What condition did YOUR Marstar M14 arrive in?

Marstar m14

Mine came in today, awesome piece of kit. Reminds me of a C1A1 gone sideways. Sights work good. Bbl is a few deg under. stock looks good, and the trigger creeps to about 5# Can't wait to shoot it. Thanks Marstar:sniper:
 
Mine showed up on Monday.....

Not too much cosmoline....easy to clean off.

Machining looks really good, better than many I've seen.

Gas system is nice and tight. Piston is centered in it's bore.

The bolt seems to fit well...will know better when headspacing is checked.

Op rod guide is loose, but that's an easy fix.

Rear sight was loose and gritty, but drilled center....took it apart, cleaned it up, and lubed it with LSA.....works fine now.

Stock seems pretty darn good.

Barrel index......hard to tell right now because the front sight where it mounts to the flash hider is MESSED UP!!....check out the pic......did anyone else get one like this?

Cheers,
Greg

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No, but one of the ears on the front sight is twisted. None of this really disappoints me because overall its such a bargain. I may well replace the front sight anyhow, or swipe the one off my scoped rifle.
 
BongoBob said:
Mine showed up on Monday.....

Not too much cosmoline....easy to clean off.

Machining looks really good, better than many I've seen.

Gas system is nice and tight. Piston is centered in it's bore.

The bolt seems to fit well...will know better when headspacing is checked.

Op rod guide is loose, but that's an easy fix.

Rear sight was loose and gritty, but drilled center....took it apart, cleaned it up, and lubed it with LSA.....works fine now.

Stock seems pretty darn good.

Barrel index......hard to tell right now because the front sight where it mounts to the flash hider is MESSED UP!!....check out the pic......did anyone else get one like this?

Cheers,
Greg

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Mine is exactly the same ! I was ditching that part anyway...
 
Condition of M14S - reassurance for newbie owners ?

Mine arrived last Thursday and my situation was that, after ordering, I'd read some negative stuff on CGN and some horror stories on US websites about these particular firearms. Now I ain't no amatuer gunsmith or anything like that so it was with some trepidation that I went to the PO to pick it up. In fact, I was thinking - " well maybe I won't even unpack it, I'll just sell it for what I paid for it " Anyway, I took it home and here is what I did and my impressions:

I started to unpack the rifle at about 5.30 pm and noticed that the rifle was unusually well packaged up - and the rifle, magazines and sling were all seperately packaged in sealed, thick plastic bags. Opening the bag containing the rifle I observed that it was uniformly coated in grease (cosmoline) so I wiped it down to facilitate handling and then set it aside. I had a quick look at the manual - kudos to Marstar for preparing this - which was well written and quite clear ( quite frankly better than you will get from a big US manufacturer ) and then started to stip the rifle down. If you own a Ruger Mini 14 ( which I do ) you will readily appreciate the similarities and stripping is a cinch but, even if you are unfamiliar with this type of firearm, you can simply follow along the Marstar manual and you won't have any problem - just take your time and don't rush yourself.

My other half was out of town so I stripped my M14s at the kitchen table and when finished I filled a sink with very hot water and used a sponge and lots of green dishwashing liquid to get all the cosmo off the wood and I put all the metal bits in the dishwasher to do the same. By 6.30 job was done and it was time to eat. One pizza later I put the rifle back together, made super sure the bore was clean and did lubing and oiling where necessary.

Things I noticed that were not perfect:

Wood was rough in places so I sanded some areas down just a shade ( no biggie at all )

Rear sight - gritty ( will need to remove and check this out )

Barrell indexing - off centre a wee bit ( upcomming clinic can help on this issue )

Headspacing - looked ok ( no tools available for precise check )

The following day I took it to the range and used Federal 150 gr .308 and it worked perfectly ( I don't subscribe to the " you must use mil spec 7.62 or your #### will fall off " school of thought ).

So, the take away message : this is a very inexpensive piece of kit. If you have some basic ability to strip down and clean a firearm and put it back together you should be OK. If you are worried then take it to a gunsmith for detailed checking. Buy Hungry's DVD for more info and if there is a clinic in your area consider signing up ( I have ). Most importantly, remember that this rifle represents excellent value for money and it is a mistake to compare it to new hunting, tactical or precision rifles costing much much more. I also took delivery of a Rem 700 Milspec and could post a comparative review that would make the M14s look like crap but that just isn't fair to do. I'm happy I bought mine and I'm sure the majority of people will be of the same view.
 
Evaluation of NEW MARSTAR M-14S RIFLES – based on several that have recently showed up at The Wet Coast M-14 seminars.

The NEW batch [ NOV 2007 ] of NORC 14s from MARSTAR look VERY nice. Parkerising can vary considerably in color/texture, and MARSTAR’S new batch have a very attractive fine GREY finish, which looks almost like Grey Teflon. Nice fit and finish to the metal for sure, with the finish looking uniform over all the metal. Most of them also had very decent stocks, of fairly hard wood, with some nice color. Finish quality for metal and wood was significantly above most of the older batches.

Headspace on all of these was significantly tighter than the last time we checked a mixed batch of the older of 14s, which were of various ages, from various suppliers. Using the proper US GI 7.62 NATO GO GAGE, headspace with the NEW batch ranged from .004" to .009" OVER 7.62 NATO GO. This is approximately equivalent to what you would find in a batch of used genuine US GI M-14 rifles.

