IDF M14 parts kits picture thread!

Originally Posted by BattleRife View Post
Also, the root of the positive reputation of TRW wasn't so much that their parts and rifles were awesome so much as that the parts and rifles of the other 3 makers were found time and again to be sh!te. Production of the M14 was extremely problematic, and the ordnance board and US Congress launched multiple investigations into the failed program which found that incompetence by Springfield Armory, Winchester and H&R was downright routine. Early in the program some H&R receivers and bolts were found to be brittle and shatter upon firing, so that every H&R and Winchester (they bought some bolts, remember?) had to be recalled and new inspection techniques found to separate the good from the bad.

In the fall of 1961 a test program intercepted 21 M14 rifles, seven from each of Springfield, H&R and Winchester, headed from the factory to army stores, for examination and testing. These rifles had just passed inspection from the main government small arms arsenal, or from contractors who had signed binding contracts to produce MIL spec rifles. Every single rifle failed to meet MIL spec. "M14 rifles submitted for this test failed to meet the military specifications with respect to head space, bore dimensions, surface finish of bore, chromium plating of bore, trigger pull, rear sight elevating knob adjustment, and broken and improperly assembled parts." The idea that every M14 part accepted into service meets the same standards for quality and performance is clearly wishful thinking.

and thats why you see a mixmaster of parts on M-14's and Garand's that where used in service.

The Garand's that Districorp Enterprises brought in (1995ish) where all the same way, mixmasters.

At one time I had over 20 M1-D's and about 40 others sitting in my lockup.

Odd thing, I don't own a single one now.

I was buying shooter grade Garands for $125.00, thats right $125.00


Over their life in service, the M-14's that came across Armourers bench's would have to be fitted up to spec.

This statement would go back in time for anything that did service life in the military in all wars and peacetime.

Enfield's, Mauser's, ect, ect all got mixmastered by Armourers. (Current day Weapon Techs) Arte et Marte

Armourers did not care if a TRW hammer was in a SA trigger mech and so on and so on.

I saw a lot of U.S. Service M-14's at Camp Perry, they where all mixmasters.

Early sixties until 2017, thats a lot of hands to go through right up to 2017 and now, beyond.

I rarely seen any M-14's that where first imported in the 80's all matching.

Guys where doing the same sheet back then, matching up parts.

Then the wall fell down, they all became converted auto's and Grandfathered.

Grandfathered, but you can't get a permit to transport to shoot them.

Then guys tore them apart, like me, and built numerous ones with the Chinese receivers as we intend to do now.

Back then you could buy a Polytech receiver for Dealer cost of $60.00

I should know, I bought plenty from Century Arms.

Been there, done that and I do have several T Shirts!


copy of Stevens' US Rifle M14

That book is pretty good, times change, more information comes to light over the years.

Any book is only good as the day it was printed.

R. Blake Stevens

I have not seen him in years.
 
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so tempting. Wish I never sold my norc.
Anybody selling only receivers?

It would be a bit of an investment, but you could buy a parts kit and sit on it.

Wait for a deal on a Norc, twist off the parts, sell them off and there you would get a receiver at good price to build upon.

Remember, you snooze, you loose.

I also have the T Shirt for snoozing and loosin in the past!

It took me a while to learn not too snooze.
 
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It would be a bit of an investment, but you could buy a parts kit and sit on it.

Wait for a deal on a Norc, twist off the parts, sell them off and there you would get a receiver at good price to build upon.

Remember, you snooze, you loose.

I also have the T Shirt for snoozing and loosin in the past!

It took me a while to learn not too snooze.

True. might be worth a shot.
 
M14 rifles never came with all matching parts fellas...... are we really gonna go down the road of the M1 garand guys and start fretting over "all matching" parts rifles LOL
let's not turn this rifle into that eh? pleeeeez?

Other than some nostalgia(trw) and obviously air gauged barrels(trw, sak) , ALL usgi parts are manufactured to a certain criteria. This is why i stated early on that i didn't really care what brand i got because it's all gravy. Creating a false EE market is where i see this going and that is kind of a shame. They are IDF rifles...... would be a crying shame not to rebuild them exactly as they are on a new receiver..... and keep the kit intact to shoot again.... I see real collector value in that route going forward.

Got word from the fella who placed our orders and looks like i have a heavy and a standard on the way ;)

will be completing my SEI receiver and crazy horse barrel build finally and not sure what i'm gonna do with the rest of the parts but will certainly not be ending up on the EE :p

I completely understand what you are saying. I don't think we are building up to force feed the EE market a bunch of new kits though. I feel the pricing on these was able to weed out a lot of potential profit makers, leaving a lot of buyers to be folks who want to build their own rifle.

