Lever Arms M305 2011 Observations

Hungry

Hungry

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I just did some work for an M14 lover. What was really interesting was it's markings. Lever Arms was the 'importer' and M305 was on the receiver. "7.62" was stamped but no units... Being a high school science teacher, I was alarmed but I had to force myself (down from Condition Red) to breathe and return to Condition White, and relax. There was nothing to worry about. I still wrote my observations in red pen, a usual practice while marking tests, essays, reports, homework, etc. :D

So here is what I found:

Rear sights:

Hey, it took the Zhinese Kommunists 10 years but they finally got it right. Repeatability and correct tension. The owner did not change/upgrade the sights. So they moved and felt like real USGI M1 Garand sights. Made nice audible kliks on both adjustment directions.

Op Rod guide:

Teeny bit of sideways slop, but I knocked out the existing thin walled pin and sure enough it was split and cracked. I replaced it after peening the owner's barrel. Then I re-installed the op rod guide. Nice and tight now.

Gas Cylinder lock:

Tight to 6 o'clock and moved to 7 and then 8 with lots of effort. Only one shim , I assessed. I 180'ed the gas cylinder lock and it tightened up at 1100 hrs, too far. Back to the 1 shim assessment. I was right. The lock is tight at 4 o'clock and I had to crank on my Sadlak Gas Cylinder wrench really tightly. Good to go.

Flash suppressor:

ONLY 4 gentle whacks and it came off .... :cool:

I replaced with USGI M1A dimensioned American flash suppressor. Now this barreled receiver pings without even racking the bolt. Nice machining but typical Norc rough high school shop class texture. The owner requested a replacement FS.

Indexing:

Holy Fzck, Batman.... it's dead nuts on with my parallels and my American (known quality) M1A flash suppressor. I'm leaving it alone.

Conclusion:

I offered to buy it from him.... :nest:

I'm at an Oshawa, ON M14 Clinic tomorrow, we are gonna have fun working on these rifles once again! For those of you sitting on the fence, you know what I'm gonna recommend; don't buy ONE! Buy TWO of them!

Enjoy the addiction. Hope to see ya M14 lovers at my next clinic near ya! :wave:

Cheers,
Barney
 
I bought one about a month and a half ago, from Lever Arms; got it home, first thing was to scrub off about 3 pounds of Cosmoline. Safety would not engage, so pulled trigger group. Had to remove a bit of metal on the hammer hook, and a bit from the trigger block. Lapped the op-rod to the action, (boy, talk about rough machining, they need to change out their milling bits more often) lapped the bolt to the receiver, and then back to the trigger group. Disassembled it again, polished the sears with an Arkansas stone and oil; polished the hammer and bolt contact points, where the bolt rides on the hammer on cocking. After reassembly, took it to the range, sighted it in at 100 yards, about b3-4 inch group. Seemed to perform well. Put it away until this weekend, and took it to my sons place. We went to the range where they shoot, on paper, could not get more than 3-4 inch groups/100 yards. Worked a little "magic" on the front sight, and tightened up the group a bit. So sonny boy says, "dad, try to hit the gong out there; it's 315 yards!" Yeah, right. So I nestled it down in to the sand bags, he spotted for me, first shot about 3 inches low. Up 2 clicks. Second shot, 1 inch low. up 2 more clicks. third shot, hit the gong, right on the bottom edge. Up 2 more clicks, bang on. That gun is more accurate at v300 yards than at 100 yards. Quite a feeling to hit that gong dead center shot after shot at 300+ yards.:) Not bad for a $400.00 special. Fyi, I am shooting Federal 150 grain soft points out of it.
 
The one I bought from Lever's, the barrel was over indexed; no country of origin stamp; no manufacturers' name; and I was charged a 20% restocking fee.
The weapon could not be inspected before leaving the store because of the packing.
 
My 22" is marked the same way. Think it is a 2011 though? Serial number starts with 2011 so that is my only basis. Rear sight adjustment seems nice compared to what I have heard of others. But the Front sight is not tall enough, so you have to aim way low.

The group in the middle is with the irons at 30 yards, and I had to aim at the bottom of the orange target. So that is fairly low. Even lower obviously at 100 yards. 15" low maybe?
20130330_140712.jpg
 
Jaytwo said:
My 22" is marked the same way. Think it is a 2011 though? Serial number starts with 2011 so that is my only basis. Rear sight adjustment seems nice compared to what I have heard of others. But the Front sight is not tall enough, so you have to aim way low.

