Norinco M14 excessive headspace ?

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S1nnerman

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Hey guys,

I've had my M14 for about 3 months now and only fired factory .308 ammo, around 1000. Never had an issue what so ever.

The other day, a friend of mine brought his .308 go, no go and field gauges. My M14 bolt closed on all of them ( I did not disassemble the action, extractor and all that) . Now I am very well aware that those Norinco chambers are made for Nato rounds but is it normal that it even closed on the field gauge ? And what's the possible danger of shooting bullets in a rifle with excessive headspace ?

I appreciate your feedback

Cheers
Mario
 
It is fairly normal for Norinco M14s to have headspace in excess of SAAMI field reject (1.640"). Field reject for 7.62 NATO is 1.6455". That being said, you need to either strip the bolt or use a gauge with a cutout for the ejector to be sure of an accurate measurement.

Excessive headspace is unlikely in itself to cause catastrophic failure, but it will significantly shorten the case life of reloads using full-length resized brass.
 
your brass should be showing signs of problems if there is one
that said, I would be concerned if an unstripped bolt even closed on a gauge of any size....... unless as mentioned above, it was properly machined to accommodate the extractor and ejector.

there are a couple guys in the main battle rifle forum that will measure fired cases from your rifle if you mail them 5 ...... head over to that forum and ask the question again, someone might offer to assist ;)
 
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