Bolt fit was significantly better ... no glaringly obvious problems with the notorious LEFT lug engagement, although several of the brand new rifles could benefit from a wee bit of bolt lapping [ or just shoot the darn things ]. We also checked firing pin protrusion, and bolt to receiver timing, which is not very well understood by most 14 shooter up here in Canada. This is NOT rocket science, but neither is it intuitive. Every rifle had good safe bolt/firing pin/receiver timing, however one BRAND NEW receiver did show signs of a bit of polishing on the receiver camming surface.

All rifles passed the trigger mechanism safety test [ with trigger back, let op rod slam forward to see if hammer follows ]. Most had decent, if not good trigger weight, with the usual creep and grittiness. ONE hammer did have one of the hooks seriously deformed, so that only one side of the hammer was actually engaging the sear for the final let off. This one would benefit from a GI Hammer swap for sure.

MOST of these rifles were indexed properly, or at least "close enough for Govt work". Two out of the twelve were way out of index, and would require reindexing to reduce the aggrevation of looking at a front sight that was off about 5 to 7 degrees. By the way, one of these was also the same new 14 that had the polished receiver firing pin camming surfaces, and also the hammer with the bad hook. I guess even the Chinese have Mondays ...

MOST of the 14s had nice tight gas assemblies. Only one had rotational slop, which was easily fixed by proper application of a spring actuated center punch to peen a bit at the back of the splines on the barrel. Several had LOTS of longditudinal slop, and even though there was a shim kit available, we made do by peening the barrel at the lug behind the hand guard.

In a couple of cases, we removed the WELDED flashiders and flipped the gas ring over. In case you didn't know this, the gas ring will ususally index differently depending which side you put to the inside. In both these cases, we went from VERRRY sloppy gas assembly fit, to perfectly tight, with no more than flipping the gas ring. As several of the peanut gallery commented, “You’d think they would try the gas ring both ways to see which way fit better …” but obviously they do not.

All in all, these rifles are still the best military rilfe bang for the buck, that there is currently available on the Canadian firearms market.
 
As Laz has stated , this last batch we had the opportunity to inspect were pretty nice. The one receiver that Laz mentions had polishing in the bolt camming area was NOT a new 2007 date stamp marstar rifle. Not sure if that was general knowledge at the meeting. That rifle also had to be re indexed and once the barrel was turned to index.... the oprod was binding on the receiver... little lapping compound in the right spot and she will be a nice tight rifle.

Over all, through several west coast support group meetings, we have been able to get hands on with a good number of the latest marstar product. My review is that the rifles in general are as good as they come, an improvement over past shipments, and other than the flashider assemblies, we should all be giddy at the fact that these fine rifles come to us for 399.00 ish. :dancingbanana:
I know, I've posted this pic elsewhere on the site but i can't help myself. You can see the fine grey finish on the marstar rifles in the center of the pic.
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when's the next boat docking?....... they did say another boat was coming ..... right? :runaway: :runaway:
 
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M14

Just bought one through CRAFM here in Montreal. They had bought four wich they had went directly to Marstar in order to get them. This one was in perfectly mint condition and working just great.
 
I think next time.... everyone should bring sunglasses... we need a B.C. flag, and we should take a group photo with us all cradlin our toys :D
 
My Norc experience so far...

My first Nork was fine it's barrel indexing, stock, gas cylinder index etc. fine except for the chamber dimensions. Fired brass was oversized and when trying to reform it in a FL die it would begin to have a LOT of resistance with the brass only half way into the die. It could be reformed but there was something seriously wrong. I borrowed some Cerrosafe from my gunnut buddy and cast the chamber and found it oversided above the maximum 7.62 dimensions. IVI surplus ammo when loaded into the chamber could be rattled in the chamber of the rifle with a fingertip. This rifle also shot groups about 7-9". I returned it to Marstar who replaced it under their No-hassel warranty. Kudos to Marstar for a quick and easy exchange.
Norc # 2 had a soft wood stock, a loose op rod guide and a very noticable under indexed barrel. It now has a GI fiberglass stock, I tightened the op rod guide, replaced the op rod spring with USGI, replaced the flash-hider with a new USGI one, lapped in a new TRW bolt, shimmed the gas cylinder and mounted a scope. It still only shoots only 3" groups both before and after all mods so I will be ordering a new Krieger barrel. I have mostly shot only my precious IVI surplus in this rifle with a little load development but love shooting this one freehand. My freehand groups run 5-6" which considering it only shoots 3" off the bench makes me feel great. When I get this one finally done I may buy another if the disposable income is flowing but my gun buying luck isn't running too good. ''If I fell into a tub full of t*ts I would come up sucking my thumb"
270 totheend
 
Mine seems ok. 150 rnds through so far. Just mounted a scope today. Accuracy not great, (3" group @ 100 yds). Not sure if scope or mount or both to blame. Also had some gusty wind today as well.

Had problems getting any sort of accuracy with the iron sites.

The 20 rnd mag won't feed properly. It jumps out of position after first shot. Comes unhooked @ rear. If the mag is held back with fore hand, then it will cycle. The short 5 rnd mags seem ok, except they are real hard to remove from the gun. You have to push from the top, while pulling from the bottom. Top feeding is possible, but complicated with the scope mount.

Still needs some more tweaking. Fun gun to shoot. Want to get a sythetic or composite stock. Will check out the exchange here.
 
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