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Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2016 5:02 am
by Netpackrat
Brief update. As mentioned, I had some issues with the rifle... During the first range trip, I kept having intermittent failures to eject, and ultimately I discovered that my rear trunnion was loose. Not sure if that was the fault of my riveting job, a problem with the trunnion I used, or both. None of the other AKs I have built ever had that problem, and some of them have thousands of rounds through them. Took it home, drilled the heads off the rivets, and punched them out. The holes in the receiver seemed OK, so I re-riveted them and everything seemed tight. Took the rifle back to the range, shot the above two groups and then re-zeroed with Wolf. FTEs were gone. I kept shooting it at steel at 100 both for fun, and to see if I could make it fail again.

Eventually I got another FTE and was able to detect some movement in the rear trunnion again. I think the FTEs might have been caused by misalignment of the recoil spring and guide, due to the trunnion getting out of whack.

This time I removed the trunnion again, and tossed it in the trash. I tig welded up the rivet holes in the receiver and ground them flush. I also removed the side rail mount that I installed when I first built the AK... There are better ways of mounting optics now, so I no longer use them. I filled those holes with rivets rather than welding, in case I change my mind (I won't) and decide to put it back some day. I installed a new rear trunnion from AK Builder that I had on hand for a future build... It's one Curtis was selling for a while, that looks like an underfolder rear trunnion, but without the side cuts for the underfolding stock, drilled and tapped on the rear for modular stocks. I used the additional forward material to add 2 more rivets, one on each side. I used the existing rear side rail hole for one of them, in fact. Hopefully that will cure the issues I was having with the previous one getting loose. Was meaning to get to the range with it a couple days ago, but that didn't happen.

Also, after two range trips I have had no issues with the CMR scope, other than some of the reticle markings being hard to see under some lighting conditions. And the new features of the Gen 3 rail are starting to grow on me, especially the new forward pivot pin. With the additional work to the rifle, it has been nice to be able to remove the whole rail quickly and easily.... Removing and reinstalling the Gen 2's forward pin could be a real pain in the ass sometimes.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:05 pm
by Netpackrat
Brief range visit today... Re-zeroed the optic and fired some groups with Wolf and Golden Tiger. Seemed to be a bit tighter than before. Didn't bring any of the good ammo, unfortunately. Then I put 90 rounds of Wolf through it with no malfunctions at all, everything seems to have stayed tight this time. Yay.

Finally got KG to cough up shipping dimensions and approximate weight, so now I am waiting for Lynden to get back to me with a shipping quote from Seattle. Which I guess is progress, of a sort.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:38 am
by Netpackrat
Made it to the range yesterday morning for the post-Gunkote re-zeroing. Elevation was still dead on, but I had to adjust both the irons and the scope about 4" to the left. Disassembly included removal of the forward mounting point, so some readjustment was to be expected. Not sure I like the target knobs... I found that I bumped one of them out of zero while futzing with stuff on the bench, but at least they can be realigned to indicate the zero point, and when returning them to the zero marks, the adjustments seem to be repeatable.

For now I have it zeroed for plain old Wolf "military classic" FMJ. Eventually once I can get some more Golden Tiger up here, and I burn through the rest of the Wolf, I'll probably zero it for the GT, which prints several inches higher than the Wolf (presumably due to higher velocity). The Wolf can be kind of frustrating sometimes... I know that it's cheap ammo, but I get the distinct impression that the bullets are actually fairly accurate in and of themselves, but the ammo is inconsistent. Here I had a nice group going (keep in mind this was from a 12.6" AK SBR), and the 5th shot ruined it entirely.

Image

It would be an interesting exercise to pull the bullets from some of the Wolf and reassemble as Mexican Match with individually weighed charges.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:21 pm
by Netpackrat
Bit of an update on the scope... I pulled the rifle out to fool with it a little while ago, and when I turned on the illumination, it was totally dead. Given that I have not used it at all for the most part, and only had it turned on (or so I thought) for a few minutes total at most, that was disappointing. I replaced the battery and it worked, but dialing through the different settings, I noted that a couple of them didn't seem to work at all, and that they were both next to what should have been the "off" positions (there are two, 180 degrees apart).

