WK180-C range review. Update Post #2

I picked up Griffin's first one for sale and Canada post managed to deliver it next day. I'm not planning on using this for precision just wanted an ar180b. Realistically I'll probably just run a mag thru it and throw it in the safe like most of my collection. The Hera mags actually seem to work fine with the bolt catch on mine. The trigger is the worst I've seen and will likely be replacing it. There's a decent amount of play between the receivers.

For the price I think it's a good buy but I wouldn't spend much on this. Save the expensive handguards etc for the slr
 
griffin86 said:
I took the chamber flag out just for you. 7lbs 0.7 ounces :p

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I can easily see this turning into a weight reduction race....how much material can you lose and have the firearm still function reliably?

Who has the lightest 180C?
 
griffin86 said:
Second is it's overgassed. The bolt is slamming into the back. They used 6061 aluminum which is softer than 7075 that is standard in AR-15s.

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I believe this is a great rifle for it's purpose, so don't have any buyer's remorse.

What I would like to see improved;

1. Make a smaller, adjustable gas block
2. Change the design of the piston so we can use whatever barrel nut
3. Less play in the receivers
4. 7075 upper
5. Raise the magazine up
6. More material under the barrel extension, cut the feed ramps into this.
7. Ditch the Hera Mags
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Very nice review Griffin, really appreciated man. Sorry for my ignorance (I am quite new to the black riffle world, even though I shoot for 30 years) ... but I am wondering. What is the effect of the "overgassed" you are talking about? More noisy riffle? More recoil? Damage to the riffle? Enlighten me here... :)
 
Frag said:
Very nice review Griffin, really appreciated man. Sorry for my ignorance (I am quite new to the black riffle world, even though I shoot for 30 years) ... but I am wondering. What is the effect of the "overgassed" you are talking about? More noisy riffle? More recoil? Damage to the riffle? Enlighten me here... :)
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Overgassing makes more "riffles" lol. The bolt carrier slams into the back of the receiver, giving a sharp tap to the recoil feel and damaging the receiver a tiny bit each time. Some rifles have a rubber buffer to stop the damage.
 
griffin86 said:
I was humming and hawing whether to post my final thoughts. I don't want to be too harsh on Wolverine and Kodiak, I appreciate all their hard work making these rifles. After shooting all those rounds, removing material from the handguard to make more clearance I came to the decision that I am chasing my own tail when it comes to precision. This is not a precision rifle and thats okay. This is a varmint rifle and a pretty good one at that.
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Sounds good to me, if the slr ever ships out, that should be inherently more capable of accuracy. You got under 2moa and that's what I was hoping for in this rifle.
The play in the receivers will take some getting used to. Maybe someone will make an adjustable gas block, really softened up my mini14 with one.
 
OP, I didn’t want to start a new thread, I hope you won’t mind me posting this.

I received mine on Monday, 2 days ago..... #80 if the serial #s are conological....

So far, factory ammo I’ve tried:
Hornandy Steel match 55gr and 75gr
Hornady 40gr, 50gr and 55gr varmint ammo
Federal/AE 55gr FMJ
AE 50 and 55gr HP
MFS 55gr
Norinco yellow, red, and white box

Best 5rnd group so far, MFS @ 2.6”
Worst 5rnd group so far, Hornady 75gr steel match @ 3.3”

That’s with a Bushnell AR optic 1-4. The groups are problematic at this point as I KNOW I’m the problem. A better optic would do better IMHO. I was not using a rear bag. A few of the groups were “wide” and not tall, so with a better scope, and a proper rear bag I believe this rifle is capable of better accuracy.

First 5 mags were every second round jam. That seemed to get better.
30/5Pmags don’t work.
20/5 Pmags work flawless
All my “steel/metal” mags don’t function at all.... unfortunately all my 10 and Beowulf mags are metal.....

I should also mention, all my mags work flawlessly in my other 7 rifles that take AR pattern magazines. So all of these mags are “known good”. I have a bunch of the 5/20 Pmags so I’ll be just fine.

