Still haven't shot it, but my first day with it was frustrating. I'm a lefty shooter, so bought a left handed bolt and barrel kit. The barrel itself isn't left handed, but is factory headspaced with the bolt. A bit more expensive, but such is life. Looking at the design of the barrel, it appears that setting headspace requires some special tools. Just looking at it, it's obvious it's not all one piece and only one has flats. Not something I'm going to dig into, but found it interesting.
Barrel and bolt kit were delivered the same day I took possession, so before I even fired it, I did the swap. Should be a pretty easy swap. From the factory, the rifle came with the newest style of charging handle. This included a barrel band. The new barrel didn't have this band. The new barrel came with a bayonet lug, which wasn't present on the factory configuration. Next is the bolt itself. From the factory, it came with the two ejector bolt. The new bolt is only a single ejector. They obviously came up with the dual for a reason, so why do they continue to sell the single? I'm not concerned about it since I don't know why and the AR platform has been running single for decades. So until it becomes a problem, I don't care. The kit did however come with the barrel wrench, so that was nice.
Break the rifle down and then remove the rail. Muzzle devices off both, band off one, lug off the other. The lug was a pain in the ass. After swapping the band over, I put the lug back on and the muzzle device. Got the rail swapped and barrel installed the receiver. Oops. The bayonet lug prevents the installation of the foregrip. Decision time. Do I just remove the lug, or remove it, install the foregrip, then reinstall the lug? I don't have a bayonet, so I just left it off for now. Install the rail, and the barrel assembly is back in the receiver.
Now we come to the carrier. There are two pins. One called the "general pin", and the other is the "rear pin". The general pin just blocks the cocking bar from seating into the carrier properly. So if you're cocking bar is setup for right handed, a left handed carrier won't even chamber a round. Essentially, you can't accidently put a carrier setup for lefty into a receiver setup for righty. For me, that's not a danger, so in the trash goes the "general pin". Kinda dumb I think. Sure they want you to use it a certain way, but what if I'm shooting left handed because I don't have a right hand? Which side the cocking handle is on is irrelevant to which side you're shooting from. In reality, if you have it on the side they want you to, and you rack it while it's shouldered, there's a chance you're going to punch yourself in the face if your hand slips off the handle. And since you're supposed to just let it fly.... I rack my AR with my left hand, so I might end up switching it to the "wrong" way. Need to think about this one.
Now we come to the rear pin. You can't install a lefty bolt into a carrier that was setup for a righty bolt without swapping this pin to the other side. What I don't know is if this pin is also just there to prevent a mistake on the armorer's bench, or if it serves as a stop/register for the bolt. So I did a little experiment. Take the firing pin and spring out, then install the bolt and guide pin. If the bolt indexes on the rear pin, the guide pin should have no pressure on it when I'm holding the bolt in. The bolt does in fact register on the rear pin. After seeing it, my theory is that it prevents the guide pin from getting excessive wear by acting as the stop when it slams home. That or the tolerances aren't super tight for this hole. Either way, since I don't know, it's going back in.
Last thing is swapping the safety selector and pointer. For an "ambi" rifle, I don't get why they don't have levers on both sides and call it good. I'm probably just going to buy another lever for the other side. While we're on the "ambi" topic, the gun has 5 swivel points. The odd number means one is only one one side. You can swap it pretty easy, but WTF is the point of this? I can't even begin to think of a reason why it isn't just open on both sides. It is on the rear most point and the front most, so why is the mid point different.
For now, the gripes are probably things I just don't understand and only the product designers could answer. The optic I want is on backorder, so there's a 50/50 chance I go to the range this coming Sunday to sight in the factory irons. Will definitely add more to this thread as I go with this one.
Barrel and bolt kit were delivered the same day I took possession, so before I even fired it, I did the swap. Should be a pretty easy swap. From the factory, the rifle came with the newest style of charging handle. This included a barrel band. The new barrel didn't have this band. The new barrel came with a bayonet lug, which wasn't present on the factory configuration. Next is the bolt itself. From the factory, it came with the two ejector bolt. The new bolt is only a single ejector. They obviously came up with the dual for a reason, so why do they continue to sell the single? I'm not concerned about it since I don't know why and the AR platform has been running single for decades. So until it becomes a problem, I don't care. The kit did however come with the barrel wrench, so that was nice.
Break the rifle down and then remove the rail. Muzzle devices off both, band off one, lug off the other. The lug was a pain in the ass. After swapping the band over, I put the lug back on and the muzzle device. Got the rail swapped and barrel installed the receiver. Oops. The bayonet lug prevents the installation of the foregrip. Decision time. Do I just remove the lug, or remove it, install the foregrip, then reinstall the lug? I don't have a bayonet, so I just left it off for now. Install the rail, and the barrel assembly is back in the receiver.
Now we come to the carrier. There are two pins. One called the "general pin", and the other is the "rear pin". The general pin just blocks the cocking bar from seating into the carrier properly. So if you're cocking bar is setup for right handed, a left handed carrier won't even chamber a round. Essentially, you can't accidently put a carrier setup for lefty into a receiver setup for righty. For me, that's not a danger, so in the trash goes the "general pin". Kinda dumb I think. Sure they want you to use it a certain way, but what if I'm shooting left handed because I don't have a right hand? Which side the cocking handle is on is irrelevant to which side you're shooting from. In reality, if you have it on the side they want you to, and you rack it while it's shouldered, there's a chance you're going to punch yourself in the face if your hand slips off the handle. And since you're supposed to just let it fly.... I rack my AR with my left hand, so I might end up switching it to the "wrong" way. Need to think about this one.
Now we come to the rear pin. You can't install a lefty bolt into a carrier that was setup for a righty bolt without swapping this pin to the other side. What I don't know is if this pin is also just there to prevent a mistake on the armorer's bench, or if it serves as a stop/register for the bolt. So I did a little experiment. Take the firing pin and spring out, then install the bolt and guide pin. If the bolt indexes on the rear pin, the guide pin should have no pressure on it when I'm holding the bolt in. The bolt does in fact register on the rear pin. After seeing it, my theory is that it prevents the guide pin from getting excessive wear by acting as the stop when it slams home. That or the tolerances aren't super tight for this hole. Either way, since I don't know, it's going back in.
Last thing is swapping the safety selector and pointer. For an "ambi" rifle, I don't get why they don't have levers on both sides and call it good. I'm probably just going to buy another lever for the other side. While we're on the "ambi" topic, the gun has 5 swivel points. The odd number means one is only one one side. You can swap it pretty easy, but WTF is the point of this? I can't even begin to think of a reason why it isn't just open on both sides. It is on the rear most point and the front most, so why is the mid point different.
For now, the gripes are probably things I just don't understand and only the product designers could answer. The optic I want is on backorder, so there's a 50/50 chance I go to the range this coming Sunday to sight in the factory irons. Will definitely add more to this thread as I go with this one.