It's all about the ammo.

N

northern skies

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A few years ago, i enjoyed tinkering with my M14. I did all the little tricks, and had fun doing it. But I never got to see the results. I have always fed it with south african surplus, and always shot 6-8" groups. I assumed that it should be capable of at least 2", and thought that either the gun was horribly inaccurate, or I just sucked with irons.

Behind on handloading, I took a box of surplus to the range yesterday with my "half-minute" precision rifle. What did I get?

A 6" group!

Looks like the M14 needs a new diet. I'm a bit excited to see what she is capable of!
 
Look up the handloading data specific for the M-14 in this forum, there are a few things to keep in mind, compared to using reloads in a boltgun. With a good reload, these can do pretty well I hear.
 
I think it's just the South African surplus ammo in general. I wonder if that stuff isn't better suited for a hot, humid environment?:confused:

Last Fall, I fired some 1984 SA 7.62x39mm through my Baikal single shot and it was horribly inaccurate.

I also shot some 1974 and 1977 ChiCom surplus that grouped OK and some Czech 1985 surplus that turned in the tightest 10 shot group of the day.

I read something awhile ago about a guy reloading (reworking) a bunch of inaccurate surplus cartridges that had inconsistent powder charge weights. He pulled all of the bullets and then dumping the powder and weighed it all. He then divided the weight of the powder by the number of cartridges and refilled them all with the same charge weight.

He claimed the accuracy of the ammo increased significantly.

I think I might try something similar with my SA M43 surplus, only I might use different powder (like H4198 or RL-7.)
 
Just try a box or two of good commercial ammo to see if you get better results. It will help determine if its an ammo problem or the rifle.
 
It happened to me as well, i zeroed the scope on my M14 using soft point commercial hunting ammo, then i found some santa barbara (spanish?) 7,62x51 ammo, the result? i was shooting all over, couldnt even hit the paper the target was printed on @ 300 meters.

Ended up selling the m14 because i got fed up trying to zero it.
 
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