Norinco M-14 for big game?

Rick65Cat

Rick65Cat

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I've never owned one of the norc M-14s.
I was wondering how the accuracy is on these guns? Are they fairly tight grouping (4-5 inches) out to a couple of hundred yards? I wanted to buy one as a cheap deer slayer. Where else are you going to find a *New* .308 semi-auto for about $400 bones?
Also, is hunting ammo available in 7.62x51? If you can only get FMJ, then its kinda pointless eh?

Thanks
 
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It's a kick ass deer slayer. It should be decent out of the box but if you do a few inexpensive mods then it will definatly hold to minute of deer:D Buy HUNGRY'S DVD or pm me or another guy who took the Calgary clinic and we can help you with some tweaking tips.

Yes ammo is avaliable. There are a few interesting threads about it here but mainly stick to under 170 grain and make sure your bolt is clean.

GOOD LUCK:D
 
there has been lots of discussion on this topic. seems many guys are quite happy with there norc rifles for hunting. They seem to be using them for everything from gophers, coyote, deer, moose and caribou from the threads i've visited in the past on the forums here. I'll be using mine for the remainder of the deer season and for an elk hunt later this winter.
you can use commercial .308 ammunition..... mine prefers the 150 grain federal power shock soft points a perfect deer round out to 300 yards. i think i'll look for some federal in a 165 to 175 grain for my elk hunt though. The norc rifles are stamped .308 win on the receiver and are generally headspaced past 7.62 x51 no go from what i've read. Though they seem to function fine with most 7.62 milsurp ammo and most commercial .308.
they can be a heavy rifle to pack around all day, especially if you are hiking uphill so a good sling is a good idea.
 
The bears did not cooperate, but I had no worries about the choice of gun.
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I can't say for sure what the accuracy is out of the box, but mine will shoot minute of angle at 200 yards using Federal 150 grain vital shock 308 ammo. The gun does have the gas cylinder shimmed, improved op rod guide, USGI fibreglass stock and a scope. Don't expect the gun to show its true accuracy potential when using just any old ammo. The surplus stuff, while it may operate fine, may not be the best for accuracy. You need to do a little experimenting with ammo.
 
"...is hunting ammo available..." It's called .308 Winchester. If you're not reloading you'll have to buy a box of as many brands as you can to find the ammo your rifle shoots well. Think 165 grain bullets.
4 to 5 inches at 200 isn't that great, but it'll do for deer.
 
I hunted for years (and still do sometimes) with a Rem model 600 in 308 with a 19" barrel. I've flattened bears and 50" moose with it, and the M14 has 1 1/2" more barrel and fires the same ammo. They're plenty powerful enough to take anything in North America (easily in my opinion) and most of them are more accurate out of the box than most hunters are anyways. If you want to spend money accurizing it then you should be able to get 1 MOA accuracy out of it (maybe mroe with handloads). But if you just want to hunt; buy one, dissasemble and remove the cosmoline from it (do a good job - get it out of the gas system and bolt!), put it back together well lubricated, buy yourself a couple of boxes of Winchester 165 grain ballistic silvertips and never look back.
 
I used mine for hunting until I bought a T3. You can get by with the Norinco but I found it less than ideal.

-It is heavy. When going after deer we often walk for many hours, even with a sling it was just plain heavy.
-it is noisy. I found the mag, bolt and safety to be very noisy, particularly when trying to stock deer. Also,the sling swivel would bang against the fiberglass stock and scare game off.

I think it depends on the type of hunting you want to do and how badly you want or need to hunt with a rifle of this type. Although short on cool factor my T3 lite stainless is a smooth, reliable killing tool.
 
Thanks guys for the posts. I've never owned a gun that shot .308 Win, so I'm in new water here. Got my Norc Sks, and my short barrel 6.5x55 Swedish mauser which have both taken down deer in bushy Ontario. I'm just thinking Alberta might have more open area neccessitating the purchase of a new hunting rifle (hehe) :rolleyes:
 
Rick65Cat said:
I've never owned one of the norc M-14s.
I was wondering how the accuracy is on these guns? Are they fairly tight grouping (4-5 inches) out to a couple of hundred yards? I wanted to buy one as a cheap deer slayer. Where else are you going to find a *New* .308 semi-auto for about $400 bones?
Also, is hunting ammo available in 7.62x51? If you can only get FMJ, then its kinda pointless eh?

Thanks
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if you're getting 4-5 inches at 200 yards, there's something wrong with either the gun, ammo, or your style- i've got 4 of the darned things and they all give toonie sized groups or better at 100- that shouldn't start to open up till you get around 300- right off, i'd try changing the ammo- something in the 165 grain range-
 
I LOVE hunting deer with an M1A/M14S. With a little tweeking a la Hungry and a little grunting while you lug that rifle around the hills, I can't think of a reason why you could not have many happy hunting seasons with them. There is alot of commercially available hunting ammo that works just fine, and if you re-load then there is just about everything you could possible want under the sun. All of my Norinco boomsticks print between 1 and 2.5 MOA (albeit with a bit of tweeking...I like to play)...absolutely sufficient accuracy to do well in the hunting world if you ask me! I've taken deer with mine at ranges from under 10 yards to about 250 yards:

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Good luck, and good hunting!

Brobee
 
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I got one with mine this season. Although you sure do get a lot of strange looks from some of the hunters and Game Wardens :D. I never found it that heavy but I used an Eagle tac sling. The only problem I found was the sight catches a lot of bush in the heavy stuff
 
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