PSA: Crusader Crux

[u/ParalyzedNeckUp]

I bought this rifle as soon as it came out and was really excited as I’ve been enjoying my Templar. My first impressions were not great. When it got here the bolt carrier group was locked forward and stuck. I had to dismantle it and when I did the rear takedown pin just fell out. Then I had to beat the shit out of the lower receiver to get it to even separate from the upper due to there being too much friction between the upper and lower. I had to use a pair of pliers to remove the BCG from the chamber because it was stuck for a reason I cannot figure out.

Today I took it out for the first time. My first 15 rounds went fine and I was really impressed with the accuracy at 100m with the standard iron sights, and the trigger felt great. In my next 5 rounds I had 3 failure to extract issues resulting in the BCG ramming a live round into the back of the empty casing in the chamber, resulting in the casing of the live round being dented and the bullet being shoved down into the casing. On my 5th and final mag, I fired one shot, which resulted in my extractor snapping off.

When I got home and examined the rifle further, I noticed two of the bipod MLOK nuts had backed off, pieces of my extractor fragmented in the upper receiver, and an extraordinary amount of brass inside the rifle, like a ton.

I paid $3954 for this rifle. Basically $4000. So I’m obviously not thrilled that it feels so cheap and that it broke after literally 21 shots. I will be attempting to reach out to crusader for a new/better extractor. I am attempting to manage my expectations and frustrations.

TLDR: difficult to take down, feels really cheap for the price, and the extractor breaks after ~20 shots.

[u/jeffQC1]

Every single human being that own / used to own a Templar: "First time?"

Real shit, of all the 180 rifles, the Templar must be the worst example ever. At least the WK's will work just fine when you fix the factory issues (Adjustable gas valve, brass piston bushing, etc...) They're also subtantially cheaper and easier to work on.

The Templar 100% feels like a Gen 0.5 prototype that shouldn't ever have gone full production.

[u/scud-running → u/jeffQC1]

All of the Canadian 180 rifles are trash idk why they can’t figure it out. I get it’s a volatile market and it doesn’t make sense to invest too much but damn they suck.

The 180 is actually a rock solid platform and the basis for probably more service rifles than anything but a kalashnikov. Brownells seemed to figure out the 180 first try.

[u/jeffQC1 → u/scud-running]

In my honest opinion, it's because they don't seem to do any actual testing. If they took some of the WK-180C from the initial production/protorype run and tried them out over a 1000 rounds endurance test (at minimum), they would have seen all the part breakages issues and other issues with it. They obviously didn't do these things or willfully ignored them.

I often feel like they just design it, make it, test a single 5 round magazine through it and go "Yup, looks good to me. Fire up the factory, Jerry!"

I'm a QA guy (in video games, but same spirit), and 95% of problems can be solved by simply trying out the damn thing, doing some testing, doing some tweaks, etc... But you need to have the proper headspace for it, not being biased and not being afraid of being critical of your own products. And clearly some people can't do that.

If they would actually do so, i bet the WK-180C could easily have dominated the Canadian NR AR-ish market. Instead we got a shit rifle with poor durability and kind of obvious, eye-opening flaws so the reputation went to absolute shit. The Gen 2 are okay now, but they still need some aftermarket parts, like the adjustable gas valve first and foremost.

[u/scud-running → u/jeffQC1]

Man I agree. It does seem like they don’t even attempt to test these things.

Even with the Gen 2 it’s pretty unacceptable to sell a product that immediately needs an aftermarket part in order to reliably function.

The Lockhart raven with the Gen 1 bolt carrier issues was the same thing. They could’ve figured that out immediately with some testing. Also that’s like materials science 101. Squared holes concentrate stress and creature fractures in metal. We’ve known this since like the 50’s or earlier. At least he immediately fixed it though.

I think the sad reality is guns in general don’t tend to attract the best talent and even more so in Canada. Glock and Accuracy International come to mind as two times outsiders to the gun world came in and completely revolutionized the industry. I think we need more engineers from other industries in the gun space. Governments have done a great job around the world of killing innovation through bullshit laws and turning people off participating in the firearms industry though. We need more Samuel Colts, John Moses Brownings and Eugene Stoners. We’re still mostly using their designs instead of coming up with anything new.