First let me say that I am in no way affiliated with Windham Weaponry, this review is solely my perspective of the firearm!  
I first tried the 7.62x39 platform in the late 70's with a Colt H-Bar upper.  At the time Colt made a beautiful upper chambered for the 7.62 round, but as we all know the shortcomings of the rifle was the magazines.  I used the rifle for a while and finally tired of it only being a double banger utilizing .223 magazines and finally sold the upper.  So I guess you could say I waited 35 years or so for the magazines to catch up with the rifle for dependable operation.  I didn't give up wanting a reliable weapon in this caliber based on the AR platform.  Now, I know a lot of guys are going to question my knowledge of the AR platform so I will give a little bit of my background using the BLACK rifle.  I was of the Viet Nam generation.  I joined the U.S. Army during this conflict and was trained in the fine art of rifle skills at Ft. Lewis, Washington.  Since that time, I have been a police rifle firearms instructor and a avid proponent of the rifle for the last 45 years.  But by no means am I an armorer, gunsmith or professional weapons guru.  But, I do know a good rifle from a bad rifle, I believe I can determine weather quality parts and professional workmanship has gone into building the firearm or not.  This being said most of "us" who love to shoot this type weapon have the same skills when it comes to identifying quality!
I did a LOT of research in the last few months on the various offerings off 7.62x39 rifles being made today, and of the magazines that are purposely manufactured for this platform.  I had already bought a 5.56mm (.223) from Windham Weaponry and I noticed the firearm was an excellent rendition of the M16 I had trained with in the Army, except our M16's were 20" barrel rifles.  The fit and finish of the WW AR15 was in my mind outstanding for a civilian rifle.  I noticed the WW had a new carbine out in the SRC platform in 7.62x39.  WELL.......I thought what is this ?  A major manufacturer of AR15's jumping into this cesspool of 7.62 offerings and warrants the rifle for life,  surely this was not so, but it was so !!  Wasting no time I went to "Gunbroker" and started looking.  I found a few and finally bought one from Washburn Sports, located in Washburn, WI.  The good people there made  the transaction very smooth and I got the rifle in and immediately started my critique !  I immediately called Windham Weaponry and spoke with one of the gentlemen there and voiced my concern about the magazine which was sent with the rifle.  I also was concerned about shooting steel cased ammunition.  I had previously read the Limited WW Warranty and it stated that "shooting import ammunition" would void the warranty, this CONCERNED me!  This is a quote,"we test fire Tulammo in the rifles prior to shipping" so I asked the direct question about the Warranty and was told that shooting steel cased ammo in the weapon would NOT void the Warranty !  Next was the magazine, I really had my doubts as to the reliable functioning of the mag being sent with the rifle!  I was told that if I had problems with the magazine, to give them a call and the magazine would be replaced if defective or failed to perform correctly!  Hey you can't beat that.  I did a lot of reading on the magazines for this rifle and the consensus was the CPD (C-Products) magazines worked without a hitch and was GTG.  WE WILL SEE !  Now the magazine that came with the rifle was a D&H Tactical 30 rd. mag.  This company is located in Oconomowoc, WI. I was not familiar with their magazines, but I had a open mind.  I did buy some CPD 28 round mags to back up the mag sent with the rifle.
Now let's take a look at the rifle itself.  Upon initial inspection I noticed the finish was very good, meaning the upper and lower finish matched very well.  The upper fit the lower very well and was fairly tight !  Removing the rear takedown pin proved difficult, but I soon found out a little later all it needed was a little oil and this would help.  Being an SRC there were no sights to comment on.  It has a commercial stock and buffer tube and the crown nut was not staked! It has the standard vertical pistol grip.  Now some will say this is not good, but actually it is good, meaning if I was inclined to change to a Mil-Spec buffer tube and stock I would not have to break the staking on the nut to do that.  The barrel is air gauged, chrome lined as well as the chamber.  Now for the bolt group!  I did notice that the bolt carrier was not finished out on the outside like the carrier on the .223.  The finish was much rougher on the outside but the finish inside the carrier was very good.  Also, on the outside of the bolt carrier "7.62x39" is stamped.  I think this is good so as not to get the BCG mixed up with a .223 BCG . Also the bolt carrier key is staked correctly !  The bolt itself did not have any marking as to being MPI etc. BUT what the bolt has is three distinct bands encircling the bolt to let you know it is a 7.62x39 bolt.   This is something the .223 does not have. And on a positive note, if the bolt ever failed (which is fairly common for 7.62 bolts) WW warranty would replace the bolt.   On inspection of the chamber and bore using a chamber and bore light, the finish of the chamber and bore were excellent.  You could tell WW had done this before!!!  The furniture carried the WW logo and the barrel has the WW logo and caliber and twist stamped on top of the barrel.  The barrel is  4150 chrome moly vanadium 11595E steel, head spaced and button rifled, with a right hand twist with 6 lands and grooves.  Both the upper and lower receivers are machined and forged 7075 T6 aircraft aluminum.
I will be honest and say that upon receiving the rifle, I completely went over the controls, buffer and spring, tested the safety and the fcg to make sure everything functioned correctly.  I could tell the rifle had been fired at the factory, so everything was cleaned prior to going to the range.  I did take the magazines apart and cleaned and inspected them for bent lips, cracks or burrs that would hinder functioning.  Now I will tell you that I always make it a habit of spraying a little dry lube on the upper inside of the mag just to help things out during operation.  It always seems to help with new mags. Time to test this rifle on the range!
For range testing I used three types of ammunition.  PMC commercial brass cased FMJ and PSP.  Chinese Norinco copper washed FMJ, and Russian 124 gr. HP lead core made in the "Ulyanovsk" plant.  This is their so called "Hunting Cartridge" ammo.  I use the D&H Tactical and the CPD magazines.  I topped the carbine off with a Vortex Spitfire 1x red dot scope.  Shooting was off the bench at 50 and 200 yards.
I sighted the Vortex in at 50 yards initially using the commercial PMC FMJ ammunition, then proceeded to shoot 50 yard groups using all three types of ammunition.  At 50 yds the PMC performed the worst, averaging about 2.5 inches, this was with both PSP and FMJ.  Also it seemed a little under powered.  Next I shot the Chinese 124 gr. copper washed fmj ammunition and the groups shrunk to 1.75 inches. Next was the Russian 124 gr HP ammo, and this ammo turned in a very respective 1.5" group with 15 rounds being fired of this ammunition.  I fired a total of 125 rounds at the 50 yard line, utilizing both the D&H Tactical Mag and the CPD mags.  There were no FTF or FTE during the firing at 50 yards.  Now I assumed that being sighted in at 50 yards I should be fairly close at 200 yards, so I went back to 200.
Firing first at the 200 yd line was the PMC ammunition.  This ammo hit 12 inches low of POA and was not a group but a scattering.  Not Good !  Next was the Chinese copper washed ammo.  Surprise!  This ammo shot to the POA, there was no drop whatsoever !!!!  It grouped at 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 in. at 200.  Personally I thought this was great considering a 1x scope and my 65 y/o eyes.  Next was the Russian 124 gr. HP.  This ammo shot to POA !  It grouped at 2.75  inches.  No drop from POA,  no adjustments were made to the scope and I will say the trigger on the WW SRC is not a match trigger!  I can't complain with this grouping!  In fact I was elated !  For me the Vortex 1x is the perfect scope for this 16" barreled carbine.  I still am amazed that there is no drop from 50 to 200 yds with this Russian Steel Cased ammo.  I will tell you though, you can tell the difference between the commercial PMC ammo powerwise compared to the Chinese and Russian ammo.  I fired another 100 rounds from the 200 yard line with no FTF or FTE.  The rifle ran without a hitch !!!  As far as the D&H Tactical 30 round mag goes.....it did not miss a lick, worked perfectly as did the CPD mags.
CONCLUSION:
In my estimation, Windham Weaponry has a winner here.  Firing 225 rounds I know is not a torture test, BUT it is an indication that WW did build the rifle correctly.  It tells me that the magazines marketed for the rifle do work as they should, and finally if you ever wanted a reliable rifle in this caliber and platform, Windham Weaponry has a rifle for you !  The rifle will eat commercial as well as steel cased ammunition with no problems, it is quality built and will make you proud to own it.  

