POF Reliability

[TF160 Guy]

I have seen several posts asking or questioning the reliability of POF Rifles. Over the past 10 days I shot my POF 415 for 8 days in 2 different scenarios - 5 days known distance, timed fired from 25 to 450 yards using a sling (TIS w/cuff) in standing, sitting, kneeling and prone and 3 days close quarters using a Magpul MP3 sling. The rifle was cleaned prior to the events with a light coat of oil on the moving parts any grease on the bolt lugs. I intentionally did not clean or perform and preventative maintenance on the rifle once I started shooting. I did wipe the water off of the EOTECH glass in order to see the target.

The weather ranged from sunny to rain, temp 60 to 95 degrees, and altitude for 352 to 2970 feet.

I used Fiocchi 62 gr BTPH ammunition in Magpul 20 and 30 round magazines.

I fired a total of 1267 rounds.

Absolutely no problems. No even a whimper of something about to go wrong. I'm convinced I could put this rifle away dirty and at a later date go shoot another 1200 rounds without a problem. The courses were rigorous enough that several other shooters had a range of problems - failure to feed or extract, double feeds, misfires, etc. Some were repeated enough to distract from the event.

Bottom Line: POF is good to go. I would also strongly recommend: MAGPUL magazines and sling, TIS sling, EOTECH, and Fiocchi ammunition.

 

[trisurvivor]

Re: POF Reliability

+1

Preaching to the choir!

 

[RyeDaddy]

Re: POF Reliability

+2

I've got a P-308 with over 2k rounds through it now that has been cleaned 5 times total, zero malfunctions so far.

 

[jonthomps]

Re: POF Reliability

+3! My P-308 was bulletproof . . .

 

[VKC]

Re: POF Reliability

POF's rifle design is awesome. Their piston system undoubtedly runs cleaner than a DI. The nickel Teflon plated bolt carriers are great as carbon just does not seem to cake in them. NP3 plating or coating on their various parts is awesome. Their piston dis/reassembly is intuitive. Billet machined parts, etc..etc...

However, the problem is with quality control. Do a search on Hogan Rifles and their lawsuit with POF over patent issues, etc. I'm not even going to comment about who is right or wrong, etc...and that is none of my business, but rather for the lawyers to figure out.

The problem with their lawsuits is that means that POF has been using different machine shops to manufacture their rifles. Anytime you use different or multiple shops, problems can occur with quality control. In other words, get a good batch and the design shines and works great. Get a bad one, and you are in trouble.

I got a limited run POF 6.5 Creedmoor from them, and it was nothing but trouble. Look at the date of my thread from 2010, I finally just got it running last week.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2250848

I sent it back twice and it still malfunctioned. I got tired of that, and just asked them to swap it out for a 308win upper. They told me that they would send me a completely new upper, but when I examined that was not what they did. They just swapped out the barrel only, but kept the prior bolt assembly, rail and everything else. Guess what, it still malfunctioned. I swapped out buffers, springs, used different factory ammo, loaded different ammo, etc..etc...still problems.

To their credit, they did try to help with the problems with their rifle and even paid for shipping, but really it should have worked from the beginning.

I finally found a small bur on the bolt lugs that was almost impossible to see, but caused enough friction to make the bolt to not engage or disengage properly and to throw off the timing. I had to fix it myself since I sent my rifle back to POF at least 3 times without them fixing the problem. Nor did they send me a completely new upper as promised or it would have fixed the problem. Finally after almost 2 years, lots of wasted time and ammo and money, unquantifiable frustration, etc...etc...it is working.

How would you feel about POF after that? Wonderful customer service to try to help with problems, but really they never fixed my rifle and I had to use their customer service too much. They did not get the problem fixed for me, rather I had to figure out what was wrong and fix it myself. Plus, The best customer service is one that you don't have to use.

 

[samnev]

Re: POF Reliability

My Buddy had similar problems to the previous poster with one of their 308's. Had to send it back 2X still a problem. Luckily he works in the Phoenix area and brought the rifle in himself. They treated him well and finally got it running. He sold it shortly ther after. On the other hand my POF 415 has been flawless.