WK-180C/WS-MCR: Why the Mid Length Piston?

The topic of replacing the factory 180C/MCR piston with a mid-length piston has been coming up over and over again.  Rather than re-typing the information, I have decided to place it here.

For ease I am going to say that for the duration of this article, I am going to collectively call the WK180C and WS-MCR, the Canadian 180 pattern rifle. Both are loosely based of the AR180B.

The 180 pattern rifle uses a carbine length gas system to push a piston that in turn moves the carrier backwards enough that a cam causes the bolt to rotate and unlock.  The residual pressure then pushes the bolt and carrier back ejecting the round and picking another round up.  The bolt and carrier move back at about 4 to 5 meters per second.

Now the original AR180B platform used a rifle length piston system.  The rifle length port provides only 14% of the gas pressure as the carbine port.  Yet it works.  It cycles, it has a very long life span.

So when I heard about 180 rifles breaking (pistons and bolt lugs being the main culprits) I had to question why.  The answer was obvious: there is too much pressure.

It is akin to using a sledgehammer to put finishing nails into your wall to hang pictures... it can be done, but the chance of too much force being applied and creating damage, is very real.

Now the AR180B was designed in America.  It is not speculation to say that they have milder weather then us.  Perhaps the carbine length was picked to ensure cycling if frost formed on the gun?  Maybe it was because it is easier to snap a long piston?  Maybe it was as simple and sinister as cost cutting... I didn't know.

I didn't want to risk potential reliability in cold weather so I examined the possibility of making the Canadian 180 a mid-length piston.  The mid length has 5000PSI less pressure at the port.

So I built it: the Mid length piston.  And that's all that I needed to build; the original gas block still worked and there were lots of mid-length ported barrels out there.  

With a mid length piston, the rifle shot softer and put less wear on parts.

If you are using your Canadian 180 pattern rifle to casually target shoot, this upgrade isn't for you.  The warranty on broken carbine pistons is great.  A broken gun can be brought back up to operation in 2 weeks or less with the friendly and helpful staff at Kodiak.

But if you want this to be a rifle that you use hard, competition or survival, you are best off upgrading.

Visit Specterarms.ca to pick up a piston today.

 

Running The Lever Action – A Radical Departure from the Conventional

In the gunfighter program we are taught to keep our control hand on the rifle and conduct all our manipulations with the support hand.  To make this easy we will raise the rifle and rest the buttstock on our bicep pointing the barrel up.  The magazine will naturally point to our centerline and allows us to do our manipulations while watching what is ahead of us simultaneously.

From a kinematics standpoint we only rotate joints no more than 90 degrees and along the arc of greatest mobility. The arc of greatest mobility is the wrist rotation that allows you to rotate further away from its natural “zero” position then the other direction.  On your right hand this is clockwise (CCW on the left). 
Your maximum range of motion should be 100 degrees clockwise on the right hand compared to about 90 degrees counter clockwise. (If you rotate your forearm too, these angles increase)
Because one direction has a larger travel range, it is faster and more comfortable to go to 90 degrees in that larger travel range.

In cowboy action shooting, the lever action is the go-to for riflemen.
The typical lever action has a loading gate on the right side. Traditionally, a rifleman employing a lever action will have the rifle in his left hand and twist counter clockwise (short arc) to expose the
loading gate.  He then grips the forend with his support hand and releases his control hand to load more rounds into the loading gate which necessitates a counter clockwise wrist rotation to push the rounds down into the gate.  Once loaded he re-positions his hands and twists the rifle back into a shooting position.  Unless he is super-practiced and has a good means of carrying his rounds, he will need to look down at what he is doing taking his attention away from what is ahead of him.

What I propose for the lever action manual of arms is aimed at people who are right handed but cross eye dominant, someone who is left handed or ambidextrous*.  All sets of people will quickly come to appreciate this new method of employing the lever rifle.

The rifle is held in the left hand.  Upon needing to reload, the user puts the buttstock onto his bicep.  This has his rifle pointing up and in his view while he watches the terrain in front of him (ideally to move safely to cover). 
His support hand loads the rounds into the exposed loading gate which naturally sits facing the user.  When finished reloading, the rifle drops naturally back into position and because the all-important control hand has never been moved, it does not need to be re-positioned.  Situational awareness and speed are vastly improved.

For those who have run the lever for years, this will be a difficult transition but one that I feel will be worth it in the evolution of firearms as a martial art.




* All gun fighters should practice with both hands to be gun-ambidextrous.