Very nice review, thanks for taking the time.  I was impressed when  WW announces there x39 offering because like Yankee Hill , they Use a 1 in9.5  Twist . Rather than the 1 in 10 I have seen on some or the Faxon with the 1 in 8.

Wall of text and no pics.  I did read the conclusion.



Congrats on the new rifle, good to see it's performing well for you.

Sorry there are no pics, I can't seem to figure out how to post pics.  I have tried several times, posting pics on this website is difficult for me!

I just ordered one of these and am waiting for the call!  I put together a 7.62 AR a couple months ago with an Anderson complete lower and an AR-Stoner 7.62 X 39 upper and have been very happy with the results.  I had to source my own enhanced 7.62 X 39 firing pin from Black Rifle Arms but it sounds like this won't be a necessity with the Windham Weaponry SRC.

I am totally in love with the 7.62 AR (and the 5.56 AR).  Can't wait to get a feel for this rifle myself.  Factory reliability with a great warranty sounds perfect to me, too.

Sorry for the inaccurate info on the # of lands and grooves,  I got my info from the Operating and Safety Manual that was sent with the rifle.  It was most likely referring to the 5.56mm barrel and not the 7.62x39.
Thanks for the update!

Have had a WW 7.62 X 39 since the end of April.  Today spent a leisurely hour, sitting at the bench, firing on the 100 yard range.  Using an inexpensive Nikon 3-9 X 40 mm scope, firing Wolf steel 123 grain ammo.  I like the ten round mags while at the bench. C Products work well for me.  All of my shots fit inside a two inch circle I draw on the target so happy about that.  Been shooting a CZ 527 in X 39 since late June so the Windham had been neglected. The CZ has a set trigger which has spoiled me so I'll be doing an upgrade of some sort on the Windham.  Overall real happy with the gun, not at all embarrassed at the range when hanging with the big dogs with their hand loads and chronos!


pics:  I have an account with photobucket.  Simple to upload to them, then you can get a 'code' (URL) to paste into your post here.