The rifle is very good for the cash spent IMHO. All of the ammo tried was capable of hitting a 12” gong at 200y without changing zero or adjust point of aim with the AR optic. The only gripe I have...... the safety “bugs” me.... it’s not in the right spot in relation to the grip. It’s easier to use my trigger finger than my thumb to operate it.....

Cheers!
 
Would not spend my money on this wk rifle. Those are bad signs from
The start. Softer alloy receiver. No bolt buffer. Receiver being damaged already. Buy a receiver and do a cheap build on
The stag arms, modern sporter or Maccabee is what I say
 
notsorichguy said:
OP, I didn’t want to start a new thread, I hope you won’t mind me posting this.

I received mine on Monday, 2 days ago..... #80 if the serial #s are conological....

So far, factory ammo I’ve tried:
Hornandy Steel match 55gr and 75gr
Hornady 40gr, 50gr and 55gr varmint ammo
Federal/AE 55gr FMJ
AE 50 and 55gr HP
MFS 55gr
Norinco yellow, red, and white box

Best 5rnd group so far, MFS @ 2.6”
Worst 5rnd group so far, Hornady 75gr steel match @ 3.3”

That’s with a Bushnell AR optic 1-4. The groups are problematic at this point as I KNOW I’m the problem. A better optic would do better IMHO. I was not using a rear bag. A few of the groups were “wide” and not tall, so with a better scope, and a proper rear bag I believe this rifle is capable of better accuracy.

First 5 mags were every second round jam. That seemed to get better.
30/5Pmags don’t work.
20/5 Pmags work flawless
All my “steel/metal” mags don’t function at all.... unfortunately all my 10 and Beowulf mags are metal.....

I should also mention, all my mags work flawlessly in my other 7 rifles that take AR pattern magazines. So all of these mags are “known good”. I have a bunch of the 5/20 Pmags so I’ll be just fine.

The rifle is very good for the cash spent IMHO. All of the ammo tried was capable of hitting a 12” gong at 200y without changing zero or adjust point of aim with the AR optic. The only gripe I have...... the safety “bugs” me.... it’s not in the right spot in relation to the grip. It’s easier to use my trigger finger than my thumb to operate it.....

Cheers!
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No problem, I still think the mag sits at least 30-40 thou too low, that's the jamming problem. Pop your PMAG in the WK and then in an AR and you will see. Did you try the Hera mags?
 
notsorichguy said:
OP, I didn’t want to start a new thread, I hope you won’t mind me posting this.

I received mine on Monday, 2 days ago..... #80 if the serial #s are conological....

So far, factory ammo I’ve tried:
Hornandy Steel match 55gr and 75gr
Hornady 40gr, 50gr and 55gr varmint ammo
Federal/AE 55gr FMJ
AE 50 and 55gr HP
MFS 55gr
Norinco yellow, red, and white box

Best 5rnd group so far, MFS @ 2.6”
Worst 5rnd group so far, Hornady 75gr steel match @ 3.3”

That’s with a Bushnell AR optic 1-4. The groups are problematic at this point as I KNOW I’m the problem. A better optic would do better IMHO. I was not using a rear bag. A few of the groups were “wide” and not tall, so with a better scope, and a proper rear bag I believe this rifle is capable of better accuracy.

First 5 mags were every second round jam. That seemed to get better.
30/5Pmags don’t work.
20/5 Pmags work flawless
All my “steel/metal” mags don’t function at all.... unfortunately all my 10 and Beowulf mags are metal.....

I should also mention, all my mags work flawlessly in my other 7 rifles that take AR pattern magazines. So all of these mags are “known good”. I have a bunch of the 5/20 Pmags so I’ll be just fine.

The rifle is very good for the cash spent IMHO. All of the ammo tried was capable of hitting a 12” gong at 200y without changing zero or adjust point of aim with the AR optic. The only gripe I have...... the safety “bugs” me.... it’s not in the right spot in relation to the grip. It’s easier to use my trigger finger than my thumb to operate it.....

