well, for one thing , the m14 is made for the CIVILIAN market- and you know what the chinese think of civilans- the sks was/is made for their military and what we get are "cost overruns" ie they had x number of raw materials and parts left over so rather than have them sitting there, they assembled them up and sold them . if and when the machinery ever wears out, we'll start getting "sketchy" sks - like the chinese m14- you also have to remember that the russians either GAVE the chinese the machinery or somewhere along the line that there was RUSSIAN expertise involved- and since the chinese have no intrest in blowing their OWN soldiers up, they're held to a higher standard than the m14
the m14 , on the other hand , was reverse engineered from captured m14s from vietnam, for a VERY small run for filipino gurellas that never made the trip- the filipino army at the time was also using AMERICAN m14s, so the chinese were supporting the insurgents by supplying a rifle that had a commonality with the "army " rifle- they could use whatever they captured- ammo, parts, you name it- they had NO concept that the demand for the 14 would accelerate the way it has
the chinese also had no AMERICAN expertise and that's why the first bolts were misscut,and soft- the people assembling these so-called "ghost" m14s were just workers- no concept of headspace, hardening, etc- and no INTREST in making a quality rifle -why should they care if an insurgent 1000 miles away blows up using their gun- it was only when they second-saled these guns to america that the problems came to light- they STILL don't have the barrel indexing down, as with the rear sight ladder- but the next generation MAY have those improvements
for another, the chinese guns are METRIC, and the design of the gun is AMERICAN- there's all kinds of stories about the conversions not being "close enough" to work- read about the american bofors sometime- on my old first generation norc, the THREADS are metric, but the HEADS for all the bolts ( including the hex in the front sight) are SAE
the m14 , on the other hand , was reverse engineered from captured m14s from vietnam, for a VERY small run for filipino gurellas that never made the trip- the filipino army at the time was also using AMERICAN m14s, so the chinese were supporting the insurgents by supplying a rifle that had a commonality with the "army " rifle- they could use whatever they captured- ammo, parts, you name it- they had NO concept that the demand for the 14 would accelerate the way it has
the chinese also had no AMERICAN expertise and that's why the first bolts were misscut,and soft- the people assembling these so-called "ghost" m14s were just workers- no concept of headspace, hardening, etc- and no INTREST in making a quality rifle -why should they care if an insurgent 1000 miles away blows up using their gun- it was only when they second-saled these guns to america that the problems came to light- they STILL don't have the barrel indexing down, as with the rear sight ladder- but the next generation MAY have those improvements
for another, the chinese guns are METRIC, and the design of the gun is AMERICAN- there's all kinds of stories about the conversions not being "close enough" to work- read about the american bofors sometime- on my old first generation norc, the THREADS are metric, but the HEADS for all the bolts ( including the hex in the front sight) are SAE