What I think happened, is the markings on the dial are off from the actual positions, so what I thought was turned off, was actually on one of the low level settings that are for use with night vision, and therefore the illumination was not visible to the unaided eye. But it was a constant low level drain that killed the battery (Sony brand battery that came with the scope). I don't think the control was like that when I took the scope out of the box, but again I have not fooled with the illumination much, so I can't be sure. And operation at some of the settings that "work" seems to depend on jiggling the dial right.

Not sure if I am going to try sending it back yet, or see if it gets worse first. If it hadn't had an illuminated reticle chances are I might have bought it anyway, but having it not working right is pretty annoying none the less.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:17 pm
by Captain Wheelgun
Well, that's a bummer. That scope had been on my short list for the Mutant, but I ended up getting the Primary Arms 1-6X24mm SFP scope w/ACSS 300BLK/ 7.62X39 Reticle instead.

It ended up being very easy for me to zero because the height over the bore with the mount I am using causes the 300 yard zero to near zero at 25 yards. This meant I could dial it in at 25 using the 300 yard mark, then confirm with the 50 / 200 point at 50 yards.

I really like it so far.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 3:05 am
by Netpackrat
As I said before, everything I try to do with guns seems to be cursed in some way, shape, or form. I looked at the PA offerings, but I wanted my drops in traditional 100 meter or yard increments. The problem with 7.62x39 (and AKs in particular), is you can stick a red dot on it in one of several decent mounts, but if you want magnification with a ballistic reticle, the market is kind of stacked against you. You can spend $1300 on a fixed 3 power ACOG, or choose from a handful of lower end choices. There's not really anything in the $500-$1000 range.

I would consider going with the ACOG if this were going to be my main/only AK, but my goal is to have two set up the same way, the SBR and a 16" version (Nodak receiver I ordered a month or two ago just shipped). And I can justify buying a pair of CMRs, but a pair of ACOGs not so much. And I really don't want a fixed 3x scope anyway.

Given that I have another working AK with an Aimpoint as a backup, I am probably going to contact the manufacturer about sending the CMR back. It's just annoying since the rifle is finally finished, more or less.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:22 am
by Netpackrat
Shot the rifle today... The zero shifted a lot since the last time I fired it and it is hitting roughly a foot to the right of POA at 100 meters. Doesn't seem to be anything wrong/loose with the rifle or mounts. I can check the scope against the irons on paper to isolate the problem, but I'd only taken my rifle gong today. I plan to do that before sending it back (I'll probably choose a different optic either way), but I am pretty sure the problem is with the scope. It needed to go back anyway due to the issue with the illumination.

Super bummed... I hadn't used it all that hard; I just took it to the range and back in a sneaky bag and shot it some, probably less than 1000 rounds.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2016 5:02 am
by Netpackrat
Yeah, scope is borked, TWS mount is fine. I took it back to the range tonight and fired a group at 25 yards using the scope, and it was way to the right. Then I removed the scope and fired a group using the irons which was dead center. Since the rear sight is mounted on the TWS rail, that seems fairly conclusive that something internal to the scope shifted. I kind of doubt that the Warne rings had anything to do with it.

I'm going to try to send the scope to the manufacturer for repair, but not sure what I am going to do if and when they fix it or send a replacement unit... Maybe put it on my CZ-527M bolt action. I'll have a hard time trusting it on the AK, so I think I need to figure out something else. At least in the meantime I still have my other AK with the Aimpoint on a Midwest mount that's been pretty solid.

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 3:38 am
by Netpackrat
I finally got around to contacting Leatherwood and sending this scope off about a month ago... With everything else I have going on right now, I had mostly forgotten about it, but it showed up in the mail today (btw they required that I send them a check for return shipping with the scope). They didn't send anything to indicate what they did to it, but at least the illumination settings seem to be working properly now. At some point when I get around to it I will probably put it up for sale on Gunbroker to get out of it what I can. When I get done with buying the new house, moving, and selling the old house I am probably 90% sure at this point that I will be buying a Leupold VX-R Patrol scope for the AK to replace it. Right now my new scope fund seems to have been repurposed to a furniture fund. Image

Re: TWS Gen 3 AK rail/Leatherwood CMR 1-4 w/AK reticle

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:11 pm
by slowpoke
Saw the scope Ian used on his ak74 on inrange tv, and thought that looks great for an ak. Then I looked into getting one like it :shock: for a surplus east german 4x scope.