WX-MCR - X for Xtreme - First Impressions

I bought one of the first Wx rifles and posted my thoughts which mirror yours, i called the owner of extreme and he passed off the changes to the almost perfect WS-MCR as ones wolverine asked for, the take down pins on mine were so tight that you couldnt interchange the uppers without tools, there was no mag well beveling and sharp edges everywhere, mine went back and i bought another WS-MCR............loving it!!
 
--Terry-- said:
View attachment 474406

I received the WX-MCR from Wolverine Supplies last week, and went to the range to test-fire it. Here are some first impressions from me, who has owned and been shooting an AR-15 for years, and can't help but compare everything of this rifle to an AR-15. Maybe it is not fair (I do know a little about the history and development of AR-18/AR-180), but it is inevitable.

PROS:
1. It handles and runs like an AR-15, and there is no learning curve. Ergonomics is good compared to other older rifle designs.
2. Trigger is better than what I had expected. I don't have a trigger gauge, but the trigger breaks clean and crisp, with zero creep.
3. It has most of the improvements already in place, and seems to be a quite mature design.
4. It shoots well, and seems to be accurate. I will need to do more shooting to find out how good it can be.
5. All mags I have work fine in the rifle. Pmags need a firm tap to seat, and do not drop free, but that happens to other guns, too. Traditional aluminum mags work flawlessly.

CONS:
1. The rifle is heavy, front heavy. I guess it is due to the heavy-ish long barrel and long handguard.
2. The receiver has many sharp corners and edges. I especially don't like the front corners of the mag well, which are very sharp. Bumping into them is painful, and could break skin. I understand that the rifle is modeled after the stamped steel style of the AR-18, but since we have made changes to the design, it does not make sense to have the sharp edges. Maybe the person who made the drawings forgot to add the edge chamfer/fillet?
3. The WX receiver does come in a more greyish finish, not as black as the other parts of the rifle. But it is not too bad, and is not very noticable in daylight.

I installed a Primary Arms 3x Prism scope on the WX-MCR, mainly to shoot at targets at 100 yards in my local range. Other better scopes can surely be used to achieve better results, but I'm still concerned about the weight.

I replaced the pistol grip with a Magpul one, which is thicker and nicer to grip and handle. My next experiment is to try to install the Zhukov folding stock on it, and see how it feels. It will arrive sometime next week.

The one thing that keeps bugging me now is the sharp edges and corners on the receiver. As a tinkerer, I want to smooth out the edges with a diamond file. But I'm worried about damaging the anodizing layer, and what I should do with the exposed aluminum. I'm now tortured by OCD. Any suggestions?

Targets at 100 yards with a 3x scope:
View attachment 474423

View attachment 474424
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Really nice review!
Thanks!
 
Im wondering how much of the roughness is intentional. It's easier to argue something is a farm implement if has the finish of 1960s tractor :)
 
snipersyn said:
How "refined" do you want them to be? Until they're $3000 and close to prohibition as well?
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It was supposed to be a $1,000 rifle, but is now getting very close to $1,500.

With the folding stock, it is $1,600+.

However, smoothing out the edges, doing anodizing in the right color and fixing the bugs should not be cost increasing factors, unless addtional parts and processing have to be added (like the brass deflector, steel plate and rear disassembling pin).
 
I bought armakote awhile back at gun show it applies with an arosol sprayer that's included it cures without cooking any thing and it's tough as heck and I applied over black anodized renegade that had the upper and lower a bit mismatched in colour much like the blacks on your rifle I couldn't be happier and there still a CGN supporter I think
 
stevey3737 said:
I bought armakote awhile back at gun show it applies with an arosol sprayer that's included it cures without cooking any thing and it's tough as heck and I applied over black anodized renegade that had the upper and lower a bit mismatched in colour much like the blacks on your rifle I couldn't be happier and there still a CGN supporter I think
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Thanks! Which company should I look for? A quick Google search did not get me anywhere. The only "Armakote" I found was a rough deck coating.
 
--Terry-- said:
It was supposed to be a $1,000 rifle, but is now getting very close to $1,500.

With the folding stock, it is $1,600+.

However, smoothing out the edges, doing anodizing in the right color and fixing the bugs should not be cost increasing factors, unless addtional parts and processing have to be added (like the brass deflector, steel plate and rear disassembling pin).
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List of Canadian gun owners' demands:

-rifle costs <$1000
-rifle is reliable
-rifle shoots 1 moa
-rifle takes AR furniture/mags/etc
-rifle manufactured in Canada
-non-restricted

:rolleyes:

Meanwhile Wolverine puts out a rifle that costs $1350-1500, is reliable, is accurate (1.5moa-ish with good ammo), takes most AR accessories/mags, is manufactured here and is non-res...

