Marstar AKM (EBR m-14 style stock)
- Thread starter simpleton
- Start date
Ya what does it matter where the guy is from.If he's out of business and no longer making the stock then we need to find someone that will.IMHO 675 is a little pricey for a knock off,that being said i have no idea how much a real EBR stock costs lol.
675.00 for an aluminum, CNC stock and handguard... Knock off or not, is a smoking price for an item made in canada.
I've handled and installed the AKM's .... Sage they are not.... But very close indeed.
There WILL be newly designed, no Knockoffs here, aluminum modular stocks for the M14s coming, but getting production going can be a challenge, I know, I'm living it
Regardless.... For those of us endeavoring to bring products to market, it's not very motivating when folks think 675.00 is too pricey for a made here at home alternative to the stuff made in the U.S.
Johnone, if the former manufacturer wants to sell his CNC files for this stock... Email me
Progress report on one of the new Canadian designed and manufactured alloy M14 stocks.
I just got back from the CNC shop, "interfacing" with the machinests who actually make the metal chips. We are progressing slowly but surely towards what we feel will be the BEST alloy DROP IN M14 cheese grater stock available at ANY price.
We now have the M14 action bedded firmly into a big chunk of munimula. The inside of the stock bedding cuts are in CNC programming, so we can now redo over and over again the perfect/repeatable bedding that CNC and alloy can achieve.
Today's agenda was mostly about prototyping the barrel-to-forend tensioning, and detailing the smooth transition at the rear of the stock, which will accept AR 15 buffer tubes and/or stocks and pistol grips.
Next week we will have the stock at a range for test firing. If the accuracy tests go well, then it is time to start whittling on the outside, aiming for the right blend of light weight, balance and ergonomics.
"Ergonomics" and "balance" and "feel" are all highly subjective, highly personal preferences. And so is STYLE. Achieving a Tacticool LOOK with a cheese grater stock is one thing, but achieving an improvement in fast handling and accuracy is another. For our stock, form follows function. And if it looks "Tacticool", that will be a serendipitous side effect. I won't promise that it will end up looking "beautiful" or "###y" ...
all I will say is that it probably won't be any more FUGLY than any of the other alloy M14 cheese graters.
When it comes to all the other alloy stocks currently on the market, there are good things [ and not so good things ] that can be said about each.
For example,
the AKM and the TROY.
As far as ergonomics and balance go, I personally like the AKM as the best alloy stock available to date. And after I chop modded my AKM, I liked it even better.
Of course,
YPMMV.
[;{)
The AKM one piece MONOLITHIC lower main stock is a piece of machine shop magic ...
beautifully machined from one solid block of alloy.
NOT easy to duplicate.
In comparison, the AKM makes the more expensive multi piece Troy look as if the Troy was designed primarily for manufacturing convenience rather than structural integrity. The Troy is again a beautifully fitted piece of kit, but the TROY appears to be more of a collection of parts flying in close formation, and the AKM looks like a solid integrated unit.
BUT,
the AKM stock does have a serious design flaw,
that IMHO rules it out as a PRACTICAL M14 stock.
The AKM hand guard and top rail are held to the bottom main part of the stock with a plethora of allen head cap screws. To take the action out for any reason involves you in undoing way too many screws. Worse yet, you have to remove the scope mount as well.
Not easy to re-zero.
NOT A PRACTICAL/TACTICAL design!
Our new design for an M14 stock and hand guard will take down very similar to a standard M14 .... no plethora of screws to unscrew. And the hand guard, with full length top rail, will be FIRMLY attached to the barreled action, so the sights and optics stay zeroed when stock and hand guard are separated.
The TROY railed hand guard and fore end tensioning [ on the Gen 1 ] is an interesting design. On the Troy Gen 1, the barrel is tensioned by pushing UPWARDS with an adjustable screw on a complicated and heavy sub-assembly. You can actually flex the entire fore end significantly with a few turns of the adjusting screw, and watch the entire lower stock assembly bend. You can take the pin out of the back of the TROY top/bottom connection, and again see the entire hand guard flex at some of the cut outs. Admittedly, once everything is tightened up, the TROY becomes a fairly solid assembly.
But would you rather have a bunch of parts, an "assembly", held together by pins and screws, or a one piece solid monolithic unit?
