Astra StG4 GUERNICA Carbine-Test fire and review

[SeanG]

Hi All.

Since my license was appoved on the 8th Jan, i decided to pay Dave Sheer Guns a visit this morning and test fire my rifle.
All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!

The guys knew I was on my way and had drawn my rifle from the vaults and readied some ammo for me...all 500 rounds of Barnul ammo.
Collected my rifle and ammo and off to the indoor range.

Opened her up checked everything, sprayed a nice dose of Tri-sol on all the moving parts, ran a bore snake down the barrel, and all good to go.
Or so i thought.....
Loaded the P-Mag into the rifle, charged the handle, round into chamber, pullled the trigger....... Click!!!!!
I see the bolt has not locked fully into battery.
Tried pulling charging handle and cartrige will not budge, after truggling a bit with the flimsy charging handle i get the round out the chamber.
Made a rookie AR owner mistake- did not lubricate locking lugs and chamber properly.
Then i remembered that most direct impingement ARs love to be "wet"

An even more healthy dose of Tri-sol on bolt, locking lugs, chamber lugs...and I was good to go.
And good to go was exactly what it did.
First 2 mags were loaded with 20 rounds and took it slow.
Fed and ejected perfectly.
Fired a few mags as fast as i could pull the trigger (yes I know it was a waste of ammo) and again not one failure to feed or eject.
Sounded like it was full auto.
She just ate up those round like nothing ive seen.

Some obervations: good and bad.

The quadrail and rifle get frikken hot after a few mags.
Quadrail is really sharp, cutting my left hand thumb and forfingers.(A Magpul AFG to be fitted)
The charging handle is rather tinny and flimsy.
The 1 magazine that comes with the rifle is tinny and the follower tilted on loading the 3rd round into it (Its gonna be a wall ornament).
The grip that comes on the rifle is very skinny, so will be replaced with a Magpul MOE grip.

The iron sites set at the factory were spot on at the end of the indoor range, putting every round exactly were I aimed.
Magpul P-Mags work excellently in the rifle.
The trigger pull is extremely light and very responsive.
Hardly any felt recoil.

I will be buying a set of quadrail covers and a large BCM charging handle from Brownells.
(and maybe some gloves for when the rail gets too hot lol)
Need to get Slip 2000 EWL as well as some steel mags from HBASA.
And a Tactical course with BigT

All in all- I love my rifle, it may not be the best AR out there, but this one is mine :-)

I will be back at the range next weekend again, oh hell yeh!!!
Will fit the Vortex red/green dot scope I got then.

Big up to Gavin, Devon and TJ at Dave Sheer Guns- you guys rock. Thanks for the help and advice today.

[DS]

Trisol is not proper AR lube - you are not doing your rifle a favor.

Do not lube the chamber.

Keep lube off the bolt face.

Enjoy your rifle.