These are just some observations I thought would be useful to prospective buyers of this rifle platform. I hope this helps someone.
***While mine grouped terribly I will not be hammering on the platform's potential accuracy here as my specific sample of 1 had significant problems in that regard and was clearly out of the norm. From my research online it seems the commonly achieved accuracy with this rifle using various bulk 55gr ammo is ~2.5 moa. I made my purchase with that in mind, given that this is within the expected grouping capability of a rack grade piston driven rifle.
Function
It will deep throat your magazine. The MCR and presumably it's other sibling rifles do not have any means to prevent over insertion. Unlike an AR15, which it's upper receiver narrows on the inside and interfaces with the feed lips of the magazine to prevent you from jamming it all the way up to the gas tube, the MCR's inside is just straight. The shorter and reverse sloped magazine well also means that you can't remedy this problem by using magazines that have built in over insertion ribs, like featured on Pmags and many other polymer offerings. When reloading in a hurry with the bolt locked back, 9 times out of 10 the magazine catch will skip over it's notch and the mag will go all the way up, and then I'll let the bolt loose right into the spine of the magazine. You also cannot remedy this by tightening the magazine catch/release mechanism. If you tighten it enough, and it will only slightly reduce the frequency of the problem, due to the thickness of the receiver you'll no longer have enough exposed release button left to press.
No external bolt catch/release on a rifle in this era? Unless you pay an extra $55 + shipping for an aftermarket upgrade you'll have to pull the charging handle to release the bolt, and either use an empty magazine or jam your fingers inside the mag well to lock it back which is kind of a 2.5 handed operation. The irony is that because of the way the bolt catch works, it is a feature that would have been super easy and cheap to include had the manufacturer chosen to.
Forget dust covers, I can jam pebbles in here. Gun Jesus will not be impressed, and it will definitely fail his mud test.
Ergonomics
This thing is thick. Real thick. There are some guns on the market that are commonly referred to as bricks, I would describe the handling of the MCR and presumably the WK180 as wielding cinder blocks. While the MCR specifically is quite heavy given the choice of a heavy barrel, when I say it's a cinder block it's less so about the weight and more about the dimensions and shape.
The grip kinda sucks. I don't mean the grip it comes with sucks, it's a standard A2 style grip and it takes standard AR compatible pistol grips. I'm talking about the layout, whatever grip you put on it, it will kinda suck. The bottom of the receiver where it meets the pistol grip is just flat. On an AR15 that section of the receiver is contoured to allow the web of your hand to fill into it, and all AR15 grips are designed to either meet with that contour or have a beaver tail that covers and extends it. On the MCR it's just a wall and your hand is mashed into it's corner. It's not very comfortable if you're used to setting your palms as high as you can. Speaking of beaver tails which are now featured on basically every modern "gunfighter" style grip on the market, grips that have them will not fit and will need to be hacked off if you wish to install one. (Magpul MOE/K2, BCM Gunfighter, etc.) This problem appears to be addressed by the new Spec180 lower receivers. Hopefully those become the standard for all future generations of this rifle platform.
Low profile safety levers that are just a little too low profile. They are short, thin, and smooth. You might actually like them, they just weren't working for me and my short thumbs. I ended up using my index finger to actuate the safety most of the time. leaving the levers just a tad longer and adding a bit of texturing could've improve this.
***Folding stock version specific issues***.
What am I, the slender man? The folding stock is non adjustable and is just too long. I assume that's because it was intended for rifles with a grip farther rearward on it's receiver. I have not measured it, but the length of pull feels a hair longer than an A2 style fixed stock. The butt is also concave, which some people might like, but I do not. It creates a pointed toe and heal which if you are doing any drills from high port, low ready, shoulder transitions or anything requiring you to bring the rifle to shoulder quickly it will dig into you. I would have preferred if it was just flat or even have a toe and heal that's tapered forward, similar to the Sig MCX's or MFT's minimalist stocks.
Where do sling go? I'm genuinely surprised there was no QD socket or any kind of sling attachment point integrated at the base or the butt of the stock. You can wrap the sling around one of the tubes to get around this issue, but it's not ideal.
If you intend to use this rifle for plinking or even hunting, most of these are only minor problems that you can probably just live with. However if you're looking for something to replace your AR for fast paced competition shooting, I would recommend against this series of rifles in their current form.