I agree that parts matching really doesn't matter at all, and it is a cool concept that one could keep all the electro penciled parts together to say this tifle was used as it was by the IDF, original parts from that time frame. But in a sense, haven't we already lost a bit of that by losing the receiver? Also, you may be only one of the lucky ones to have matching electro'd numbers. I have 3 numbers in 4 places (1992, 992 (x2), and 602). So to swap the part thats 602 isn't bothering me as much as one of the other ones haha.
 
I completely understand what you are saying. I don't think we are building up to force feed the EE market a bunch of new kits though. I feel the pricing on these was able to weed out a lot of potential profit makers, leaving a lot of buyers to be folks who want to build their own rifle.

One HB kit popped up on the EE a couple of days ago, and was going for 1500 bucks. Greasy, easy money for him.
 
I bought 3x kits can you add 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc ???

Or just use your can handle with a .1 .2 .3 at the end ?

H

Should I make a google sheet for everyone to add the manufacturers of each part? We can get a good sense of how the kits shook out. I have no desire to split up my HB kits but would Be cool to see what everyone got. Let me know what parts I should add to the spreadsheet and I will make it public

EDIT: Here is the link https://goo.gl/forms/W5WH6L4HSrt68n7c2

Everyone should be able to anonymously add their information to the database by filling out the short form.

I'm with Sh0ckw4v3 on the quality of these kits. I doubt any low quality items could of lasted this long in military service regardless of who made them. I'd be more worried about worn out parts, not MFG.
 
One HB kit popped up on the EE a couple of days ago, and was going for 1500 bucks. Greasy, easy money for him.

Did it sell or is it still sitting there? Also $180 profit is nice, but for just a 13.5% profit, there are better ways to go about making almost 200 bucks lol. Skeezy for sure, but whatever; like was said, free market I suppose.
 
I bought 3x kits can you add 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, etc ???

Or just use your can handle with a .1 .2 .3 at the end ?

H
I double checked, Just fill the form out as many times as kits you have.

Here is the database of responses, If you go to "Form" and choose "Show summary of responses" It will graph out the data for you. The more people the better we can get an idea of MFG. distribution of the kits. (Let me know if this works for everyone, still new to this stuff)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...u97PY4rfsFlfJ2OrXwcfVGLMU/edit#gid=1436332003
 
I completely understand what you are saying. I don't think we are building up to force feed the EE market a bunch of new kits though. I feel the pricing on these was able to weed out a lot of potential profit makers, leaving a lot of buyers to be folks who want to build their own rifle.

One HB kit popped up on the EE a couple of days ago, and was going for 1500 bucks. Greasy, easy money for him.

$180 profit

lol yeah probably one of those guys who buys 10 of everything and sell it .........lol free market i guess

I don't think you guys know how much of a smoking deal these parts kits are/were...

On the open market, say last year; SAK barrel was easily worth $500, USGI barrel, $$250, USGI op-rod, $250, USGI trigger pack $275-$300, USGI bolt $300 minimum, USGI fiberglass stock $200. Add more $$ if TRW parts.

Look at what a parts kit is currently going for in the US. $1000 USD for a parts kit that has no bolt or barrel. And I was buying them at that price as it was VERY good value for your $$.

A savvy investor could probably make a tidy profit in 2-3 years by investing 10-20K in parts kits! What other investment could you make today to guarantee a 30% return on your $$ in 3 years.

$180 profit on a HB kit. I wouldn't sell one of mine for less than $2000 right now. It would cost me at least that much to replace it!

John
 
They are salvageable.... currently working on one. I'll snap some pics a bit later!

John

I'm definitely interested in seeing what you got. I've been debating with myself all weekend on what to do for stock options since I picked up the kit on Friday. I didn't get one of the USGI stocks over Christmas so I'm not sure if I want to throw the IDF stock on and lose the iron sights with the cheek weld. Otherwise I'm ready to just ship it all out to you and put it together.
 
Why the hate towards the sniper stock? Guessing you don't realize how rare these are!! If there is anyone with a very nice one willing to sell we should talk. My heavy kit will be assembled as it comes. Think a few years down the line kids, will not be too many available
 
Why the hate towards the sniper stock? Guessing you don't realize how rare these are!! If there is anyone with a very nice one willing to sell we should talk. My heavy kit will be assembled as it comes. Think a few years down the line kids, will not be too many available

Oh I like the stock, I just wasn't planning on mounting a scope on it quite yet as I'm a fan of the irons. I'm at the point now where I think I need two, one scoped and another with irons.
 
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