Cheers!
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I would contact Wolverine if you're having problems with those magazines that are known to be good in 7 other rifles.
I know it's a pain shipping it back but there is obviously something out of spec if it won't function with that many mags that work fine in other rifles.
You shouldn't have to work around issues like that with a new rifle. I have an Armalite 180B-2 and I have yet to find a magazine or ammo that won't cycle perfectly in it, if they copied the dimensions from one of them these new rifles should be just as reliable. I've actually never had a single failure of any kind in my 180 after over 1000 rounds using various types of ammo and any of the mags I have tried (40+ STANAG pattern mags from various manufacturers)

The guys at Wolverine are very easy to work with, I've never come away from dealing with them and felt frustrated.
Plus, if we don't hold manufacturers accountable and force them to deliver a quality product as they advertised we'll end up with another BCL in Canada. All the guys that bought a 102 then just worked around the problems and fixed it themselves are telling BCL that building crap is fine and we'll just accept it. This is not how to get a manufacturer to correct their deficiencies and deliver a quality product. I'm all for supporting Canadian companies but if I can buy a Norinco that's built better and cheaper I just can't help but want to see the Canadian company out of business. I'm not saying that's where we are with this rifle but unless we hold them accountable nothing will get better.

And ya, dump the Bushnell 1-4, I shot a guys rifle that had one of them on it and I thought it was a terrible optic.
Try the Hi-Lux CMR 1-4 from Wolverine, it's 1000x better than the Bushnell and price is reasonable.
 
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Dr. Hunter said:
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I tried fitting on a magpul miad and the geometry is slightly off and can't tighten the grip down so it doesn't wobble
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I ran into that with an ergo and the BCL 102. I used some washers and it worked perfectly. But the ergo has more flex to fit.
 
It's the only set of spare sights I have. Didn't think it would ship so fast. Although not sure if I'm going to bother using better optics/sights when they show up.

I had a washer in there but may need more but I'm just gonna use the A2 grip and use the miad on something else.
 
Dr. Hunter said:
It's the only set of spare sights I have. Didn't think it would ship so fast. Although not sure if I'm going to bother using better optics/sights when they show up.

I had a washer in there but may need more but I'm just gonna use the A2 grip and use the miad on something else.
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What a terrible problem to have :p
 
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My only beef with the Bushnell AR optic is how easily the turrets are to bump off zero.... Other than that it's a great optic for the money. Especially for a "notsorichguy" lol
 
notsorichguy said:
First 5 mags were every second round jam. That seemed to get better.
30/5Pmags don’t work.
20/5 Pmags work flawless
All my “steel/metal” mags don’t function at all.... unfortunately all my 10 and Beowulf mags are metal.....

I should also mention, all my mags work flawlessly in my other 7 rifles that take AR pattern magazines. So all of these mags are “known good”. I have a bunch of the 5/20 Pmags so I’ll be just fine.
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What are you saying ? This sounds like a JAM-O-MATTIC

I'm not thrilled to hear this......the op said he had one stove pipe out of 200 rounds....I can live with that.....if he said 3 I'd cancel my pre order

What you are saying is that no steel mags work? WTF.....I have a ton of beowolf, surefire 5/60, 5/100 round mags that I paid a pretty penny for, also dozens of El cheapo metal palmetto state armoury AR mags that all function flawlessly in all my ARs.........and expect the same in my WK 180......

are you sure it's not YOU? Not slamming the mag in and letting it seat property ? Or weak on racking the bolt?

I really doubt it's you actually

I want Wolverine to answer for this mag issue you are having cause I don't got time and patience for this sort of thing

Im sure Wolverine has ran 1000s of rounds thru this with basic AR mags that are available on the Canadian market........

And what's with the overgassing the OP stated?

All this crap better be corrected by the time I get mine in the mail
 
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