So on and on it goes ...
ttfn
[;{)
LAZ 1
I just got back from the CNC shop, "interfacing" with the machinests who actually make the metal chips. We are progressing slowly but surely towards what we feel will be the BEST alloy DROP IN M14 cheese grater stock available at ANY price.
We now have the M14 action bedded firmly into a big chunk of munimula. The inside of the stock bedding cuts are in CNC programming, so we can now redo over and over again the perfect/repeatable bedding that CNC and alloy can achieve.
Today's agenda was mostly about prototyping the barrel-to-forend tensioning, and detailing the smooth transition at the rear of the stock, which will accept AR 15 buffer tubes and/or stocks and pistol grips.
Next week we will have the stock at a range for test firing. If the accuracy tests go well, then it is time to start whittling on the outside, aiming for the right blend of light weight, balance and ergonomics.
"Ergonomics" and "balance" and "feel" are all highly subjective, highly personal preferences. And so is STYLE. Achieving a Tacticool LOOK with a cheese grater stock is one thing, but achieving an improvement in fast handling and accuracy is another. For our stock, form follows function. And if it looks "Tacticool", that will be a serendipitous side effect. I won't promise that it will end up looking "beautiful" or "###y" ...
all I will say is that it probably won't be any more FUGLY than any of the other alloy M14 cheese graters.
When it comes to all the other alloy stocks currently on the market, there are good things [ and not so good things ] that can be said about each.
For example,
the AKM and the TROY.
As far as ergonomics and balance go, I personally like the AKM as the best alloy stock available to date. And after I chop modded my AKM, I liked it even better.
Of course,
YPMMV.
[;{)
The AKM one piece MONOLITHIC lower main stock is a piece of machine shop magic ...
beautifully machined from one solid block of alloy.
NOT easy to duplicate.
In comparison, the AKM makes the more expensive multi piece Troy look as if the Troy was designed primarily for manufacturing convenience rather than structural integrity. The Troy is again a beautifully fitted piece of kit, but the TROY appears to be more of a collection of parts flying in close formation, and the AKM looks like a solid integrated unit.
BUT,
the AKM stock does have a serious design flaw,
that IMHO rules it out as a PRACTICAL M14 stock.
The AKM hand guard and top rail are held to the bottom main part of the stock with a plethora of allen head cap screws. To take the action out for any reason involves you in undoing way too many screws. Worse yet, you have to remove the scope mount as well.
Not easy to re-zero.
NOT A PRACTICAL/TACTICAL design!
Our new design for an M14 stock and hand guard will take down very similar to a standard M14 .... no plethora of screws to unscrew. And the hand guard, with full length top rail, will be FIRMLY attached to the barreled action, so the sights and optics stay zeroed when stock and hand guard are separated.
The TROY railed hand guard and fore end tensioning [ on the Gen 1 ] is an interesting design. On the Troy Gen 1, the barrel is tensioned by pushing UPWARDS with an adjustable screw on a complicated and heavy sub-assembly. You can actually flex the entire fore end significantly with a few turns of the adjusting screw, and watch the entire lower stock assembly bend. You can take the pin out of the back of the TROY top/bottom connection, and again see the entire hand guard flex at some of the cut outs. Admittedly, once everything is tightened up, the TROY becomes a fairly solid assembly.
But would you rather have a bunch of parts, an "assembly", held together by pins and screws, or a one piece solid monolithic unit?
So on and on it goes ...
ttfn
[;{)
LAZ 1
The bedding is rock solid. I only had a chance to briefly see the AKM bedding and most recently, Troys, and I can say without doubt that the bedding in that chunk of metal is tighter than a virgin in Instanbul. Hands down that is my favorite analogy. I will use this analogy more and more as things progress here.
We've resolved to tension the barrel in a way no one ever has. We hope that it will prove itself on the range.
Now that process sounds like it will take a couple of weeks or something but I have a feeling we'll be working on it for months. I'd call that, "Shaving the Virgin." What do you think Laz? Time for a Gillete?
All of the above is exactly right.
I look forward to range testing, hopefully it happens next week as planned, however, it seems that getting things done on time is like expecting nothing to happen when you throw a virgin into a bar full of drunks. Heh heh...I couldn't help myself.
