NORC M14/M305 Newbie question after reading the stickies

M

marcjer

CGN Regular
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Location
South Central Ontario
Got a new Norc m305 a few hours ago, after reading the stickies. I field stripped her down:

3 things I noticed and wanted to make sure my understanding is correct to the CGNer's w M14 experience ...
or if I am lucky one of the M14 gurus..such as Hungry, M14Doc..etc

Question 1:

I noticed that the piston isn't 100% aligned with the oprod, there are offset a few centimeters.
(infact a good 20% of the oprod doesn't make contact with the piston.

Does this mean that the I should "unitize the gas and barrel".

Question 2:

I noticed that the op rod spring kinks slightly..
Does that mean I should buy a USGI spring (ex from Brownell's)
AND buy a round Spring guide as well? ( mine is the flat Chinese one)

Question 3:

I noticed more wear on the little lug of the bolt carrier than the bigger right side of the bolt carrier

Does that mean that over time I should get a new (USGI) bolt?



The gun looks like nice but haven't fired it yet.
The gentleman who sold it to me said he could get 3-4 moa in about 3-5 groupings.

That type of accuracy is decent enough for what it is..although halving that would be nice.
I am more concerned about wearing the gun down the wrong way.

I understand you can really tune these guns up a lot, and I am sure I'll find myself in a seminar pretty soon.
However, I am trying to resist dumping a lot more $$$ in building it.

Thanks CGNers.

Marcjer
 
I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in, but regarding Q2, my spring and guide rod were the same. I replaced the spring guide with one from S&J Hardware and it straightened the spring and smoothed things out.
 
I should mention that the rifle shot fine as received after cleaning it and testing for function per the stickies AND it was a ton of fun.
 
One of the first things I did was replace the oprod spring and trigger spring with wolff springs. They are noticably better quality. Also M14.ca sells an oprod spring guide called the "black arrow" for $40. It is far more robust and is precision cut. It took any wow I had in the spring. I really recommend getting those couple of things and they are not expensive and easy to replace.
 
I know some of the guys with a lot more experience then me will jump In.

But first improvement that you should make is a USGI spec spring and OpRod spring guide. They are not that expensive and you will notice a difference in how your rifle behaves. It can effect accuracy but more so reliability and consistency. The Norc spring is a larger diameter and will kink on the flat bar. The USGI spring and USGI spring guide rod are much closer in spec.

Is the piston and OpRod Connecting surface flat to each other? And it's just the piston kind of makes a larger diameter circle on the OpRod then the diameter of the piston? If so mine does the same and has not had any issues. This I bet could be solved with a USGI OpRod and gas system as the alignment and tolenrences will be straighter. You could check your piston and OpRod and make sure they are true. But I'm betting a new OpRod spring guide and spring will help here.

As far as the bolt goes.. With out seeing pictures it's hard to guess but my thoughts would be grease it up with a lithium grease and shoot it like you stole it!

Just my 2 cents
 
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Is the Op rod guide tight to the barrel?
The terms op rod guide and spring guide seem to be used interchangably in many of the posts.
The spring guide is inside the spring and is part of the mag attachment mechanism.
The op rod guide is secured to the barrel with a roll pin. The op rod guide can be re-aligned and secured to the barrel with the "dimpling" technique described in the stickies and various posts (loc tite, punch, new roll pin). The spring guide replacement is by far the most effective and easy improvement to the rifle's accuracy in my experience. The replacement of the spring itself is not really required in my experience, opinions vary. The Norc springs and USGI springs differ in diameter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzSJOUkirzM -this video demonstrates the spring guide mod really well.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?800062-wiggly-op-rod-guide
 
Q1


Check the concentricity...my piston hole was not centered, causing piston/oprod mid alignment

Q2

Chines spring chines oprod spring guide...
American spring american oprod spring guide.
Blackearrow is for Chinese spring.

Q3.

Bolts need to get lapped so that both lugs share the load evenly. Use a marker to colour the lugs, then operate to see where the contact points are.

Library of info a m14.ca


Spring guide replacement one of the best things to do for accuracy.

AMMO CHOICE is also something to consider
 
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