So last Friday, we were out at the local gunstore, and they had an M-14 on the rack. After having read a lot on this forum for a couple of months now, I'd gotten interested in these Chinese made, American style rifles. The potential for accuracy, inexpensive entry price, enough power for hunting most big game on this continent, and plenty of aftermarket products appealed. Anyway, it had a black polymer stock, the metal folding buttplate, and a fake flash hider (unfortunately not slotted at all...looks like something they'd sell in Commiefornia!). The iron sights looked ok, and the trigger felt pretty good in the shop, and it was reasonably light (hollow plastic stock, normal profile barrel, no scopes or mounts). I had no intention of buying anything this month or next...but I ended up buying it!
Couple of days later, my buddy wanted to field strip it, clean away the grease, so I said “go for it”. So we learned quickly that while it isn't a totally obvious straightforward procedure, it's really easy to remember after doing it once or twice. Quick tip: when putting the trigger group back in, make sure it slides right into the steel receiver's groove...something we didn't notice the first time we reassembled it!
The cocking handle had some sharp corners to it...not enough to pierce skin, but sharp enough that I got a blood blister, and it stung a bit. 10 minutes with a file solved that very nicely...but I was mystified why they didn't cast that piece like that back in China the first time around...now the tips have bare metal with no parkerizing finish. I think I might use a few dabs of grey car touch-up paint to protect that from rust.
When he was done, I came over and I was fiddling with the rear sight range drum...and suddenly it was no longer raising/lowering the aperture arm! Argh!!! “Durn thing done broke an' I ain't even made her gone bang yet!”. Frustration. Ticked off, partly at myself, partly at Chinese manufacturing, I inquired here about rear sight assembly options, wondering about the cost of National Match rear systems. And yet that night my buddy figured out that all that happened was the screw had been loose (I think I had a screw loose up 'till then!). Sure enough, he saw there was a marking on the front of the arm, and we assumed that was for initial assembly indexing. Regardless, the sight appeared to be working properly, from a mechanical standpoint, so thanks buddy! He'd tracked down much more info from M-14.ca that includes TONS of reference materials in the convenient PDF format, including a detailed step-by step of how to grease/oil the M-14, which is important to proper functioning AFAIK.
Today we took it out for the first range trip, with the intent of becoming familiar with it, and attempt to get the thing zeroed. First shots were done standing position, unsupported, no slings. Gentle. Actually MUCH gentler than I expected...remember this was with a steel buttplate too, not rubber. It reminded us a fair bit of an unmodified SKS, but with a bit less muzzle flip and a bit more push. So far so good!
Now, understand that I do not have a scope nor a mount, all of this was done with the original Chinese factory iron sights. From M-14.ca, I downloaded a “M-14 25 meter zero” target. What you do is place this paper at 25 meters, follow the instructions on the front, set your sights to 250m mark, shoot at the little dot. You then adjust the front sight for windage (at least that's what we did) by loosening the screw and tapping it to the side of the dovetail. Hmm, I made the mistake of thinking about it backwards and suddenly we were off the paper...a little discouraging. My buddy suggested I did that wrong, and we tried the other direction, and we were darn near perfect right away. Elevation we adjusted by using the elevation knob until the groups were tight and on the thin line above the aiming dot. Then, when satisfied with the point of impact for the groups, we loosened off the sight side screw gently moved the range dial to 250m and re-tighten (the whole point of this is to get the sights to be “close enough” to be on the paper at 250m, after which you do a more precise zero at the real distance).
That seemed to be 'on'. To confirm it, I moved the range dial to 100m and shot a group at that distance...now my group wasn't that impressive (I'm brand new to this rifle, and been a long time since I did this kind of marksmanship), but it was clearly “on” at that distance. At the end of the day, I set the range dial to 200m, where some steel plates reside. 5 shots rapid, three solid audible hits! Not bad for a $450 iron sighted rifle, first day with this type, brand new.
The front sight blade was slightly out of square, but that's just nitpicking when talking about a budget rifle like this. Originally I planned to get a muzzle brake and rubber buttpad, but frankly I don't think I will bother rushing out to do either...it's really quite reasonable. Turns out, the trigger did feel much heavier, and somewhat gritty, than when at the gunshop, and did contribute to making it much tougher to concentrate on all the marksmanship techniques you learn from the Army and rifle competitions (iron sights only in my day).
