I bought one of the latest batch of shorties. I have an older regular length Norinco 2007 that shoots quite well out of the box. I intend to bed it and tune it up so it will shoot the 300 leg of a Vintage Rifle shoot.
When I saw the shorty on the market i got to thinking I could try it in CQB, for giggles. For shooting at 30 yards to 10 yards, no accurizing is needed. I would just paint the front sight post bright orange and shoot.
We shoot against the clock, so lots of recoil is not good. My thought was maybe I could download ammo enough that it would still cycle the action, but kick more like a CZ858.
Out of the box I noticed it was dripping oil, but was not greased where it needed grease. I wiped off all the oil and decided to shoot it dry for the first day to help smooth it up quicker. It worked just fine.
The front sight looks very tall. It sticks up above the protective ears.
When zeroed at 100, the rear sight also sticks up quite a bit. I intend to cut a tenth of an inch off the front sight and re-zero.
The op rod handle is sharp. Must be a casting. I used a round file to smooth off the sharp edges.
Looking at the front end, I looks to me like the bayo lug will prevent removing the gas cylinder. Have not tried yet.
Shooting went well. I zeroed at 100 yards using some milsurp ammo. It grouped 3.9" off bags. About the same as my SKS and not quite as good as my CZ858.
10 rounds of an unknown left over match ammo (155gr bullet) grouped 3.2". Good enough to be useful.
About the most I will do to this rifle to accurize it is a bedding job.
Then I moved over to the 50 yard line and shot very poor milsurp bullets with reduced charges of powder. i wanted to see how low I could go and still have a rifle that would cycle, and wanted to see what the accuracy looked like. If it grouped ok at 50, then that would be plenty good enough for CQB (30 yards max range).
I used 150 gr bullets and BLC2 powder in military Berdan cases. I shot 42 grains and down to 26 gr, in 2.0gr increments. Accuracy remained the same (around 3.5") and the rifle cycled just fine. I had assumed it would stop cycling before I got down to 26, so I did not have any 24 or 22 to try.
Recoil was much milder with 26 gr. About the same as a SKS.
If you have a kid or wife who wants to try the M14, this is one way to do it.
When I saw the shorty on the market i got to thinking I could try it in CQB, for giggles. For shooting at 30 yards to 10 yards, no accurizing is needed. I would just paint the front sight post bright orange and shoot.
We shoot against the clock, so lots of recoil is not good. My thought was maybe I could download ammo enough that it would still cycle the action, but kick more like a CZ858.
Out of the box I noticed it was dripping oil, but was not greased where it needed grease. I wiped off all the oil and decided to shoot it dry for the first day to help smooth it up quicker. It worked just fine.
The front sight looks very tall. It sticks up above the protective ears.
When zeroed at 100, the rear sight also sticks up quite a bit. I intend to cut a tenth of an inch off the front sight and re-zero.
The op rod handle is sharp. Must be a casting. I used a round file to smooth off the sharp edges.
Looking at the front end, I looks to me like the bayo lug will prevent removing the gas cylinder. Have not tried yet.
Shooting went well. I zeroed at 100 yards using some milsurp ammo. It grouped 3.9" off bags. About the same as my SKS and not quite as good as my CZ858.
10 rounds of an unknown left over match ammo (155gr bullet) grouped 3.2". Good enough to be useful.
About the most I will do to this rifle to accurize it is a bedding job.
Then I moved over to the 50 yard line and shot very poor milsurp bullets with reduced charges of powder. i wanted to see how low I could go and still have a rifle that would cycle, and wanted to see what the accuracy looked like. If it grouped ok at 50, then that would be plenty good enough for CQB (30 yards max range).
I used 150 gr bullets and BLC2 powder in military Berdan cases. I shot 42 grains and down to 26 gr, in 2.0gr increments. Accuracy remained the same (around 3.5") and the rifle cycled just fine. I had assumed it would stop cycling before I got down to 26, so I did not have any 24 or 22 to try.
Recoil was much milder with 26 gr. About the same as a SKS.
If you have a kid or wife who wants to try the M14, this is one way to do it.
