m14 tuning

Darn... I was just in Fred'town, NB this past June for an M14 Clinic that woulda taught ya how to do this tuning yerself or along with like minded NB and NS M14 addicts! Believe me, there are a crapload of M14 geeks around Fred'Town area, even PEI. No kidding!!

Cheers,
Barney
 
Why not do it yerself, its not rocket science and if you can change the oil in a car you can certainly do a lot of the tuning.
And its a crap load of fun and self satisfied smugness.
 
Hey Sevensixtwo.

I just realised you might be living in the shacks and dont have access to a chicken shed. I work on the base and if you want to do it yerself, or some of it at least PM me.
I learnt a lot at Hungrys clinic and should pass it forward.
Up to you mate
Cheers :)
 
Sevensixtwo said:
Anyone know who would be a good smith to send my rifle in for tuning these days?
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What exactly do you need to tune?
They aren't high precision rocket engines lol
Usually "tuning" for me consists of changing the ****ty norc rear sights and filing down the sear notches on the trigger to make it a little smoother.
Other than that, the rest is just lipstick on a pig in my opinion.

Unless by tune you mean swapping out for US parts for thousands of dollars which do nothing for the accuracy lol
 
the question is "have you FIRED it yet?" what kind of groups are you getting ?- and what's your game- factory or handloads?"- BEFORE you do ANYTHING , take it out and shoot it- i've had m14s most of my adult life, both usgi and rincko,and some CAN'T be improved by parts subs or tuning- the four( yea, that's right , four) i have right now were VASTLY improved by HANDLOADS alone- basically, the 165-168 grain bullet, as suggested by ZEDIKER- you can look up his handloads on line- you won't "see" anything at 100 yards , but at 200, ther's where they open up a bit- if you can call quarter sized groups at 200 "opening up'
all i did to 'tune" was EXTENSIVE handloads, ( keep METICULOUS notes) , a 4x12x40 scope on a s&k mount( there ARE better ) ones like arms , smith , etc) and a harris bipod mounted through the front rivet- and i USE the plate, shoulder rest( the thing that goes up) to sniggle the rifle right into the crotch where it belongs- you also need an enhanced cheek rest if you're going to use a scope- DO NOT USE a m1 garand cheek rest as these are 1) too low) and 2) offset to the left as the scope was offset to the left on the garand
 
t-star said:
the question is "have you FIRED it yet?" what kind of groups are you getting ?- and what's your game- factory or handloads?"- BEFORE you do ANYTHING , take it out and shoot it- i've had m14s most of my adult life, both usgi and rincko,and some CAN'T be improved by parts subs or tuning- the four( yea, that's right , four) i have right now were VASTLY improved by HANDLOADS alone- basically, the 165-168 grain bullet, as suggested by ZEDIKER- you can look up his handloads on line- you won't "see" anything at 100 yards , but at 200, ther's where they open up a bit- if you can call quarter sized groups at 200 "opening up'
all i did to 'tune" was EXTENSIVE handloads, ( keep METICULOUS notes) , a 4x12x40 scope on a s&k mount( there ARE better ) ones like arms , smith , etc) and a harris bipod mounted through the front rivet- and i USE the plate, shoulder rest( the thing that goes up) to sniggle the rifle right into the crotch where it belongs- you also need an enhanced cheek rest if you're going to use a scope- DO NOT USE a m1 garand cheek rest as these are 1) too low) and 2) offset to the left as the scope was offset to the left on the garand
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Agreed.
There are very little relevant upgrades to be done on these rifles.
I'd say 95% of all the ridiculously expensive part swapping, tinkering etc doesn't do a darn thing to improve accuracy.

I'm taking my 2007 Norc M14 out tomorrow with some junk MFS ammo and some good quality 168gr Federal stuff.

All I did to mine was replace the rear sights with an M1A set and put it in a discount Boyds stock and turn the windage knob one click left to compensate for the slanted flash suppressor/front post lol

I'll take extensive pics and post a thread on the results that can be achieved without doing any nonsense "upgrades" on these rifles.
 
Travis Bickle said:
Agreed.
There are very little relevant upgrades to be done on these rifles.
I'd say 95% of all the ridiculously expensive part swapping, tinkering etc doesn't do a darn thing to improve accuracy.

I'm taking my 2007 Norc M14 out tomorrow with some junk MFS ammo and some good quality 168gr Federal stuff.

All I did to mine was replace the rear sights with an M1A set and put it in a discount Boyds stock and turn the windage knob one click left to compensate for the slanted flash suppressor/front post lol

I'll take extensive pics and post a thread on the results that can be achieved without doing any nonsense "upgrades" on these rifles.
Click to expand...



Surely there has to be something. Like- what makes a dmr a dmr?
 