It's no sniper rifle in this configuration. But I'm quite happy with the results. I can see there is plenty of potential in this design, thanks to the members in this very forum. I think one of the first things I'd like to address is that trigger feel!
Couple of days later, my buddy wanted to field strip it, clean away the grease, so I said “go for it”. So we learned quickly that while it isn't a totally obvious straightforward procedure, it's really easy to remember after doing it once or twice. Quick tip: when putting the trigger group back in, make sure it slides right into the steel receiver's groove...something we didn't notice the first time we reassembled it!
The cocking handle had some sharp corners to it...not enough to pierce skin, but sharp enough that I got a blood blister, and it stung a bit. 10 minutes with a file solved that very nicely...but I was mystified why they didn't cast that piece like that back in China the first time around...now the tips have bare metal with no parkerizing finish. I think I might use a few dabs of grey car touch-up paint to protect that from rust.
When he was done, I came over and I was fiddling with the rear sight range drum...and suddenly it was no longer raising/lowering the aperture arm! Argh!!! “Durn thing done broke an' I ain't even made her gone bang yet!”. Frustration. Ticked off, partly at myself, partly at Chinese manufacturing, I inquired here about rear sight assembly options, wondering about the cost of National Match rear systems. And yet that night my buddy figured out that all that happened was the screw had been loose (I think I had a screw loose up 'till then!). Sure enough, he saw there was a marking on the front of the arm, and we assumed that was for initial assembly indexing. Regardless, the sight appeared to be working properly, from a mechanical standpoint, so thanks buddy! He'd tracked down much more info from M-14.ca that includes TONS of reference materials in the convenient PDF format, including a detailed step-by step of how to grease/oil the M-14, which is important to proper functioning AFAIK.
Today we took it out for the first range trip, with the intent of becoming familiar with it, and attempt to get the thing zeroed. First shots were done standing position, unsupported, no slings. Gentle. Actually MUCH gentler than I expected...remember this was with a steel buttplate too, not rubber. It reminded us a fair bit of an unmodified SKS, but with a bit less muzzle flip and a bit more push. So far so good!
Now, understand that I do not have a scope nor a mount, all of this was done with the original Chinese factory iron sights. From M-14.ca, I downloaded a “M-14 25 meter zero” target. What you do is place this paper at 25 meters, follow the instructions on the front, set your sights to 250m mark, shoot at the little dot. You then adjust the front sight for windage (at least that's what we did) by loosening the screw and tapping it to the side of the dovetail. Hmm, I made the mistake of thinking about it backwards and suddenly we were off the paper...a little discouraging. My buddy suggested I did that wrong, and we tried the other direction, and we were darn near perfect right away. Elevation we adjusted by using the elevation knob until the groups were tight and on the thin line above the aiming dot. Then, when satisfied with the point of impact for the groups, we loosened off the sight side screw gently moved the range dial to 250m and re-tighten (the whole point of this is to get the sights to be “close enough” to be on the paper at 250m, after which you do a more precise zero at the real distance).
That seemed to be 'on'. To confirm it, I moved the range dial to 100m and shot a group at that distance...now my group wasn't that impressive (I'm brand new to this rifle, and been a long time since I did this kind of marksmanship), but it was clearly “on” at that distance. At the end of the day, I set the range dial to 200m, where some steel plates reside. 5 shots rapid, three solid audible hits! Not bad for a $450 iron sighted rifle, first day with this type, brand new.
The front sight blade was slightly out of square, but that's just nitpicking when talking about a budget rifle like this. Originally I planned to get a muzzle brake and rubber buttpad, but frankly I don't think I will bother rushing out to do either...it's really quite reasonable. Turns out, the trigger did feel much heavier, and somewhat gritty, than when at the gunshop, and did contribute to making it much tougher to concentrate on all the marksmanship techniques you learn from the Army and rifle competitions (iron sights only in my day).
It's no sniper rifle in this configuration. But I'm quite happy with the results. I can see there is plenty of potential in this design, thanks to the members in this very forum. I think one of the first things I'd like to address is that trigger feel!
Last edited:
