wise lite arms -QC

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

DA,sorry i thought you meant me. the guy knows he has a warranty, thats why i told him to call Wise Lite. my feeling is, if he'd built it himself he would uderstand just how things work and should-- not asking for help rather helping himself.

Well, as you pointed out yourself, he sorta made his own predicament. If he would have reserached the web for LW M53 performance, he probably would have stumbled upon the comments on this board and could had thought twice before farming out the work to them. After working on a friend's LW M53 myself, I found several areas which needed rethinking in the design. The design CAN work, but the margin of reliability is very low.

[Der Alder]

I too notice oak is always the first to slam WLA anytime someone comes here asking for advice...mot sure why . We all know BRP too has had their share of problems; cracking receivers and all… many of them have needed tuning as well out of the box from what I’ve read here if you do a search. Most all of these MG42 variants rebuilt for semi auto can be very dicey at best IMO.

I think for the hundreds if not thousands of WLA M53’s produced thus far a dozen or so folks have posted problems on the internet, sometimes the same person on multiple boards if you follow them. -That’s pretty darn good for this type of gun if you ask me. Like most things though happy buyers will for the most part remain silent.

Having said that, these belt-fed semi’s are finicky and have a learning curve…not for the casual shooter IMO. That said it should not have left the builder if it did not function. I thought WLA runs 50 rounds though them when they test them, which makes me believe perhaps the pressure plate got bent or it needs the belts lubed.

As for me, I looove my WLA M53 . Its run pretty darn good for me so far since 2007 going through thousands of rounds, yeah I’ve had a few hiccups, but for this type of gun I can’t complain, especially for the 2k price. Runs Romy 8mm like a champ, not to mention after I got the .308 conversion parts from RTG it runs SA .308 just as well. I can’t speak for others, only my own first hand experience.

[bmwr12]

I have used both of them and own a early Wiselite. The first semi 42 I used was a BRP. It was not mine and I remember the few times I used it, the thing would never work right.It would shoot maybe 3 or 4 live/blanks rounds and jam. The last time we ever used it we had it mounted on the rear of a halftrack and when I popped the top cover to clear a jam the whole feed tray internals came apart. The gun was later returned to BRP.

My Wiselite was aquired when they first came out. I had a few issues when I got the bolt back from a safety recall in which the buffer extension was missing from the package. After this was resolved the Gun has worked just about flawlessly through at least 3000 live/blank rounds. I have also shot 2 others in my reenactment group and they all work better then the BRP I used.

The other thing is that these guns are usually made from well used and mismatched parts. Yes the parts should interchange but this is not always the case. All in all I think if you use the gun for the same purposes I would rather pay $2k-2.5K then $6k for a BRP.

[Bil]

I have also shot two others in my re-enactment group

You guys must be one of the more realistic groups! ---bil

[12thWaffenSS]

I have also shot two others in my re-enactment group

You guys must be one of the more realistic groups! ---bil

Now hold on a minute. They may be re-enacting post-war Yugoslavian troops. You never know. Heck, I even know a guy considering putting together a post-war East German border guard impression.

[blackreichswehr]

what i found out from the owner. he called WLA with issuses of the 53. she(WLA) asked him, a series of questions--1 does it pogo, 2is the bolt going all the way forward, 3 does it eject, 4 is the back end of the firing pin mushroomed, with that he was told to call back tommorrow.yesterday he called back, as they were busy he left his ph. # and told he would be contacted, he was'nt. now i feel justified telling what i observed, right off the bat i noticed the barrel door was bulged outward, so much that the barrel stop made no contact with the barrel. it took many slaps with the hand to get it closed. the rachet plate is bulged outward midway,causing a bind, plus it will not remain in the grooves and falls out over the bumps. the hook will not engage the forward end of the rachet plate. WLA told him the bulge was caused from bolt bounce( i saw his kit and it had no such bulge)plus they don't use the kit you send in otherwise it would take 4 wks. to built,???. in response to the charging handle issuses , it was simply explained away that the hook does'nt need to engage.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

obviously not.But lets try before we wake up DI again.Supreme mod-awesome powers,evil eye! He even scares me! ---bil

HAH! Fear ME, Bil.



I Seee YOOOOUUUUuuuuu !

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I have also shot two others in my re-enactment group

You guys must be one of the more realistic groups! ---bil

Now hold on a minute. They may be re-enacting post-war Yugoslavian troops. You never know. Heck, I even know a guy considering putting together a post-war East German border guard impression.

How about we form an East German Stasi Border Guard reenactment group and have all our events on the Mexican border? We can make it SUPER realistic and use live ammo.

[bmwr12]

I have also shot two others in my re-enactment group

You guys must be one of the more realistic groups! ---bil

Now hold on a minute. They may be re-enacting post-war Yugoslavian troops. You never know. Heck, I even know a guy considering putting together a post-war East German border guard impression.

