CHOPPER,
ok,
your 14 is SOOOoooooo hideously Fugly, it is almost handsome.
Sort of like a PIT BULL ... short, stout, and ffffn functional.
But the only question s I have are,
How does it shoot?
How does it handle ... for YOU?
In fact, I will be building one very similar.
However,
mine will have a hollow tube around the op rod, from the gas assembly back to the op rod guide.
And ...
the butt will be different ... either a YHM tubular stock, or an ACE side folder.
And ...
the sight will be an Eotech, mounted forward
And ...
well,
you get the idea.
IMHO, one of the main reasons the Chinese M14 rifles are so cool, is because you can do anything you want, to it to make it exactly what you want it to be.
AND ...
they are cheap enough that you can experiment with them [ my chopsaw just got a newe aluminum cutting blade, for alloy stocks, to go with the steel cuting blade, for barrels ].
Yep,
beauty IS in the eye of the beholder.
And the total customisability of the 14 is, to me, beautiful.
[;{)
LAZ 1
Under 10 lbs. - great handling
Shootability - Consistent 1 inch 5 shot groups at a hundred with unsorted Remington UMC , Portuguese FNM , Lake City , Hirtenberg , IMI , Etc.
South African , however , always has at least one flyer in five rounds with a slightly larger group (even when sorted by overall length measured of the ogive). The South African seems more consistent at 200 yds than 100.
The one extra I added to the chopped AKM Sage clone stock was a heel shim , with the op rod guide stock mounting screws loose , adjusting the shim thickness to prevent any undue longditudinal stress from heel to crown , with maximum tension when locking the trigger guard up into the stock , perfect alignement of the stock op rod guide mounting holes with the threaded holes in the op rod guide , then lastly - tightening the op rod guide screws on the side of the stock.
Necessary because There seems to be some variations in chinese rifle receivers and they need to be tuned to the stock. (My old polytech fit like a glove and needed no heel shim others do)
Without shim tuning accuracy was average , but when tuned - outstanding !
Waiting for summer to test hot barrel stretch and whip P.O.I. change. ( I dont anticipate much variation due to extra stiffness of chopped barrel .)
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder , I have a Sage , the chopped AKM , An M14 pistol grip GI fiberglass , A synthetic super match , a Viron , a conventional , etc. -
I find them ALL beautiful !