bulged barrel m1a

ALMAR

ALMAR

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USA, Savannah GA
I was installing a leather strap on my norinco and found a noticable buldge between the gas piston and the flash hider.

There was an incident at the range and i got distracted so i left my bore sighter in the barrel and took a shot. A really stupid mistake on my part, never found the bore sighter and never noticed anything wrong until now, a month or so later. This has to be on my top 5 dumb mistakes list. f:P:2:

Well, i need a new barrel now and have it installed too. I usually do things myself but i hear installing a barrel on a m1a needs to be done by people who know what their doing. Any suggestions?
 
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1. Its not a M1A
2. Check the EE take off barrels come up all the time.
3. You don't have to be a wizard to work on these, just need to have a mechanical aptitude.

Good luck

p.s. make sure you check your headspace after you put on the new barrel
 
Read the stickies regarding barrel replacement. This might be the opportunity for an upgrade to a Criterion or Krieger medium barrel. You'd need a US gas lock and perhaps a flash hider castle nut but that is all.

I'd think putting on a take-off barrel might be more difficult than putting on a new one. The Norc barrels are chrome plated and wouldn't be easily reamed if headspace was too short.

Barney/Tactical Teacher will often help noobs if you can get to Barrie Ontario. He seems to spin on barrels frequently.
 
Pr589 said:
Read the stickies regarding barrel replacement. This might be the opportunity for an upgrade to a Criterion or Krieger medium barrel. You'd need a US gas lock and perhaps a flash hider castle nut but that is all.

I'd think putting on a take-off barrel might be more difficult than putting on a new one. The Norc barrels are chrome plated and wouldn't be easily reamed if headspace was too short.

Barney/Tactical Teacher will often help noobs if you can get to Barrie Ontario. He seems to spin on barrels frequently.
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I dont think you ever have to be worried about head space being too tight with a norinco barrel.....I would be more concerned about headspace being to loose
 
yomomma said:
I dont think you ever have to be worried about head space being too tight with a norinco barrel.....I would be more concerned about headspace being to loose
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Hey Yo! I agree that long headspace is the most likely outcome but even then he's going to need a new bolt that will be tight enough to bring headspace into spec., or be lapped in. We've been messing' with these Norcs for a while and even so I'd be reluctant to do this on my own...mainly because of the equipment I'd have to buy (barrel vice, headspace gauges, etc.)
 
Bolt lapping is between the bolt and the receiver and should not be affected by a barrel change. I would not hesitate to throw in a norc take off since most headspace issues are a result of improperly ground bolt lugs.

But hey, not saying you shouldn't get a knowledgeable qualified person to do this, just saying its really not a big deal and an easy fix if you do not want to upgrade everything for $1000 or more
 
yomomma said:
I dont think you ever have to be worried about head space being too tight with a norinco barrel.....I would be more concerned about headspace being to loose
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I love my Norinco, so much fun but I don't think I would spend the money to install another Norinco barrel on it, for the cost of a good barrel considering the instalation costs for either barrel would be the same it wouldn't be very cost effective.
Having said that I'm pretty impressed that the rifle only has a bulged barrel, usually from what I've read any obstruction in the barrel usually results in pretty much complete destruction of the rifle. For the cost of another Norinco I would keep the parts other than the barrel and reciever and throw the rest away. How would you ever know what damage was caused to the reciever not seen by the naked eye from such an event? I'm not an expert just my 2 (paranoid) cents;)
Rodney.
 
You forget about the flash hider, the bore sighter would not have been in the barrel that far and the gasses would already have started to bleed off to work the action.

Had the obstruction been before the valve I am sure things would have turned out worse

Installation costs would be zero(for me anyways) the barrel maybe $100.
 
I'm kind of leaning towards installing a better barrel right now. I put alot of money and work into this thing already, might as well go for the better barrel. I would like to know where to buy one though...besides armtac, they are always out of stock.
 
ALMAR said:
I'm kind of leaning towards installing a better barrel right now. I put alot of money and work into this thing already, might as well go for the better barrel. I would like to know where to buy one though...besides armtac, they are always out of stock.
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Are you thinking Criterion, Krieger, something else?
Various smiths and dealers will have different brands.
 
I dont know yet, i actually never bothered looking into barrels for this rifle until today when i saw the problem. I saw that Krieger has some heavy barrels, that sounds good to me. Problem is the price though, they cost 370$ in the US which is reasonable, but here, i found a place that sells them for 560$ which is nuts. I may go ahead with it anyways but i feel like i'm beeing robbed.
 
Yeah...Not sure i want to go down that path again...already did that once for my 10/22 and it cost me 2000$. If i do that for this rifle, i'll be trouble...food for thought. I'm glad to know that there IS a easy fix option. Thanks.
 
How does it shoot with the bulged barrel? If it is of minor nature and it shoots fine, just keep shooting it....
 
ALMAR said:
Yeah...Not sure i want to go down that path again...already did that once for my 10/22 and it cost me 2000$. If i do that for this rifle, i'll be trouble...food for thought. I'm glad to know that there IS a easy fix option. Thanks.
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It's so much nicer of a rifle if you do go that way though...
 
Send me a PM'ed message. I got a spare here (Norinco 22") donated by another kind CGNutter who wants me to "pay it forward". :D

Do this, remove that s2pid set screw on the right side of your receiver and I can do the replacement. Fast turnaround since there is no headspace/finish reaming involved. :)

I would be proud to say that we have the MOST helpful forum here on CGNutz and here's part of the proof! :D I'm working part time at a gun counter in Barrie this summer so I have some spare time in between sniper matches. :evil:

I can turn it around, just cost ya the shipping to and from my location in Georgian Bay, ONT.

There... no need to spend a whack of money. Just lemme keep the spare junker barrel, I need the stub and the gas cylinder collar. :evil:

Cheers and keep helping them noobs around here!

Barney
 
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