Wfa1l Tight Extraction

[30roundsisstandard]

Hi Guys, Recently got my new WFA1L rifle and I have put about 100 rounds through it and it seems to be getting a few tight extractions say 4 to 5 out of a mag of 10; It gets better when you heat it up. I have tried a few different ammo brands including, federal, hornady, osa, and ppu, all in 55 grain 223. so far the federal and hornady work best followed by osa and worst of all ppu. (ppu is cheap crap anyway so ) Im just wondering if I need to just keep breaking it in or if something else could be up? any thoughts, recommendations or experiences are welcome? (Yes I am aware the manual says to only use recommended brands of ammo to avoid tight case extraction albeit it does not specify which brands are recommended. I have also made sure to make sure all contacting surfaces are well lubed.)

Cheers.

[linkoln]

I have the original wfa1 and I get the same thing. I guess it is just that it is made by hand and has very tight tolerance i can't remember a day I've been to the range and not had bloody knuckles from pulling on the charging handle to try and get the stuck cases out.

[InisBineest]

Umm, I've got a Wfa1l in 223 also, I've had no such issues from day 1, but I do run fls hand loads if that means anything. Get in tough with Scott at Warwick's and ask him about it, they are pretty good with their service if there is ever an issue, they generally get onto it ASAP.
Good luck!

[30roundsisstandard]

bloody knuckles

Check Ive already busted my Index finger open . The tightness has taken me by surprise as I watch other guys with their rifles online and they just glide away.

[Medb]

I've had no such issues with mine, it cycles very smoothly. Can't recall ever having a stuck case or having to force it to cycle. I mostly shoot factory ammo through it and most of that is just the cheap bulk stuff.

I have other rifles with this issue that don't cycle well with certain magazines, or types of ammo but my Wfa1l certainly isn't one of them.

[Oldbloke]

Umm, I've got a Wfa1l in 223 also, I've had no such issues from day 1, but I do run fls hand loads if that means anything. Get in tough with Scott at Warwick's and ask him about it, they are pretty good with their service if there is ever an issue, they generally get onto it ASAP.
Good luck!

+1.

[MontyShooter]

I have the original wfa1 and it's butter smooth. Don't think I've ever had a difficult extraction. I use 69g matchkings and 62g hornady tap. Must have had 5k rounds through it at least. Contact Scott.

[Bill]

Send it back and have it fixed, its not fit for purpose. Some early T3's had issues with too tight a chamber, I remember my cousin having to send back a T3 for a refund after it failed to chamber 3 diff factory ammo's.

[JohnV]

Did you scrub the chamber extra clean ? Does an unfired round chamber and extract easily ? Are your round very clean ? Polish up a round with fine steel wool. Then wipe it down well and chamber the round gently until it won't go any further but don't jam it either . Extract it and look at the marks on the case . That should tell you if and where it's binding . If it shows marks around the base web or body on an unfired factory round then the chamber is a bit tight . Marks just on one side could just be where it slid in the bottom of the chamber . The problem is if a case is so tight before firing that it has nowhere to expand , then it can't expand and spring back to aid extraction . If that's the case then you could have the chamber relived a few thou by a gunsmith or the other option , use a Redding small base body die . Redding does not recommend sizing loaded rounds with their body die and neither do I . Chances are it just needs a touch up of a few thou to fix it . Rifles with tight chambers can be good shooters , you just have to make the ammo fit easily .
Another possibility is a rough cut chamber with reamer rings or chatter that hangs onto the brass .

[vmaxaust]

Hi Guys, Recently got my new WFA1L rifle and I have put about 100 rounds through it and it seems to be getting a few tight extractions say 4 to 5 out of a mag of 10; It gets better when you heat it up. I have tried a few different ammo brands including, federal, hornady, osa, and ppu, all in 55 grain 223. so far the federal and hornady work best followed by osa and worst of all ppu. (ppu is cheap crap anyway so ) Im just wondering if I need to just keep breaking it in or if something else could be up? any thoughts, recommendations or experiences are welcome? (Yes I am aware the manual says to only use recommended brands of ammo to avoid tight case extraction albeit it does not specify which brands are recommended. I have also made sure to make sure all contacting surfaces are well lubed.)

