anymore. I don't know if it is still happening, but probably yes - I think all straight blowback firearms do this to some extent, and it's more noticeable having both sides of the action open. Just one of many reasons that target shooting without glasses will never happen with any of my firearms, anyway.
 
LordEvilPepper said:
i... 45ACP has more options for hunting...
...
Click to expand...

Yes, excellent bullet selection options for the handloader, which is why I went this route. I haven't hunted anything with mine yet, but the ballistics sure won't stop me. I'm working up some 45 Super loads for mine. Aside from the barrel, the 45 ACP version of the ASR uses exactly the same parts as the 460 Rowland version.
 
yeah im looking for a 10mm conversion kit.
9mm in my ruger pcc was pretty good out to 200m for hitting paper and steel
.45 is nice because it hits harder, but out past 100 it drops so damn fast lol.

im reloading 185s, going to push them at 1100-1150
zero at 75m should be no higher then 1.2 inches before 75, and 2.8inchs low at 100m

10mm gives me my 9mm ranges back and is an eady swap onto the .45 frame
 
LordEvilPepper said:
yeah im looking for a 10mm conversion kit.
9mm in my ruger pcc was pretty good out to 200m for hitting paper and steel
.45 is nice because it hits harder, but out past 100 it drops so damn fast lol.

im reloading 185s, going to push them at 1100-1150
zero at 75m should be no higher then 1.2 inches before 75, and 2.8inchs low at 100m

10mm gives me my 9mm ranges back and is an eady swap onto the .45 frame
Click to expand...

Good option, 10mm should work well.

There are just so many more bullet options for 45... Consider ~180gr cast boolits in 45 Super cases? You should be able to push those quite a bit faster.
 
A Friend has one in 10mm. that he bought brand new. He complained at first about the terrible trigger pull, but it did get better the more we shot it.

Fired 185gr lead bullet reloads through it right from the start, and had a few reliability instances at first, but as the carbine broke in it got to where it's almost 100%. The reloads aren't full power, so that may be the issue. Most semis seem set for full power factory loading's, so we weren't disappointed with the reliability. Basically, the more we shot, the better it got.

Later on, we did try some .40 S&W factory rounds, just to see if the extractor would hold them well enough for ignition and they worked fine. Most of the time they would cycle the action, but sometimes not. At least you can use them in a pinch.

Accuracy so far with the lead reloads was acceptable. We had mounted a red dot Aimpoint comp4 knock-off, and zeroed it for 100m. 4-5" groups were the norm with probably 6-8 of the 10 rounds fired in each group fairly tightly clustered, and the remaining rounds as outliers. Better quality ammunition would tighten the overall group.

All in all, I don't think he made a bad purchase, it's reasonably accurate, takes down easily and quickly, and returns to zero nicely when re-assembled. Sometimes the forend unscrews easily as there is no ratcheting, or locking mechanism to hold it tight, but a little extra grunt when tightening is normally enough.

The 10mm rounds and cases are not "everywhere" available like 9, 40 S&W, and 45, so if you're a Factory Ammo kind of guy, keep that in mind when shopping for one of these.
 
jakester said:
A Friend has one in 10mm. ...
Later on, we did try some .40 S&W factory rounds, just to see if the extractor would hold them well enough for ignition and they worked fine. Most of the time they would cycle the action, but sometimes not. At least you can use them in a pinch....
Click to expand...

When these failed to cycle, was it on extraction or ejection?

Just out of interest I looked into the conversion kits. Apparently the only difference between the 10mm and the 40 S&W is the lower and the barrel (and magazine, of course). They use the same bolt, carrier, buffer, and spring. No idea how they get that to work with both 40 and 10mm, maybe the action is just very tolerant. It would be interesting to hear from someone with the 40 version to see if they cycle reliably.
 
alpining said:
When these failed to cycle, was it on extraction or ejection?

Just out of interest I looked into the conversion kits. Apparently the only difference between the 10mm and the 40 S&W is the lower and the barrel (and magazine, of course). They use the same bolt, carrier, buffer, and spring. No idea how they get that to work with both 40 and 10mm, maybe the action is just very tolerant. It would be interesting to hear from someone with the 40 version to see if they cycle reliably.
Click to expand...

Sometimes just not quite enough ooompf to get the bolt back far enough to pick up the next .40 S&W round. I'm sure with a bit of testing, one could find a loading from one of the manufacturers of 10mm and 40 S&W that would both cycle in the 10mm chamber.

We never tested the .40S&W rounds for accuracy from the 10mm chamber, this was just an exercise in functionality for a "what if we couldn't get 10mm ammo" scenario.
 
jakester said:
Sometimes just not quite enough ooompf to get the bolt back far enough to pick up the next .40 S&W round. I'm sure with a bit of testing, one could find a loading from one of the manufacturers of 10mm and 40 S&W that would both cycle in the 10mm chamber.

We never tested the .40S&W rounds for accuracy from the 10mm chamber, this was just an exercise in functionality for a "what if we couldn't get 10mm ammo" scenario.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I just can't wrap my head around why, with the same bolt / buffer / action spring, the dedicated 40 version would cycle fine while the 10mm with 40 ammunition would be spotty. I'm guessing the ejector position on the lower is also different for the shorter cartridge.

And it should be mentioned for those who don't know and think it's a free lunch situation: Using 40 S&W ammunition in 10mm firearms will work for a while before it starts to cause problems.
 
I had a 10mm from the second batch that came into Canada. Trigger was the absolute worst I have ever pulled on a firearm. They eventually came out with a "Match" trigger that was much better. Barrel would loosen after a while no matter how much you tightened the set screw. It was accurate and reliable though. I'd consider giving one of the newer guns a try.
 
Anyone buy the kriss MAGEX2 kits for yours? I opened mine up today for the rivet is right in the way to remove the follower to change the springs. Does anyone have any suggestions outside of my logic of buying a rivet tool/rivets and replacing it once I change the spring.
 
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