Well here’s an update. POF sent my rifle back with nothing done is what they said. Rifle is perfect they told me. Took it out a couple times over the last two weeks and the piston system still doesn’t operate correctly. Accuracy is terrible. The piston system throws brass all over with no consistency at all and the accuracy follows it. I have looked online and it seems that this rifle has had all kinds of issues. The sales rep at POF said I should just sell the rifle. It’s probably the worst customer service I have ever had and would never recommend POF for anything. I have video and pictures to provide information if anyone would like to see. If anyone has any contacts or suggestions that might help it would be greatly appreciated.
I will never buy another POF again. Like you, my story is similar.
I bought a POF P308 (piston gun) with an 18" barrel in FDE about 3 years ago. It was over-gassed, even without a suppressor on it. With the suppressor, it was spinning empties 180 degrees in the chamber with the neck facing the bolt, and primer facing the chamber. It was also stovepiping a lot. I managed to make a video of it doing that here:
So, I called CS and they told me to send it back which I did on my own dime. They had it for 2 months. When it came back, all they did was replace the buffer and ejector spring. Of course, that didn't solve the issue. Unsuppressed, brass ejection was still all over the place (part of it I believe is due to the E2 chamber design), but mostly ejecting around 1 o'clock. Suppressed, it would continue to stovepipe or spin brass around; which to me are indicators of a seriously oversped bolt due to too much gas. So I called and they asked me to send it back, this time with my suppressor.
Here's the bastard in all her glory:
Prior to me sending it back, I was told repeatedly that they'll drill out a custom gas regulator for me based on the ammo I normally shoot (handloads, equivalent to Federal GMM with 168 SMKs and 42.8gr of IMR4064). I said fine but to make it easy, tune it for M80 ball. They had my rifle and suppressor for almost 6 months. When I got it back, all those asshats did was replace the buffer spring and told me it was perfectly operational. It had the same gas regulator in it. Not surprisingly, it did the same fucked up shit with or without the can on, using everything from cheap Wolf and Tula, M80 ball, FGMM, and my handloads.
How did I fix it? Well, I threw in a Slash adjustable heavy buffer which weighs in at 8.5oz just to get the thing to cycle without shitting the bed. If I do my part, she'll turn out sub-MOA groups in the 0.6 to 0.75" range with handloads and the factory trigger.
Anyway, fast forward to COVID 2020. I see a new POF Revolution in 6.5CM sitting in my FFL's store. Take a look at it, looks pretty good. Figured it'd be a nice semi-auto 6.5 addition to go along with my Daniel Defense Delta 5, also in 6.5. Get it home, and after inspecting much more closely, realized that the gap between upper and lower was huge. It measured 0.20" or 0.50mm which is the reject limit as dictated by Army TM9-1005-319-23&P.
There were also a bunch of rough tooling marks inside the lower. Functionally, the rifle worked but for $2500, shouldn't look this way. They asked me to send that back on my own dime, which I did. Received the rifle about 6 weeks later with a new upper on it. The fitment to lower was much better this time, but the handguard rail was no longer on the same plane as the upper's rail. The difference was great enough that certain scope mounts that needed to straddle both the upper and handguard rail wouldn't tighten down.
Here's what I mean:
Anyway, they (Zach Hernandez - total assclown), told me that they can't guarantee handguards would be coplanar to the receiver. Fine, I understand that. Tolerance stacking can be a bitch when you don't maintain CNC equipment properly, or just not give a fuck about QC. So, I asked if I could send it back on my dime again, for them to switch out the HG with something that even resembles the cheapest PSA AR I have sitting in my Jeep. They flat out refused. I asked if I could just mail them my HG. They refused that as well. So I finally asked what their "100% Satisfaction Guarantee" is supposed to mean? Unbelievably, they just told me to sell the gun or ask for a refund from my FFL. What kind of BS answer is that?
That said, I will NEVER buy another POF again. I have close to $5k between my two POF rifles. I'm thinking of selling both as a loss and either building my own AR-10s in 308 and 6.5, or buying a DD or LMT. My range buddies who once were interested in buying POF now won't because of the problems I had and the way I was treated as a customer.
Sorry to vent here, but I just came across this post and it rankled me to no end.
EDIT: some additional photos of the Revolution.
Hard to see here, but that area circled in red shows a portion of the milled out shelf that helps secure the safety switch barrel has a chunk missing out of it.
You can see it a little better here where the top of the safety lever barrel is visible in that gap:
Lovely tooling marks here:
On the bright side... the Revolution in 6.5 with my handloads (37.8gr H4350, 140gr SMK, Starline brass, Fed210 primers) will easily shoot a sub-half MOA 5 shot group at 100. That's very close to what I get with my Delta 5 which averages about 0.33" with a similar but slightly tweaked load.