***While mine grouped terribly I will not be hammering on the platform's potential accuracy here as my specific sample of 1 had significant problems in that regard and was clearly out of the norm. From my research online it seems the commonly achieved accuracy with this rifle using various bulk 55gr ammo is ~2.5 moa. I made my purchase with that in mind, given that this is within the expected grouping capability of a rack grade piston driven rifle.
Function
It will deep throat your magazine. The MCR and presumably it's other sibling rifles do not have any means to prevent over insertion. Unlike an AR15, which it's upper receiver narrows on the inside and interfaces with the feed lips of the magazine to prevent you from jamming it all the way up to the gas tube, the MCR's inside is just straight. The shorter and reverse sloped magazine well also means that you can't remedy this problem by using magazines that have built in over insertion ribs, like featured on Pmags and many other polymer offerings. When reloading in a hurry with the bolt locked back, 9 times out of 10 the magazine catch will skip over it's notch and the mag will go all the way up, and then I'll let the bolt loose right into the spine of the magazine. You also cannot remedy this by tightening the magazine catch/release mechanism. If you tighten it enough, and it will only slightly reduce the frequency of the problem, due to the thickness of the receiver you'll no longer have enough exposed release button left to press.
No external bolt catch/release on a rifle in this era? Unless you pay an extra $55 + shipping for an aftermarket upgrade you'll have to pull the charging handle to release the bolt, and either use an empty magazine or jam your fingers inside the mag well to lock it back which is kind of a 2.5 handed operation. The irony is that because of the way the bolt catch works, it is a feature that would have been super easy and cheap to include had the manufacturer chosen to.
Forget dust covers, I can jam pebbles in here. Gun Jesus will not be impressed, and it will definitely fail his mud test.
Ergonomics
This thing is thick. Real thick. There are some guns on the market that are commonly referred to as bricks, I would describe the handling of the MCR and presumably the WK180 as wielding cinder blocks. While the MCR specifically is quite heavy given the choice of a heavy barrel, when I say it's a cinder block it's less so about the weight and more about the dimensions and shape.
The grip kinda sucks. I don't mean the grip it comes with sucks, it's a standard A2 style grip and it takes standard AR compatible pistol grips. I'm talking about the layout, whatever grip you put on it, it will kinda suck. The bottom of the receiver where it meets the pistol grip is just flat. On an AR15 that section of the receiver is contoured to allow the web of your hand to fill into it, and all AR15 grips are designed to either meet with that contour or have a beaver tail that covers and extends it. On the MCR it's just a wall and your hand is mashed into it's corner. It's not very comfortable if you're used to setting your palms as high as you can. Speaking of beaver tails which are now featured on basically every modern "gunfighter" style grip on the market, grips that have them will not fit and will need to be hacked off if you wish to install one. (Magpul MOE/K2, BCM Gunfighter, etc.) This problem appears to be addressed by the new Spec180 lower receivers. Hopefully those become the standard for all future generations of this rifle platform.
Low profile safety levers that are just a little too low profile. They are short, thin, and smooth. You might actually like them, they just weren't working for me and my short thumbs. I ended up using my index finger to actuate the safety most of the time. leaving the levers just a tad longer and adding a bit of texturing could've improve this.
***Folding stock version specific issues***.
What am I, the slender man? The folding stock is non adjustable and is just too long. I assume that's because it was intended for rifles with a grip farther rearward on it's receiver. I have not measured it, but the length of pull feels a hair longer than an A2 style fixed stock. The butt is also concave, which some people might like, but I do not. It creates a pointed toe and heal which if you are doing any drills from high port, low ready, shoulder transitions or anything requiring you to bring the rifle to shoulder quickly it will dig into you. I would have preferred if it was just flat or even have a toe and heal that's tapered forward, similar to the Sig MCX's or MFT's minimalist stocks.
Where do sling go? I'm genuinely surprised there was no QD socket or any kind of sling attachment point integrated at the base or the butt of the stock. You can wrap the sling around one of the tubes to get around this issue, but it's not ideal.
If you intend to use this rifle for plinking or even hunting, most of these are only minor problems that you can probably just live with. However if you're looking for something to replace your AR for fast paced competition shooting, I would recommend against this series of rifles in their current form.
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