M14 Bolt (dis)assembly Horror stories - Post YOURS here!

Hungry

Hungry

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Most of you know that I'm living in a rental house before my new dream home in our subdivision is being constructed. :rolleyes: While packing up the shop tools in boxes and then disassebling the workbench and vise and reloading press(es), I found some M14 bolt parts !

YES ! SCORE ! :runaway: I found an extractor plunger, and an ejector from a failed M14 bolt re-assembly project years ago !! :eek:

Always keep spare bolt parts should one ever need to strip your bolt apart. Cleaning ? Just use aerosol brake cleaner, Gunk Out, Outboard Engine degreaser and BLAST the firing pin hole. Shake the bolt a few times or use some Kompressed air through the firing pin hole. Good to go ! :evil:

Yes, I have spare bolt parts and NO I don't own an M14 (yet), but buy some spares from Numrich or someplace reliable and keep the amount below $ 100.

Horror story on the firing line !

Back in 1994 when I was a member of the ORA shooting a 300 yard deliberate match, I was completing the last few scoring rounds for my string of 2 sighters and 10 on score when I dropped a new cartridge into the mag feed lips, let the nose of the Sierra 150gr MK just come up on the feed ramps, and then yanked back on the op rod to chamber that round.

For some silly reason, the nose of the cartridge fed into the chamber upwards, but as the body of the round leveled off into the chamber, the base of the round actually LIFTED the extractor out of it's position and the bolt parts dumped into the grass. I made safe and called the FPO to clear my M14 off the line. :( I realized that I had several minutes until the relay would have it's prep time to get ready for match 6, the 300yd Snap match, so I reached into my rucksack and fished out my "Oh Shzt Kit'. Those of you who have attended my M14 Clinic(s) know this "Oh Shzt Kit". Inside I had a ziploc'ed baggie with a spare extractor, ejector spring and plunger, firing pin,extractor spring and plunger.

As I scanned the firing line on the mound and the rucksacks on the ground behind the mound, I knew that I had to work fast to locate a hard object shaped to push in the hard M14 ejector spring and plunger while I dropped the aligned extractor and extractor spring and plunger into place. I found it.... along side the red/green flag stand was the Firing Point Officer's vehicle. It had a 2" receiver and hitch in place. I located a corner on this hitch and tested it to see if this corner would gently hold the ejector spring and plunger in place while the base of my left hand pushed on the rear of the bolt allowing my right thumb to 'shove' that lined up extractor in place.

FIRST Try !! :D SCORE !

I reassembled in M14 in time to approach the line and I had sacrificed my 2 minute prep time. I had to go straight into the sighters without stuffing my mags, adjusting my iron sights and examining the wind. Everything works out.... :evil:

Like my goaltending: it's better to be lucky than GOOD !

Peace be to journey !

Time for your horror stories (past and present) around the lovely Norinco M14 bolt !! :50cal:
 
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I just stripped a GENUINE M-14 bolt to lap it into one of my Norcs. After lapping, I used the combo tool to reassemble ... with absolutely NO problems.

The genuine GI bolts seem to have a shorter ejector spring, which makes all tghe difference.

Oh yeah, I have three hands, so it was easy!!!
[;{)
LAZ 1
 
I'm not taking any apart until I have that jig in my hands. And some spare parts, and safety glasses on..... Are Wolfe or Brownells springs any good? They have main, hammer and ejector springs, some or all marked as "heavy duty". Is "heavy duty" a good thing?
 
No horror story--just a pain in the ass--I learned long ago to do the assembly inside a plastic bag. Next time I have one of the norc's apart I am going to cut down the ejector spring some.

44Bore
 
Grizzlypeg said:
I'm not taking any apart until I have that jig in my hands. And some spare parts, and safety glasses on..... Are Wolfe or Brownells springs any good? They have main, hammer and ejector springs, some or all marked as "heavy duty". Is "heavy duty" a good thing?
Click to expand...

X2 on that question. When I was brand new to the M14 and feverish with newfound lust, I bought a full set of Wolff springs from Brownells. The main op spring was a cinch, Hungry was kind enough to help me reassmeble my trigger group when I replaced the hammer spring at the Calgary clinic, but the two bolt springs remain in their plastic baggie, mocking me for spending money on them.

"Ha ha", they say, every time I open my M14 junk box, "You spent money you didn't need to, you cheap bastage." How I hate those dirty little springs.

I can always save them as spares, and as the ones that came with the rifle seem to be functioning adequately, and I don't want to enter into the horrorshow that is M14 bolt reassembly needlessly, I'm inclined to leave everything as is. But if there's an advantage to the Wolff springs, I'd like to hear about it.

Maybe the ejector spring is a teeny bit shorter than the Norinco spring, so the main advantage is ease of reassembly?

Dan
 
Lazerus2000 said:
I just stripped a GENUINE M-14 bolt to lap it into one of my Norcs. After lapping, I used the combo tool to reassemble ... with absolutely NO problems.

The genuine GI bolts seem to have a shorter ejector spring, which makes all tghe difference.

Oh yeah, I have three hands, so it was easy!!!
[;{)
LAZ 1
Click to expand...

I disassembled M14s bolt, or should I say I put it in the disassembly tool
and pressed hard against the workbench and the extractor flew about 1ft
from my right eye. I'm ok. I think whoever wants to disassemble M14s bolt
should treat it as a firearm. A flying extractor could do some damage!!!

I got all the parts. Question for you, how do I put it back?
just press the extractor back? Was it hard to put it back?
 
