Well....I went through the lengthy paperwork process (with the help of the questar folks....what a great group!) and managed to feed the M14 addiction a dose of LRB Arms. The folks at LRB were great with respect to the whole "waiting for permits" game and when everything wound up approved they threw my build together in only a couple of weeks. 5 or six weeks after that for importation/registration and the box showed up at the post office...man was I excited!
I ordered the gun with an 18.5 inch medium weight barrel, but changed my mind after placing the order and figured a standard profile would be better. The change of heart was made quite late in the process, so rather than disrupt the built process I decided to change it out once the gun arrived. The reason I wanted the changeout was so I could scout-mount an aimpoint and then do a range-review comparing a USGI part scout build on a norinco receiver, a scout build on a springfield receiver, and the LRB all in the same configuration.
So when she arrived I swapped out the stock with a birch stock purchased off another CGNer (nothing wrong with the walnut stock they shipped it with, however the birch one sure is pretty), replaced the barrel with a factory criterion 18.5 incher that I imported earlier in the year, and mounted an Aimpoint M3 2 MOA on a Rooster33 scout mount. I was initially going to use the new marstar scout mount and ordered one for the project, however I was shocked to discover that the hole is too large to properly clamp on a USGI profiled standard barrel! I miked 10 other barrels I had laying around just to make sure it was not the barrel...they all measured 0.700 +or- 2 thou. so it is definately the mount that is screwed up. I was too lazy to go out to the garage to find a chinese barrel in my scrap pile for measuring, regardless the Marstar mount I bought does not work with an American made barrel. Crappy. Well...the hunt was on for a Rooster33 scout mount (they used to be available from Brownells...but no longer!) and I managed to find another CGNer who was willing to part with a couple.
Notes on the barrel change: the medium weight barrel I pulled off had obvious signs of having her shoulder turned down. The reason for this became obvious when I went to hand tighten on the replacement barrel. It came tight at the 9:00 position...a full 90 degrees from where she would need to draw to for proper indexing! A quick shave on the lathe solved this problem and she was quickly torqued into place on the receiver. While this had me grumbling a bit as it precludes just spinning on a replacement barrel without some lathe work, I figure it is better than the other way around where there is not enough draw and a guy has to roll the shoulder back.
Headspace wound up being about 1.632. Not as tight as my TRW bolted norinco (smoking tight at 1.630...amlost uncomfortably tight!) and about 0.001 shorter than my springfield.
Anyway....the rest of the rifle is a mixture of H&R and Winchester USGI parts.
The finish on the rifle is unbelievably nice. No comparison to the chinese gun and about par with the springfield. Fit is tight tight tight....no comparison to a springfield and IMHO better than a chinese gun with either factory or USGI parts.
Comparative range report to follow.....
Thus far though I am tickled pink and would shell out the same coin in a second to have at least one good looking girl in the collection!
Brobee
I ordered the gun with an 18.5 inch medium weight barrel, but changed my mind after placing the order and figured a standard profile would be better. The change of heart was made quite late in the process, so rather than disrupt the built process I decided to change it out once the gun arrived. The reason I wanted the changeout was so I could scout-mount an aimpoint and then do a range-review comparing a USGI part scout build on a norinco receiver, a scout build on a springfield receiver, and the LRB all in the same configuration.
So when she arrived I swapped out the stock with a birch stock purchased off another CGNer (nothing wrong with the walnut stock they shipped it with, however the birch one sure is pretty), replaced the barrel with a factory criterion 18.5 incher that I imported earlier in the year, and mounted an Aimpoint M3 2 MOA on a Rooster33 scout mount. I was initially going to use the new marstar scout mount and ordered one for the project, however I was shocked to discover that the hole is too large to properly clamp on a USGI profiled standard barrel! I miked 10 other barrels I had laying around just to make sure it was not the barrel...they all measured 0.700 +or- 2 thou. so it is definately the mount that is screwed up. I was too lazy to go out to the garage to find a chinese barrel in my scrap pile for measuring, regardless the Marstar mount I bought does not work with an American made barrel. Crappy. Well...the hunt was on for a Rooster33 scout mount (they used to be available from Brownells...but no longer!) and I managed to find another CGNer who was willing to part with a couple.
Notes on the barrel change: the medium weight barrel I pulled off had obvious signs of having her shoulder turned down. The reason for this became obvious when I went to hand tighten on the replacement barrel. It came tight at the 9:00 position...a full 90 degrees from where she would need to draw to for proper indexing! A quick shave on the lathe solved this problem and she was quickly torqued into place on the receiver. While this had me grumbling a bit as it precludes just spinning on a replacement barrel without some lathe work, I figure it is better than the other way around where there is not enough draw and a guy has to roll the shoulder back.
Headspace wound up being about 1.632. Not as tight as my TRW bolted norinco (smoking tight at 1.630...amlost uncomfortably tight!) and about 0.001 shorter than my springfield.
Anyway....the rest of the rifle is a mixture of H&R and Winchester USGI parts.
The finish on the rifle is unbelievably nice. No comparison to the chinese gun and about par with the springfield. Fit is tight tight tight....no comparison to a springfield and IMHO better than a chinese gun with either factory or USGI parts.
Comparative range report to follow.....
Thus far though I am tickled pink and would shell out the same coin in a second to have at least one good looking girl in the collection!Brobee
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now we are talkin
