Obscure m14 rifles: TRW, old Norinco

KotKotofeich

KotKotofeich

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Since this is the forum where all the m14 lovers used to hang out...

These three rifles are visiting on my bench for a little bit...

As you can see the first two are TRW receivers...

I'm curious about the history of M14 with TRW made receivers - how did they come into Canada originally? Anything I should be checking on them internally that would be interesting?

The last is a strange Norinco - most likely an early import... Again, any history on these?

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The US gave numbers of M14 rifles to many countries as military aid. Israel and the Baltic nations come immediately to mind. Many did not want them, so they sold them to international arms dealers to get money to buy other guns. Companies like Century Arms bought them, cut them into parts kits for sale to the USA, or converted them to semi-auto only for sale to Canada, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand.
 
KotKotofeich said:
I'm curious about the history of M14 with TRW made receivers - how did they come into Canada originally? Anything I should be checking on them internally that would be interesting?
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ALL the M14's or maybe most of the M14's came into Canada from Isreal. They were lend-lease guns brought from Isreal to Canada by Alan Lever in the 80's.

I had a TRW back in the day. It was a good rifle and shot very well for an M14. The TRW are the same as any other original M14.

One thing I notice thats interesting is the middle rifle has the deactivated selector switch removed, which means that a live selector switch could easily be installed. The same rifle is missing the transfer bar though.

One thing most people don't know is that early Chinese M14's came into the country with the FA disconnector intact. The Chinese bought the machinery, tooling and drawings off the Americans and they just built what the drawings said, without understanding the trigger disconnector.
 
The M14 requires three different parts to fire FA. The disconnector, the switch and the transfer bar. The switch is probably the most difficult piece to find in Canada. They are pretty rare here.
 
The Chinese guns that came to Canada were reversed engineered by norinco and polytech
Taiwan purchased the m14 machinery from the Americans and made their own m14 rifle’s to go along with the US military assistance guns they didn’t export any
Some M14 military guns also came from the UK
There weren’t that many guns sold by Israel because the window of opportunity was closed by the Americans I would guess maybe 1500 into Canada
Lever did 1000
 
I Dont Care About You said:
ALL the M14's or maybe most of the M14's came into Canada from Isreal. They were lend-lease guns brought from Isreal to Canada by Alan Lever in the 80's.

I had a TRW back in the day. It was a good rifle and shot very well for an M14. The TRW are the same as any other original M14.

One thing I notice thats interesting is the middle rifle has the deactivated selector switch removed, which means that a live selector switch could easily be installed. The same rifle is missing the transfer bar though.

One thing most people don't know is that early Chinese M14's came into the country with the FA disconnector intact. The Chinese bought the machinery, tooling and drawings off the Americans and they just built what the drawings said, without understanding the trigger disconnector.
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Couldn’t have been all of them. There were 2 Canadian distributors in 2017-2019 selling what they claimed to be usgi surplus parts kits from disassembled rifles from Israel. Everything except the receiver. I saw them on a few us sites also but i think they were just a small parts kit without the barrel or bolt.

There have been tons of pictures online of m14s being used in Ukraine. No doubt, donated by some generous nato nation who was just looking to clear out old stock (possibly USA or Israel? Or one of the Baltic nations who got them from the us after the fall of the Soviet Union)

The first 2 in the picture look like original us rifles (Quantico Virginia) the last one is a very early norinco. They switched to stamping the side of the receiver in the mid 90’s after that they left the heel of the receiver completely blank.
 
I Dont Care About You said:
The Chinese bought the machinery, tooling and drawings off the Americans and they just built what the drawings said, without understanding the trigger disconnector.
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this is not correct.
as mentioned by others, china reverse engineered and built all thier own machinery and forges. BUT .... americans did go to china later and assist them in producing much better rifles than the early Polytechs. Ron Smith of Smith Enterprises was one of those folks and so was John , the original owner of Marstar.
It was Taiwan that purchased surplused american tooling and have long been sub contract parts makers for Springfield Armory and others.

It has also long been known that most if not all of the retail store bought M14 rifles that became prohibs, came thru Alan Lever via Israeli Surplus.
When those rifles were availlable prior to the prohb classification, Lever Arms under Alan Lever, had racks and racks of the M14 rifles from all the manufacturers. He even offered them in 4 rifle Family Packs, a TRW, a HRA, SA and Winchester

To the OP
the Norinco receiver is uncommon but I have seen them in the past. These would be custom engraving jobs done by specific importers on standard fare forged receivers. However.... there are also some very rare cast receivers with various markings including some sort of similar to the norinco shown here that were called Lunch Box Receivers. Stolen off the production line by employees at Springfield and then engraved in various forms. I believe I have seen one of these in Canada. I have seen several like the OPs picture. Just a novelty engraving and not a "special" import or build but still very cool nonetheless.
 
45ACPKING said:
It has also long been known that most if not all of the retail store bought M14 rifles that became prohibs, came thru Alan Lever.
When those rifles were availlable prior to the prohb classification, Lever Arms under Alan Lever, had racks and racks of the M14 rifles from all the manufacturers.
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I was told that Lever brought in around 4000 M14's from Israel. And that only about half of those got registered after they became prohibited.

My TRW for sure came from Lever.
 
SA85M1 said:
That Norinco appears to be an old Century Arms import....so that would be pre-1993 i think ?...
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most likely.^^
there were also some smaller private imports, details are thin but I remember at least one Canadian individual who claimed to have imported a number of receivers. Those receivers were also custom engraved but I have never actually seen one first hand.
In more recent times, Individuals have also sent receivers and components to Nick at Vulcan for custom engraving including custom heel engravings.
 
ya, Lee Emerson's writings on the subject of the M14 rifle are a must read for anyone seeking to truly know these rifles.
 
Allen Lever was a friend and my neighbour
He only imported 1000
500 in Vancouver and 500 were sent to Alberta for retail sales
 
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