I didn't expect to get this much of a response
. Thanks to everybody who has posted so far! After reading all of them my stance has changed quite a bit lol. I have eliminated, or am at least able to justify the following concerns:
1. Gremlin... Doesn't sound like that big a deal really, and if it DOES happen, $30 is quite cheap to permanently fix it.... especially considering I can ship JUST the carrier to Neit Arms or Rauch Tactical, and not the entire rifle.
2. Non-chrome lined bore... This doesn't seem nearly as bad as I anticipated or read. Some people on a few of the other forums were making it sound like if you didn't flush out the barrel within 0.001 milliseconds of the bullet leaving that it would rust severely. I think if Dave at Neit Arms can put 60,000+ rounds down his NCL barrel I should be fine.
3. Accuracy... 3"-4" groups at 100yds sounds great to me, considering that's what my dad and I were getting with his Norc M14 using surplus. Anything better would be icing on the cake.
4. Made from refurbished parts... this was on CZ's site
"The new Tactical and Military Sporter models are manufactured by combining original Sa vz. 58 components with a new semi-auto only milled receiver, a new trigger mechanism and new fire control parts."
I still don't know what to make of this. It's clear that some original parts were used to build the rifle... but whether they were brand new/unused parts or not is still unclear and I have had no luck searching the net so far. This is really the only real concern I have left, so if anyone who knows if the original FA parts are brand new/unused I would appreciate any info you can offer. But I mean, aside from the barrel, reciever, and furniture which are all new, it seems that aside from the trigger group, there would only be a few small parts that would be from the original FA guns... doesn't seem like that big a deal.
5. Quirks... none mentioned so far which sounds promising. More than likely the ones I read about were isolated cases which aren't too common.
I also have a few more quick questions
...
- pizdets17 brought up resale value which is a good point. Say I buy it, and after a bit I decide it's not for me. Considering I am meticulous in caring for my guns, and would be leaving them 100% stock/unaltered...what would be reasonable to expect for resale value with a round count say under 500?
- fat tony mentioned getting one with the front sight skewed far to one side. Tony did you mean drifted to one side and wasn't sighted in properly? In which case all you need to do is bring it back near center and it was sighted? Or did you mean the entire front sight assembly was canted (rotated away from 12 o'clock) on the barrel? Has anyone recieved a rifle with the front sight canted like many/most Norinco M14s?
That's about all I can think of for now. It's looking good though. Like I said, this thread has put to rest the majority of concerns that were holding me back from buying one.
Thanks again!!