LOL. I even added the spider sight base and WW2 stock and top cover.

[blackreichswehr]

a reenactment of the israeli hit sqauds, killing the PLO olympic terrorist one by one-- now that would be cool, i love a hot barreled uzi.

[713houstonpi]

i bought a wiselite m53 and it ran like a clock right out of the box. ive fired about 600 rounds of yugo and romy 8mm and it ran fine with the acception of the occassonal hiccup from firing 50 year old ammo.
i mounted it on a mg3 tripod and she was really barking.
overall i was impressed with the quality and workmanship of the entire package.
i think most problems associated with beltfed weapons stem from lack of knowledge on the part of the user.
beltfed weapons need to be lubricated, loaded ,operated, and maintained properly.
a few things to look at on the m53:
1: check the booster size. they range from 10mm to 12mm, and it could have any of them in it when it arrives. a booster to small causes harsh recoil and can damage componants of the weapon. a booster to large will cause failure to feed or eject due to short recoil. differant ammo types require different booster sizes to funtion properly. you have to tune the weapon to your ammo type and stick with that booster.
2: these weapons require good lubrication. the german manuel stresses this.
3: support the belt when firing. many causes of a failure to feed is the weight of a freshly loaded 50 belt cant be pulled by the belt pawl if the belt is left hanging. all the ww2 footage of the mg42 firing shows a gunners assisant holding the belt as the weapon fires. this is why. the pawl can usually pull a belt of about 25 rounds up by itself.
4: clean the weapon immediately after shooting. surplus 8mm is corrosive.
the point is, before we give wiselite a black eye for quality control, lets make sure you know how this weapon works and how to operate and maintain the properly. im no expert but i spent a lot of time leaning all these things and i love my m53.

[DoctorCheney223]

Hi Folks,

I haven't posted here in AGES so......

I have sold approximately 12-15 of the WiseLite Arms M53's from Century and so far there has only been two issues. Both issues were resolved without having to contact WLA customer service.

The first issue was failure to fire. The customer picked up the M53 and brought it back the same afternoon. I looked over the weapon and didnt' see anything out of the ordinary and took it in the back of the shop. I asked him if he disassembled the weapon or anything other than oil it because it was soaked. He stated that he he ONLY lubed it with CLP and that was it. I removed the stock, recoil spring and bolt group and tried to figure out was the problem was. After looking at the bolt, I noticed that it was upside down. I put the bolt group back in and I told him to take it back out for another run. It ran perfectly and he has been happy since. I don't know if the customer removed the carrier group or if it was inserted upside down but regardless, the customer has been happy ever since.

The second issue we had was a customer in California that purchased one from us. I should mention that we modify the M53's with our own in-house method to keep the legal in California so there are no issues with legality. The customer stated that he couldn't close the barrel gate completely and wanted to send it back. It's not cheap to ship one of these so having been through this issue before, I told him to give the barrel a light tap. Sure enough, the barrel was able to move the recuperator, seat correctly and the barrel gate locked in place. We haven't heard from the customer since so I can assume that firing it has help the rifle "break in" and loosen up the recuperator a bit.

thanks,
Ron

[www.Prussia.us]

You guys must be one of the more realistic groups! ---bil

Now hold on a minute. They may be re-enacting post-war Yugoslavian troops. You never know. Heck, I even know a guy considering putting together a post-war East German border guard impression.

How about we form an East German Stasi Border Guard reenactment group and have all our events on the Mexican border? We can make it SUPER realistic and use live ammo.

DA, now that is classic

Does anyone here have pictures of the DDR using Mg42's?

[blackreichswehr]

to follow up, my friend got his M53 back from WLA. They fixed the barrel door, fixed the bolt head problem. We fired it Sat., ran 350 rds. of yugo ammo, one misfire-- ran 250 rounds romanian, fired all. good grouping @ 500 yds. on 55 gal. barrels.only one problem, some new belts he got from RTG-- would not feed, all five are junk, he was informed by RTG they would work in the M53, they don't . WLA did a good job on customer service.

[Bil]

Are the belts marked in any way? Are they too loose,too tight,or what? I am sure RTG would make good on them,just wondering how all five won't feed. ---bil

[CRUSADER]

to follow up, my friend got his M53 back from WLA. They fixed the barrel door, fixed the bolt head problem. We fired it Sat., ran 350 rds. of yugo ammo, one misfire-- ran 250 rounds romanian, fired all. good grouping @ 500 yds. on 55 gal. barrels.only one problem, some new belts he got from RTG-- would not feed, all five are junk, he was informed by RTG they would work in the M53, they don't . WLA did a good job on customer service.

I'll second Bil's request!

Please get us as much detail as you can about these non-functioning belts.

[blackreichswehr]

i'll get one of them from him and look closer, did'nt have time yesterday to mess with them but, they would not advance. will let you know my observations.