Chinese M-14's are not perfect, and have a few common shortcommings, but they are a fantastic value.
The receivers fit all USGI made parts, including barrels. Headspace is almost always not only within spec, but near the middle of the spec (a good thing). The receivers aren't pretty, but they ARE stronger than Springfield Armoury's M1A's (cast) because the Chinese ones are forged with strong steel.
The barrels are really quite good, not a shortcoming, so no real need to replace them to get accuracy. It's the rest of the M-14 design, and the Chinese triggers, that need cleaning up or tweeking, to maximize the accuracy. Do that, and groups of 1 to 1.5 MOA should be achievable consistently. There are countless threads in this sub-forum, but the two main ones are: "national match op-rod spring guide", and testing out different ammo loads because some will print much better than others...only trial and error will tell you which.
Consistent sub-MOA just doesn't really seem practical or cost effective to achieve with this rifle design, at any cost or effort. But realistically, consistent 1.5 MOA is really darn good for 99% of people's needs.
Downsides?
-The Chinese iron sights are garbage IMO, poor aperture dimensions, and the parts may not all be heat treated properly. The easy fix is to either buy a scope and mount, or replace the iron sights with either USGI, Italian or Springfield iron sight parts (or any of the other quality US companies making iron sights). I picked National Match iron sights, which I love, which consists of a narrower more precise front blade (great for accuracy, not compromising speed much), a tighter but more precise rear aperture that's also hooded (really like), and new gear system (don't care for it much, slightly different than the standard gears). The upside, is the iron sight SYSTEM for these rifles is among the very best designs the world has ever seen.
-Chinese stocks suck. They used to come with a very soft "mystery wood" that was just garbage. Now days and for the last several years, they come with a functional black plastic stock that's ok...it's plenty strong IMO, and would work well if top accuracy isn't your goal. But, most of us either have or intend to replace the Chinese plastic with an American stock, or one of the two brand new high quality, hi tech Canadian stocks (strong ultra-light carbon fibre stocks made by Ingram Custom Rifleworks that seem to be just 33% the weight of ALL other M-14 stocks, or the new aluminium from M-14.ca). A cheap fast road to accuracy is a national match spring guide, and a USGI stock.
-they need to be greased...not just a dab of WD-40, but actually GREASED. This isn't a shortcoming of the Chinese rifles, but rather an inherent design requirement for the entire family of Garand/M-14/M1A rifles. And while it's a bit dirty to apply and clean off, I've gotten used to it, and it'll help to ensure longevity and reliability, through proper lubrication.
So say you buy one, out of the box it's a cheap .308 rifle, that will give you 4 more shots fast. If you do a few tweeks, replace a few of the parts mentioned, you'll put fist sized groups at 300m, dependably, for a total cost of 1/2 that of a Springfield M1A. Or less.
Americans pay far more ($1000) for the now-proven Chinese M-14's imported in the early 90's, than we get to pay ($450), in part because they are good, in part because they no longer can import new ones.
