Just a few thoughts, and a brief history about M-14 rifles, and their clones ....
AFAIK,
I bought the last available [ to Canadian retail customers ] NEW Chinese M-14 receivers. I got three from Century Arms and two from Milarm, somewhere about 1999. Century used to sell M-14 "kits" here in Canada, with all Chinese parts. If I recall correctly, they cost me about $ 80 Can each. Four of these were probably new ... or at the least refinished to new ... as they had no missing blue inside the threads, and absolutely no wear I could find. The fifth [ POLYtech ] looked to be an as new takeoff, but it was also the best for dimensions, so I was just as happy with that one as any of the others.
The receivers were three Norcs, and two Polytechs. The Polys had the more desirable dark park finish, with no external markings at all, , serial number below the reciver, hidden by the stock. After checking all dimensions, the POLYs specced out as slightly better. Heat treatment was Guestimated as too soft for one, right on for three, and too hard for one. When I say "too soft" I mean slightly less than ideal, and when I say "too Hard", I mean that one broke in half while fitting a barrel.
OOPS
[;{(
The remaining receivers got all GI parts [ back then they were cheap and I had several US GI parts kits left over from my days as a professional gunsmith ]. The "soft" receiver was made into my personal SHTF 19" carbine, with a folding stock. It was fitted up to a GI barrel, at.308 GO, with a NEW TRW bolt, and FULLY lapped in lugs. I had that one for over 10 years, fired thousands of round through it, and never had a problem. It would shoot into 1 1/2" with Nato ball. The other three became two more shorties, and one FULL HOUSE target, all in fiberglass GI stocks. The broken receiver was sold to a buddy who welded it back up, and [ HOPEFULLY ] re-heat treated the abortion before he built his own.
At the time I was heavy into M-14 type rifles, and had several GENUINE US GIs as well as three Sproingfield M1-As. The M1-As included a Super Match SS in a Macmillan stock, a Match in walnut, and a junker with a shot out barrel [ if you are going to shoot corrosive ammo, you really should clean the barrel every decade or so ]. The junker also got the full target treatment, with a Barnett medium heavy barrel, a GI stock, and every tweak known at the time. But before that, it became a shorty using the original barrel [ there was still SOME ] rifling in there ... not much rifling, not pretty, but after I shortened the NON -chrome lined SA barrel to 19" and recrowned , that sucker still shot 7.62 NATO ball well under 2". When I did the full house treatment, the SA dropped group size to about 1 1/8" with its favorite load.
After all that effort, hours of work, and the best parts $$$ could buy, I dropped a few fractions of an inch in group size.
Whoopee ding.
To put this inperspective, I also had $250 Rem 788 which was glass bedded, given a trigger job, which would shoot into 3/8" .... at 200 yds.
The SA Target I had hand built was actually a teensy bit more accurate than both my SA Super Match and my SA Match, which cost WAY more. I wanted to prove I could build an M-14 as good as Sproingfield's best, and I had a LOT of grief lapping in the op rod, and fitting the barrel, because Sproingfield receivers do NOT hold to US GI specs any where as close as the Chinese do. The target rifle I built using a GI barrel, and a Polytech receiver actually shot almost as well [ about 1/8" difference ] as my best efforts on the Springfield, and both my hand built rifles shot about as well as my factory "match" grade Sproingfields.
Which is why I ALWAYS say the Chinese are the best bang for the M-14 buck ... if you are willing to tinker.
when Y2K came along, with a whimper and not a bang, I realised I had way too many M-14 rifles, and not enough other things.
So I sold most of my 14s, kept the one Chinese SHTF rifle, and invested in "other things".
So far, this seems like a great choice.
But ...
now John has that crazy looking aluminum stock for sale.
And maybe, just maybe, I might forget my previous holy vow never to own another M-14.
Maybe.
[;{)
LAZ 1
not all forums have that luxury.