I just pull (hammer, big freaking hammer) off the flash suppressor so that I can access the gas cylinder. Then I pull that gas cylinder off to see what 'timing' the cylinder lock exhibits. Ideally I want the gas cylinder lock to have "tension at about 4 o'clock and rubber hammer it down to 6 o'clock" tight.

Sometimes, I can flip the gas cylinder lock 180 degrees and that MIGHT get my desired tension. At my clinics we SWAP these locks amongst each other until everyone with a corresponding GOOD lock is eliminated. The ones left standing get free shims to shim their gas cylinder assembly. Now it's tight and won't need welding/ unitizing (that's for serious match shooters) anymore.

Then I wiggle the op rod guide to see how loose it is and peen the barrel UNDER that op rod guide to 'raise' or 'crater' the barrel surface. I will then re-install the original factory pin or I have a supply of fresh spare pins 1/8" diameter by 3/4" long. Sometimes we can red Loctite that baby down and re-insert the pin.

Then I grease the moving parts (not the piston in the gas cylinder, of course) and play with the bolt inside it's raceways. More grease to the trigger hammer, hammer nose and hammer hooks should smooth out that first stage of the trigger pull. :D

Most hunters or zombie preppers will stop here. :)

I will now play with the iron sights and likely pitch them for some Italian sourced (ebay) M1 Garand sights. Or maybe Randy S at TreelineM14 dot com and I keep my order UNDER $ 100 , but order a few times! :)

There, does that help? If you really insist, for the tuning process.... send me a PM. :evil:

Cheers,
Barney
 
So, after 7 years and over $5000 what I have (besides an emotional issue) is a Norinco M14 that I get about 1 moa groups, maybe a hair under if all the conditions are perfect, I've had no coffee and great ### the night before. Most of the dollars have (admittedly) gone to lipstick but here's a summary
Vltor stock
CASM mount
fire lapped barrel (this should get some opinions going)
Leupold Mk V scope
guide rod and buffer
trigger job to get a positive 2 stage measured at 4 lbs total with the second stage using only about 1 lb to break.
and a bunch of superflous jewellery
So the question is, is there any point in trying to tune further.
All I use is standard M118LR. I don't handload.

552436_10151949514740283_816330949_n.jpg
 
wjburtt said:
So, after 7 years and over $5000 what I have (besides an emotional issue) is a Norinco M14 that I get about 1 moa groups, maybe a hair under if all the conditions are perfect, I've had no coffee and great ### the night before. Most of the dollars have (admittedly) gone to lipstick but here's a summary
Vltor stock
CASM mount
fire lapped barrel (this should get some opinions going)
Leupold Mk V scope
guide rod and buffer
trigger job to get a positive 2 stage measured at 4 lbs total with the second stage using only about 1 lb to break.
and a bunch of superflous jewellery
So the question is, is there any point in trying to tune further.
All I use is standard M118LR. I don't handload.

552436_10151949514740283_816330949_n.jpg
Click to expand...

lol My stock Norc does about 1 inch groups right now.
It could probably do better with a more experienced shooter behind the trigger.
I'm uploading my thread right now.

Cool looking rig though man! ;)
 
Mine right out of the box was doing only about 3 inch groups. My goal wasn't specifically to get to sub moa, just to have it the way I liked it. Getting a 3/4" group once in a while just got me more motivated to try to establish what it really is capabale of.
 
TACTICAL111 said:
You will never find out if you don't handload. Should be your first step.
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x2 on the handloads...........Massive improvement for reasonable outlay on equipment that can be used for multiple guns and your saving money all the time
I could wax lyrical about it being the buzz of using your own loads etc...but we all know that feeling eh

Sweet rig tho wjburt
 
Lost...again said:
x2 on the handloads...........Massive improvement for reasonable outlay on equipment that can be used for multiple guns and your saving money all the time
I could wax lyrical about it being the buzz of using your own loads etc...but we all know that feeling eh

Sweet rig tho wjburt
Click to expand...

I took out my basically stock Norc M14 this weekend with some MFS ammo and some quality Federal stuff just to illustrate this point on the ammo being the main "accurizer" for this rifle lol

I managed a just under 2 inch group from the prone using a bag for a rest 100 meters with irons with the quality Federal stuff. I'm sure if I used a mounted optic I could manage better.

I took a whole bunch of pics and was going to post a thread basically to show what these rifles can do without thousands of bucks dropped on USGI parts etc but photobucket is down lol :(

As soon as I can get the pics up with URL's I'll post the thread.
 
Lost...again said:
x2 on the handloads...........Massive improvement for reasonable outlay on equipment that can be used for multiple guns and your saving money all the time
I could wax lyrical about it being the buzz of using your own loads etc...but we all know that feeling eh

Sweet rig tho wjburt
Click to expand...

Well I think you guys just made my mind up for me... re loading store, here I come!
 
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