Would it be nice to have the edges smoothed out and the "boxiness" (it is based on a stamped receiver) eliminated where possible, for sure. Would it increase cost at this point? For sure it would, the program to cut the receiver would have to be altered, extra machining, etc. Would I be willing to pay for that? Yup, not sure those who are whining about price would though... Anodizing not matching? Really? Who cares? Things are anodized in batches and it's common for one batch not to match up with another. It's a $1500 rifle, not some show piece. I mean a Chico Type-81 costs $1500 and some of them showed up bent, haha.
 
rugbydave said:
List of Canadian gun owners' demands:

-rifle costs <$1000
-rifle is reliable
-rifle shoots 1 moa
-rifle takes AR furniture/mags/etc
-rifle manufactured in Canada
-non-restricted

:rolleyes:

Meanwhile Wolverine puts out a rifle that costs $1350-1500, is reliable, is accurate (1.5moa-ish with good ammo), takes most AR accessories/mags, is manufactured here and is non-res...

Would it be nice to have the edges smoothed out and the "boxiness" (it is based on a stamped receiver) eliminated where possible, for sure. Would it increase cost at this point? For sure it would, the program to cut the receiver would have to be altered, extra machining, etc. Would I be willing to pay for that? Yup, not sure those who are whining about price would though... Anodizing not matching? Really? Who cares? Things are anodized in batches and it's common for one batch not to match up with another. It's a $1500 rifle, not some show piece. I mean a Chico Type-81 costs $1500 and some of them showed up bent, haha.
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A lot of good points here.

I think the WK-180C / WS-MCR / WX-MCR rifles are still in early stages of development, and there will be more improvements made in the coming years. Those of us who buy them now are brave enough to know (before we buy) and accept some imperfections and use them as they are. But we should also voice our complaints without hesitation, so manufacturers know what they need to work on in the next batches.

In a few years, if by some miracle this rifle is not banned (knock on wood), it may become a mature enough design that people like as much as AR-15s.
 
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--Terry-- said:
A lot of good points here.

I think the WK-180C / WS-MCR / WX-MCR rifles are still in early stages of development, and there will be more improvements made in the coming years. Those of us who buy them now are brave enough to know (before we buy) and accept some imperfections and use them as they are. But we should also voice our complaints without hesitation, so manufacturers know what they need to work on in the next batches.

In a few years, if by some miracle this rifle is not banned (knock on wood), it may become a mature enough design that people like as much as AR-15s.
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Yup, I don't disagree with any of that. I also think that as much as I would like for the lower to basically be an exact copy of an AR-15 lower (but made to only fit a WS/WK upper) I would imagine that the designers deliberately took aesthetic cues from the AR-180B in order to better facilitate it being considered a variant thereof. In any case, I'm glad they're making them so we currently have valid options in a non-res carbine. Hell, I'm still hoping the IRG/PWS one materializes at some point. I'd buy that too, haha.
 
I think the WK-180C / WS-MCR / WX-MCR rifles are still in early stages of development, and there will be more improvements made in the coming years. Those of us who buy them now are brave enough to know (before we buy) and accept some imperfections and use them as they are.
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I just bought a new Kodiak WK-180.

I was actually shocked at how nice it was when it arrived.
It's as nicely machined and finished as any of my guns made in USA.

Nothing at all like the ones I saw a few years ago.
Those were really rough. Like something from Norinco.
 
rugbydave said:
Yup, I don't disagree with any of that. I also think that as much as I would like for the lower to basically be an exact copy of an AR-15 lower (but made to only fit a WS/WK upper) I would imagine that the designers deliberately took aesthetic cues from the AR-180B in order to better facilitate it being considered a variant thereof. In any case, I'm glad they're making them so we currently have valid options in a non-res carbine. Hell, I'm still hoping the IRG/PWS one materializes at some point. I'd buy that too, haha.
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To quote the original MCR press release:

MCR Press Release said:
I like the original AR180 concept, so we went back to her and started fresh. We stayed with the modern CNC aluminium lower receiver, I believe this was first produced by Nodak Spud as the NDS-18S and was introduced to serve as a direct replacement for ArmaLite’ s polymer lower. No need to reinvent the wheel, so we used that lower although we did add one very major improvement. We built in a rear take down pin, this eliminates the movement often found between the upper and lower.
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So they used the NoDak 180 replacement lower design likely unchanged for the WK, and slightly altered for the MCR. I'm wondering if they licensed the CNC specs from NoDak directly, since they did reference them by name. Other then limiting changes for simplicity sake to reduce manufacturing complications, the lack of further changes to the lower design and overall upper appearance are likely in line with the speculation above, keeping it as much like the 180 to remain a variant, and to keep it looking more like a tool rather then a "weapon of war".
 
OP - great review. I’ve had my WK180C for months now and have had very similar thoughts on the CONS. All the good things aside, it’s a decent rifle. I see many Canadian manufacturers stepping up to make accessories and such.

I’ve recently installed an NM 2 stage trigger and did true ACR stock conversion adapter from RWA. I would say that the forward heavy rifle is comparable to a heavy-sh HBAR. However the breaking points are real and unfortunate. I will eventually get a MS WSR model, and hope to adapt to the 7.62x39 (for milsurp ammo). However I’m not sold yesterday due to the durability with 223 at this time.

Overall it’s a very Canadian response to a Canadian problem.
It’s a great platform to shoot with.
 
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