Asinine comment you got there. It makes you come off as a Troll.
Of course I don't.
A failing safety ultimately resulting in the gun firing does not a ND make. That would be a AD. Like if you slipped and fell while walking on a hunt, with the rifle you thought was on safe and a round in the chamber. #### happens.
That being said, there are definitely some Norc M305 safeties that disengage way too easily.
The OP is clearly a newby and is asking for advice. I think the advice I gave is good.
Nuff said.
Nuff said? Uhhh lmao
He doesn't come off as a troll. You kinda come-off as angry.
I clearly haven't handled as many M14s or 305s or M1As as you have but I have more than fondled more than a few dozen.
I'm with the guy you're beating-up. I've never seen a floppy safety that can disengage itself. In fact, I always thought it to be a pretty darned safe safety.
Hey, I'm not trying to start a big safety argument. I just think that a safety is to be used when there is one in the chamber. I even have some guns who's safeties wont even engage unless the action is cocked and assumedly there is one in the chamber. I thought that's what they're FOR.
OF COURSE you should and can NEVER TRUST A SAFETY completely but I think that walking/hunting in the woods locked and loaded with the safety on is acceptable?
Idk. I'm not trying to be a troll about it. NOW it's 'nuff said. Now that I decided rotflmao.
To the OP, if I was going to have only one centerfire long gun, well if I could have only one gun in total, naturally it would be a 12gauge shotgun but if I was going to own only one cf rifle and I wanted to also use it for big game hunting, an M14 is probably a pretty good choice.
Being an owner of M14s and M305s I can ABSOLUTELY echo the fact that it is a heavy boat anchor. NO idea how much my #1/favourite weighs but I'm pretty sure it hasn't seen 7lbs since it was a receiver only lol.
They are not the MOST reliable rifle out there either.
Oh..before I forget, and also as was mentioned and like you already know, the short ones can have issues. Do your research and if getting a shorty, best to buy in person so you can inspect everything and make sure the gas system and barrel and unitised. Well... you know..that they are tight and aligned. The research will tell you what to look for.
Back to the show... as a versatile platform... it's a pretty good one. There is a LOT of ammo available..hunting loads and bullets to relatively cheap milsurp. It can be a plinker, a hunter, heck, there are much better (lighter) options but you can even enter the Heavy Metal category of 3-gun competitions with it.
You can run and gun with it. Train, run drills...
Idk. I can't offhand think of a WHOLE lot of better options that will let you do ALL that. Definitely won't be able to TOUCH it at the pricepoint and the NR classification is pretty huge for a lot of us.
I'll tell you what. It'll be one of the LAST guns I get rid of.
But yeah man... they are SO heavy.
For moose hunting you would be SO much better off with an affordable Savage (for example) bolt gun in a magnum caliber but...running and gunning, plinking, fast mag dumps, mounting red dots, going completely bananas with tacticool mods :blush: and shooting coyotes or QCI Sitka blacktails... with a .300 or .338 bolt gun aint gonna be a WHOLE lot of fun and for SURE will cost you a FORTUNE.
HOWEVER, there's a good possibility... well there's a chance...ok it COULD happen that Mister Trudeau, well I guess the somehow law-making RCMP will reclassify the M14 as restricted or prohibited.
If you have the $ and a friend with a PAL, you should take a trip down to Canadian Tire and ask to see and handle a half dozen (for starters) of their shorties. Oh, I'd personally absolutely go with a short one but again, do the research and buy only a solid one. Get buddy to buy it and keep it at his place until your PAL or RPAL arrives.
Further, call me paranoid or whatever you want but get your friend to pay with cash and to not let CT record his info. They probably wont anyway. At our local CT you show your licence to the gun dept employee long enough for him/her to confirm that it's you on the card and that the exp date hasn't passed and then the firearm or ammo is brought to the Customer Service counter. You can pay for it there (well buddy can) or at a regular register and just tell the cashier that your rifle is at CS. There is no record of your PAL kept and again, if you use cash..
This part is all ONLY if you figure the M14 might get reclassified and you wish to own an illegal firearm once the law changes.
Sorry for the long-winded post but in the end yeah...I say go for the M14. It's a fun rifle. Fun to shoot and fun to modify. And you can even drop a moose with the thing!!
