AKOU Radical Firearms failure at 4310 rounds

**m4hk33** · 03-28-17, 07:02

meh...

its a 10 dollar fix to get the rifle up. would I consider a radical, no. but for somebody who is a recreational shooter that might come out a few times a year to plink with. maybe fire half a case of wolf per year, its fine. at that rate it would take almost 6 years till the user needed to throw 10 dollars at their rifle.

once again, there are better choices for a budget rifle, but it is somewhat interesting that the cheapest AR on the market still ran 4000 rounds before going down. I am not sure that you could take one of the cheapest pistols on the market and expect to get 4000 rounds out of it.

I think this speaks a lot to the maturity of the AR system that even the cheapest rifles are still pretty reliable.

personally ill pay for LMT every time

**Arik** · 03-28-17, 07:22

Originally Posted by Stickman

I give up, who is Rob?

The Polish guy in the video. He does most of his tests on AKs though

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**tehpwnag3** · 03-28-17, 08:31

I agree about replacing gas rings, but the rest of what you said seems like you're theorizing with anecdotal evidence (if that).

Originally Posted by PattonWasRight

I agree, you're right about that. And with loose rings, there's more "inaccurate" movement of the bolt ... not pure fore & aft movement but some side-to-side movement that's going to put a strain on that cam bolt / cam'ing action.

I think of an ARs gas rings exactly like the piston rings on my my two stroke engine dirt bike I used to have ... when the rings were worn you could hear and feel the rattle / piston slap vibration. Over time, you lose power, start putting a strain on the wrist pin, connecting rod and so on.

That's the slamming itself to death I was referring to. (...)

**PattonWasRight** · 03-28-17, 09:53

Originally Posted by tehpwnag3

I agree about replacing gas rings, but the rest of what you said seems like you're theorizing with anecdotal evidence (if that).

You're right, it is anecdotal, there's not a ton of empirical data out there.

Do you wait until your Glock starts beating on its locking block or do you change your recoil spring regularly?

Me, I change them at 3K round. Overkill, maybe ... but again, not like there's a ton of empirical info out there, so I play it on the safe side.

Same approach for my ARs.

Also, for Radicals, I looked up and their bolts are MPI'd, so I don't know how skimpy they are. Maybe the carrier is, but the failure of a cam pin to me is more likely to be the end result of movement / play of the bolt inside the carrier than an outright defective cam pin. That's my thoughts at least.

Thank you for your response. Seems like everyone wants to turn this into a "cheap is cheap" discussion rather than an understanding of the dynamics of the failure, that potentially can have a takeway for any AR shooter.

**JC5188** · 03-28-17, 11:53

Didn't the Daniel Defense rifle take a shit in AKOU test also?

I don't know anything about RF rifles, but I don't put much stock in a YouTube video by itself.

I do however enjoy the vids.

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**PattonWasRight** · 03-28-17, 12:36

Originally Posted by JC5188

Didn't the Daniel Defense rifle take a shit in AKOU test also?

I don't know anything about RF rifles, but I don't put much stock in a YouTube video by itself.

I do however enjoy the vids.

Apparently so, failures to reset the trigger, but no source of issue found, weird. Happened @ 2.5k rounds. Didn't reoccur to 5k rounds, so still a mystery it appears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJU0zm1glY

**GH41** · 03-28-17, 15:32

Originally Posted by JC5188

Didn't the Daniel Defense rifle take a shit in AKOU test also?

I don't know anything about RF rifles, but I don't put much stock in a YouTube video by itself.

I do however enjoy the vids.

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Any maker can have a single rifle that takes a dump after 4K rounds. It's an example of one and doesn't really mean anything other than something slipped through the cracks. DD probably has smaller cracks to slip through than Radical but they still have them.

**ABNAK** · 03-28-17, 16:58

I had a RF 300BLK upper. It leaked gas from the ill-fitted gas tube hole (where the gas tube goes into the gas block). It spewed goldish colored gas residue rearward, all over the barrel and inside the handguard. Functioned okay, but I then did some research and they were apparently known for this type of problem. I bought a BCM lo-pro gas block, had it pinned by ADCO, and sold the damn thing. I'll never buy RF again.

You get what you pay for as the old adage says.

**JC5188** · 03-28-17, 17:11

Originally Posted by PattonWasRight

Apparently so, failures to reset the trigger, but no source of issue found, weird. Happened @ 2.5k rounds. Didn't reoccur to 5k rounds, so still a mystery it appears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJU0zm1glY

The trigger reset had nothing to do with the (twice) tweaked rail.

I have the same type of rail on my AR-10

Originally Posted by GH41

Any maker can have a single rifle that takes a dump after 4K rounds. It's an example of one and doesn't really mean anything other than something slipped through the cracks. DD probably has smaller cracks to slip through than Radical but they still have them.

Absolutely. I was just illustrating the obvious.

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