Put it back the expensive way (buy a bolt tool from Ebay, about $ 70 landed) or do this:

1) insert firing pin, ejector plunger and spring, extractor about half way down along with extractor spring and plunger (all loosely assembled ready for final push)

2) Chuck up a 1/4" bolt/screw in the vise so that you can push the ejector forward (compressed) against this bolt (3/16" diam will work also)

3) hand you son, daughter, wife, partner, lover, buddy the plastic hammer and tell them, "Stand by to tap the top of the extractor into place!"

4) In one smooth motion, YOU push the rear of the bolt while the ejector spring and plunger are compressed by that 'bolt' or 'screw' in the vise. Once the screw/bolt is flush with the bolt face (danger of flying parts NOW :eek: )

5) Tell your partner or your 3rd hand to TAP the top of the extractor DOWN until it's flush with the top of the bolt. IIRC, the USGI bolts were down lower than the top surface of the bolt by about 15 thousandths of an inch.

Hope this helps... wear safety glasses.

If you are in trouble, mail the disassembled bolt to me.... I have da tool to fix dis problem, man! :D
 
A 30'06 case makes assembly/disassembly a piece of cake. I even use the same method with the Garand, except I slip a 9mm case over the mouth of the '06 case.
 
Hungry said:
Put it back the expensive way (buy a bolt tool from Ebay, about $ 70 landed) or do this:

1) insert firing pin, ejector plunger and spring, extractor about half way down along with extractor spring and plunger (all loosely assembled ready for final push)

2) Chuck up a 1/4" bolt/screw in the vise so that you can push the ejector forward (compressed) against this bolt (3/16" diam will work also)

3) hand you son, daughter, wife, partner, lover, buddy the plastic hammer and tell them, "Stand by to tap the top of the extractor into place!"

4) In one smooth motion, YOU push the rear of the bolt while the ejector spring and plunger are compressed by that 'bolt' or 'screw' in the vise. Once the screw/bolt is flush with the bolt face (danger of flying parts NOW :eek: )

5) Tell your partner or your 3rd hand to TAP the top of the extractor DOWN until it's flush with the top of the bolt. IIRC, the USGI bolts were down lower than the top surface of the bolt by about 15 thousandths of an inch.

Hope this helps... wear safety glasses.

If you are in trouble, mail the disassembled bolt to me.... I have da tool to fix dis problem, man! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks Hungry,

I got it to work. I did not use 1/4" screw in the vise, the extractor came in
without too much trouble. Just a little push and alignment of the extractor
spring did the trick.

So the M14s manual is probably wrong, you can disassembly/put it back Chinese bolts without too much trouble:)
You just have to have the right tool. I used the one made by "STROBEL", got it on e-bay.

I would not recommend for anyone to try to disassembly Chinese bolts
without that tool.

You just have to watch for that extractor when you disassemble.
Always point the extractor in the safe direction.

Putting the extractor back was easier than getting it out.

Here is the tool I used:

http://cgi.ebay.com/M1-Garand-M1A-M...ryZ73962QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
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Hitzy said:
A 30'06 case makes assembly/disassembly a piece of cake. I even use the same method with the Garand, except I slip a 9mm case over the mouth of the '06 case.
Click to expand...

I've used this method with my Norc M-14 as well, and I've had no problems to speak of.
 
Hungry, don't you use that home made tool that I gave you a few years back. I thought you would have used it during you clinic?? The one I made for my M1 bolts works like a dream to put them back to gether, and it 's just made of wood (but you need the disasseble tool as well).

Hungry here: The wood split and that was the end of that ! Yes, it split on a Norinco bolt, ooops. No sweat. Got a STROBEL bolt tool to bring to the M14 clinics. :eek:
 
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Excellent accessory

af_newbie said:
Thanks Hungry,

I got it to work. I did not use 1/4" screw in the vise, the extractor came in
without too much trouble. Just a little push and alignment of the extractor
spring did the trick.

So the M14s manual is probably wrong, you can disassembly/put it back Chinese bolts without too much trouble:)
You just have to have the right tool. I used the one made by "STROBEL", got it on e-bay.

I would not recommend for anyone to try to disassembly Chinese bolts
without that tool.

You just have to watch for that extractor when you disassemble.
Always point the extractor in the safe direction.

Putting the extractor back was easier than getting it out.

Here is the tool I used:

http://cgi.ebay.com/M1-Garand-M1A-M...ryZ73962QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Click to expand...

I use the same piece of kit, makes dissasembly so easy. Just need to be careful with the extractor removal, when I took it out the damn thing flew away bounced on a wall 3m behind me and landed right next to my feets...
:eek:
To put it back, only the extractor plunger is the "hard" part to put back in.

It may cost 50$, but at least the few times that i'll take the bolt down I won't be swearing for an hour...:cool:
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Maybe the ejector spring is a teeny bit shorter than the Norinco spring, so the main advantage is ease of reassembly?

Dan
Click to expand...

I think they made the Norinco ejector spring a bit too long by accident. With a slightly shorter spring, the brass will gently eject from your rifle in a nice little pile about two feet away. It also doesn't get hung up as easily in between your scope mount and receiver - if you choose to scope your rifle.
 
Got my Strobel bolt disassembly jig in the mail today. Fooled around with it for a while, wasn't sure how far to depress the ejector plunger, or how hard to push on the extractor. Finally got brave and gave the extractor shaft a tap with a hammer, and it popped out. Cleaned the internals of the bolt, removed some brass shavings from the firing pin shaft and put it back together without any event. Just a light tap on the top of the extractor to get it back together.

Great tool, no need to call for assistance or risk small parts flying about. Glad 45ACPKING brought it to my attention. Necessary, obviously not as its been done the hard way for probably 50 years, but this sure makes it easy.
 
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