The group in the middle is with the irons at 30 yards, and I had to aim at the bottom of the orange target. So that is fairly low. Even lower obviously at 100 yards. 15" low maybe?
20130330_140712.jpg
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Actually, you should try it at 100. Most guns, if sighted in at 25 yard zero, will be fairly close at 100. Mine was ho-hum accurate at 100 yards, but really seems good at the 300 mark. Mine also has no manufacture name, says "Imported by Lever Arms, serial # is indexed 2011 as well. So far, I am very happy with mine. Barrel indexing fine, sights seem fine, rear is a little tight to the right, so far so good. What weight bullets are you using? I am using 150 grain Federal Soft point. Don't give up on it yet.:)
 
I have to aim a few inches below a larger target identical to the big one in pic at 100. Scope is set for 100 but irons just Cant be adjusted anymore. Hungry gave me a tip though to make the front site taller. Will try it tomorrow. I think it will work well.
 
Jaytwo said:
I have to aim a few inches below a larger target identical to the big one in pic at 100. Scope is set for 100 but irons just Cant be adjusted anymore. Hungry gave me a tip though to make the front site taller. Will try it tomorrow. I think it will work well.
Click to expand...
With all the adjustment in the rear sight for elevation it blows me away that it is shooting so high. Is the sight able to crank down to "1" or lower? Just wondering if it is jamming. My rear sight did not want to adjust to the right; left was fine but right wouldn't go; had to play with it a bit, finally went. Was ready to disassemble it and clean the threads when it finally started working. n the ammo, mine did NOT like American Eagle either; Federal seems to work fine. I have been using the "cheaper"Federals, blue box. Good luck with it; would like to know the outcome on it. (maybe you will have to make a long range rifle out of it....):)
 
I am quite impressed with the accuracy of mine. That being said, I did do a few minor things to tighten up the groups. But whacking the gong at 315 yards with the issue sights is a keeper to me...:)
 
Son of a b*tch, the more I read these posts the more I want Marstar or P&D to get some long barrels in already. I hate waiting for a gun I want. :(
 
Bought a long barrel version from Lever Arms last year, works great. Got close to 700 rounds through it, no issues. Barrel is a bit over indexed but other than the front sight leaning to the left when I got it, no real concerns. Got the rear sight cleaned up and working ok. Can shoot 2-3 inch groups with the irons at 200m. Trying to find a suitable optic for it now...
 
Celtic123:

I was really impressed with the shorty and it's accuracy. You see, I'm a 22" barreled former competitor and that's all I've known. Along comes the shorty a couple of years back and I was skeptical. chalkriver shows up to my 2 day M14 clinic at the Milcun shooting school and I was hassling him about bringing the Kommunist Kopper Washed Boooolits to my range. :D I had to 'stick' it to him for bringing Norinco Wooooden Krate CheapShzt ammo when I was the RSO. :evil:

So there we were moving from the 400m firing point to the 500m firing mound and his shorty was holding the torso of the fig 11 target at 500m. The wind was bouncing him around but he was keeping his boooolits in the body. Was I ever surprised when I was spotting for him. And he had USGI Garand sights on there, but I was totally surprised... I had to rush out and buy a shorty for myself.

Now that 's all I own, a SINGLE shorty M14 Norc for teaching and personal shooting.... Hope this can convince you to stick with the shorty! :D

Cheers,
Barney
 
Hungry said:
Celtic123:

I was really impressed with the shorty and it's accuracy. You see, I'm a 22" barreled former competitor and that's all I've known. Along comes the shorty a couple of years back and I was skeptical. chalkriver shows up to my 2 day M14 clinic at the Milcun shooting school and I was hassling him about bringing the Kommunist Kopper Washed Boooolits to my range. :D I had to 'stick' it to him for bringing Norinco Wooooden Krate CheapShzt ammo when I was the RSO. :evil:

So there we were moving from the 400m firing point to the 500m firing mound and his shorty was holding the torso of the fig 11 target at 500m. The wind was bouncing him around but he was keeping his boooolits in the body. Was I ever surprised when I was spotting for him. And he had USGI Garand sights on there, but I was totally surprised... I had to rush out and buy a shorty for myself.

Now that 's all I own, a SINGLE shorty M14 Norc for teaching and personal shooting.... Hope this can convince you to stick with the shorty! :D

Cheers,
Barney
Click to expand...

Don't buy ONE, buy TWO, eh Hungry?:p:p
 
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