Cheers.

I have 2 WFA1L rifles. One in 223 and the other 300BLK. With factory (OSA) ammo the 300BLK has the same issue purely because of the very tight tolerances they set these rifles up with. The OSA ammo is on the high side of the velocity scale. If I use my own reloads which are mid range velocity I have zero extraction problems.
The 223 rifle has only had OSA factory ammo and my reloads run through it. My reloads have zero issues, the OSA ammo in this rifle did have an extraction problem early on but with more and more use it settled down. I took the 300BLK rifle to Scott and they found no problems so I continued using my lower velocity reloads without issue and eventually the OSA stuff became much less of a problem.
The other advice you got here about tight chamber, scratched chamber etc. is worth looking into. I have a borescope and found no such problems with either of mine.
Initially I also found very thorough cleaning was essential given the tolerances are tight on many of these rifles. The accuracy on both of mine is excellent for a 14" barrel.
By the way, your reference to PPU ammo is wrong. The quality is as good as most of the better known name brands, they are unfortunately like many loaded for very high velocity and are therefore more likely to cause issues in a tight chamber.
It would be useful if you can find someone locally who can reload some of your rounds with a lighter load till the rifle wears in a little. I load my 223's with 22gr of 2206H powder, full length sized and trimmed cases to 1.750", Hornady bulk 55gr bullets (the cheap flat based ones) and OAL of 2.190" for a velocity of about 2650fps through the short 14" barrel
These rounds are extremely accurate on targets at 100 meters or more. I'm pretty blind so I don't shoot beyond 100 but they are pretty flat to over 200 meters.
If you are not in Melbourne it would be a good idea to borescope the rifle chamber to see if any problems exist and also check the headspace.

[30roundsisstandard]

By the way, your reference to PPU ammo is wrong. The quality is as good as most of the better known name brands, they are unfortunately like many loaded for very high velocity and are therefore more likely to cause issues in a tight chamber.

Thanks for correcting that misinformation for me; I was wrong.

[in2anity]

The Redding small base die is what you need.

[30roundsisstandard]

Hi Guys I have somewhat of a conclusion here. TLDR:My charging handle is not sitting in the bolt carrier properly and is causing the carrier to not ride correctly when racking the charging handle.

The details:
Last week I rang up Warwicks and they put me on to one of their gunsmiths and he gave me a list of things that can cause my issue.
1) My barre may have a slight scuff and may need a quick touch up. They told me to compare an unfired case to fired brass and check for marks and bulges. I have a picture here. There are some minor rings which may be hard to see but I don't see any out of the ordinary bulges.

2) My firing pin may be slightly bent. They told me to take the firing pin and bolt out of the carrier and place the pin in the bolt to see if the bolt spins freely. If it did not then I had a bent firing pin. The bolt spun freely so I eliminated this conclusion.

3) My new solid cam pin may need a slight champer to help it along.

4) My charging handle is not sitting all the way in the carrier. To check this I was told to check for wear in the charging handle window and along the charging handle where it sits in the window. I was also told to push in on the charging handle then pull back. Low and behold after doing this my gun cycled fine. I was able to cycle every different ammo I had except ppu without any issues.

To amend the issue Warwicks have offered to send me a better charging handle and I am grateful for that. I will have to look into what you guys have said in regards to maybe reloading and resizing that ppu ammo and see what I come up with.

[JohnV]

Your brass does not show any expansion bulge so it's a tight chamber . Also the marks on the case neck look excessive for normal expansion and could be an indicator of being tight in the neck area also . Buy a Redding small base body die and size down just a fraction at a time until the case goes in easy moving the die down 1/16 of a turn at a time . That die will take care of the shoulder to base but not touch the neck . One problem can be that if the neck is tight it can confuse the chambering feel so size the neck down before you set the die for the body , to try and take it out of the equation . Then seat a bullet and see if it still chambers easy . If it becomes harder to chamber after seating a bullet then the case necks could be skim turned . Just a very fine cut enough to clean up about 75% of the circumference is all you need and should fix it. There is some marks on the brass just below the shoulder that look like they could come from reamer marks so that could be an indicator of some roughness in the chamber which could be making things even harder to extract .