WK180C at the range

I found some old S&B Factory 69 grain Match ammo at my LGS today and he has agreed to swap me my 3000 x 55gr Campros for some 62 and 68 grain Hornady projectiles :>)

Doubt I'll get out next couple of days due to the heat wave.....

Will plink with the AE55 I have and load develop with the Hornady's.
 
Too smokey and hot today for the range but I put the new ALG trigger in. Wow, night and day from the OEM one.

Further from JaredP's comments on his rifle, half of my handguard screws had loctite and the other half did not. John @ Wolverine has said they should not have loctite but a few got out that way. Use a 3mm allen and they come out with just a bit of pressure required, heads stayed OK.

griffin68 reported his safety selector screws were backing out and needed loctite but mine have loctite both sides. Also his comments regarding the handguard touching the gas block are correct. It is more pronounced on one side - the other side seems fine. Not sure if there is enough play in the guard holder when tightening the screws to keep a gap on all sides but I think Kodiak needs to address this and open up the area around the gas block slightly to guarantee a free floating guard. Probably the easiest thing for them to do is reduce the OD of the gas block a few thou.....

Another slight annoyance to note is any M-Lok accessories on the lower part of the handguard aft of the block need to be removed to take the handguard off. This is due to clearances between the M-Lok t-nuts/screws and the gas block on the way by.
 
Sent an email to Kodiak Thursday night ref the handguard clearance. The General Manager has passed it to the Plant Manager for his response.

Note that this email was answered 23:45 Ontario time on Thursday night, 45 minutes after I sent it. Pretty darned quick reply from Kodiak.
 
OK, was able to get to the range today with the following Factory ammo:

S&B 69 grain HPBT
Federal AE 62 grain FMJ BT

Much better than the AE 55 grain bulk ammo

Had to sight my scope back in so unfortunately only had a few 69 grain left for group(s).

Sand bags front and back for support

50 yards



100 yards



My LGS targets are not 1" square unfortunately...

62 grain was 2.5" group at 100
69 grain was 2.4" group at 100

So with the 1:8 twist the heavier bullets perform better (as expected).

For the above testing I just loaded mags and shot. No waiting for barrel cooling etc etc.

I'm waiting for anyone to report back on 77 grain - I can't find any locally.

The new ALG ACT trigger is a treat, I would recommend it for around $110


Also, I'm sending the upper back to Kodiak for them to mill the gas block for more clearance on the handguard.
 
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I had mine out today to sight it in and see how it liked my load for my AR. I was able to get 3 x 3/4" 5 shot groups off a front and rear bag with a fixed 10X bushnell at 50 yards. I was more than happy with those results. Didn't try at 100 today but I am satisfied with the accuracy I was getting. The trigger isn't great but usable for now. The included Hera mags are garbage. P-Mags worked well without issue. 10 round LAR mags didn't like to be loaded to 10 rounds, 8 or 9 seemed to ensure first round would feed properly.

I like the rifle and will add a couple items to make it more comfortable. I won't bother with load development beyond what I have done with it today. Its not a precision gun by any means so no point in going down that rabbit hole.
 
laker415 said:
I had mine out today to sight it in and see how it liked my load for my AR. I was able to get 3 x 3/4" 5 shot groups off a front and rear bag with a fixed 10X bushnell at 50 yards.
Click to expand...

What weight bullet and what barrel twist in your AR? Same 1:8 as the 180?
 
I don't want to start a new thread so I hope you don't mind my comments here . Great review BTW.
I'm thrilled with mine. I had it out today for the first time and everything worked well. A couple of ftfs but they were mag related. I only had MBUS sights and I'm pretty happy with results. Ammo was 55 g Remington. 223 UMC.
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Paul_T said:
Took the 180 to the range yesterday. Took a couple of hours to run 50 rounds due to the lengthy 'break-in' procedure as per the Owners Manual.

Fit and finish is good, the rifle feels good. The comment from people who pick it up is "it is light".

Ran it well lubed with CLP as per a couple of threads already running here.



Note that I had to remove the Magpul M-Lok Hand Stop from right behind the bipod mount as the (Harris) bipod will not fit otherwise. Bit of a pain really, if the guard was another M-Lok hole longer it would be OK.
If you are thinking of mounting a Hand Stop and a Bipod mount be aware of this.

Here are some comments and my experience with this rifle:



Mags - dropped free (empty)
Supplied Hera Mags
C-Products LAR mags

Mags - did not drop free (empty)
MFT LAR mags
PMAG Gen 2
PMAG Gen 3

During the first 40 rounds I had 1 FTF with the PMAG Gen 3, then during the last 10 rounds 4 FTF with the C-Products LAR mag.
Had issues with a couple of full 10 round mags that would not lock in place without a good smack.

Trigger on mine has no creep but it is 'very' gritty. I want to run it for a bit before I install the ALG trigger I bought.

I ran AE 55gr bulk ammo - from other threads this is not very accurate with this rifle and I would agree. Unfortunately for me I have 3 cases of it, lol.

10 shot group at 50 yards - one is a known flyer, so vertical is 4MOA. I made some spikes for my bipod and am preloading it pretty hard. Some of the vertical could have been me.



5 shot group at 100 shows same 4MOA, if the top shot is my crap shooting then I could say this is between 3-4MOA with AE 55 grain. Seems to fit what has been reported elsewhere using that ammo.




After 50 rounds the receiver shows a lot of ejection dings. This is not brass being left, it is marks in the finish.





Final words:

Get a new trigger.

Try different ammo. In my experience (and others that have posted) the AE 55 grain is not up to snuff in this barrel, but it is cheap and 3MOA is good enough to plink with.

It is light, well built, seems to function well enough. The FTF and difficulties locking full 10 round mags may get better with more use - will see. 50 rounds is not enough for proper judgement IMHO.

Take down is easy, getting the bolt back in was a bit fiddly until I figured out the proper way to do it.
The double return springs and guide rods sometimes take some sticking your tongue out and wiggling the assembly around to get them to go into the bolt. The ends of the springs may want to attach themselves together if you turn the assembly sideways.

The marks on the receiver from the brass ejecting - whatever...not an issue to me. For some it might be.


For the price of this rifle and the fact it is Made In Canada I am very pleased with it.
Click to expand...

I would put 2-3 layers of electrical tape next to the ejection port so it doesn't scuff the gun , change when required
 
Update:

Upper came back from Kodiak after having the chamber reamed and the the gas block milled.

No issues with the Factory S&B 69 grain HPBT or Federal AE 62 grain FMJ BT ammo blowing primers as before.
I am still getting a weird strike on the primers, will take the BCG apart shortly to have a look at the firing pin. Unfortunately I did not send the BCG with the upper.

While I was waiting for the upper to return I loaded up some 68 Grain Hornday Match bullets with Varget. Started with 24.0 and upped 0.3 grains at a time to 24.9.

Best 5 shot group at 100 yards bench rested was with 24.0 grains of Varget. OAL 2.250, no crimp = Sub-MOA. Very pleased.

Thanks to Kodiak for great customer service.



The 'fix' for brass ejection marks I got from member here kaiu works a treat. Ran 100 rounds through today and no marks. FYI this is 2 segments of a Magpul M-LOK type 1 cover. It has been shown that the type 2 cover also works.

 
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