despite all the fan fare over the high end m14 crack...... the chinese receivers we have here in canada are top notch.
By comparison
I've had the privelege of building 3 LRB receiver's from the ground up, for clients, into complete all usgi rifles(. Then the fellow "unlistedhandle" paid HUGE to import a full LRB rifle that had issues from day one..... he was NOT a happy camper.... at first
. NONE of these receiver's / builds were not without thier issues.
for instance, ALL of the receiver's required modification of the oprod take down notch of the receiver. The USGI, M1A and Chinese ones being a rectangular recess, the LRB being rounded, and shorter ..... why i do not know, but i can only assume this was done for gunsmith fitting...... simply not an issue with any chinese receiver i've met
Next, receiver heel "roof" and lug raceways are very tight fit to a usgi bolt. Meticulous polishing , bluing and repolishing was "required" on all 3 receiver up builds..... never seen this with a chinese receiver, USGI bolts just slide right in (other than lug lapping)
One LRB receiver had bumps of unmachined surface... missed by the cnc or the guy inspecting.... again, meticulous stoning and polishing was in order for a bolt to even cycle properly without jamming 1/2 way in the receiver bridge.... very bad...... and again, never seen this on a single chinese receiver
The full build LRB , ordered from and built by LRB, had indexing issues, oprod failed 30 degree tilt test and gas system and flash hider both had noticeable rotational play and gas assembly has 8 or so thou of fore and aft play between gas band and the tightened up assembly..... this could not be fixed with shims, instead, the gas band had to be lapped to the barrels gas band flange.... could have turned it ona lathe a couple thou but i ended up spending a couple hours hand lapping the fricken thing hehehe
so just because it costs a tonne, and is made in the U.S. , doesn't mean it's gonna be all gravy in the end.
I am a BIG fan of the LRB product, regardless of the above comments, and I would expect some degree of fitting on any high end, to milspec part , other than machining left overs in places they shouldn't be hehehehe
. BUT I caution those embarking on thier M14 journey, your chinese rifle , despite the glitches and common need to replace a couple parts...... At 500.00 price point...... skip the fancy schmancy , and get yourself a stock norinco or poly. For 1/2 of what the LRB costs you can build a better rifle
for those who are wanting a U.S. made rifle so as to be able to go to matches, Hunts or ranges in the U.S. , with thier M14 type rifle...... you can't take your norinco due to U.S. regulations BUT you can take your M1A, M14SA LRB, and hopefully we can add the 7.62 firearms builds/receivers to the mix as well. The crossing the border thing to go shoot with powmia56 at Custer is HIGH on my list of things to start doing on a regualr basis.... and is THE ONLY reason i am considering a higher price point (than a stock norinco) , U.S. made rifle.
