Cut and pasted from my sticky up in the M14 Forums...
Have a read here and learn. It works, but it's expensive! Anything out past 500 meters, I bust open my .260 Rem M700 shooting Lapua Scenar bullets!
Wanna make your Norinco-Plinko M14 into a M25 DMR or M21 Sniper Wannabe rifle ? READ this first and then decide if you wanna drop the $$ involved.
It's New Year's Eve and my son has a few revellers in the house. They are cool and having a fun time. So I cannot sleep due to the subwoofer's pounding through the house.
Good time to discuss my ventures back in 2002 and 2003.
My first Norinco M305 set me back $ 700 from Milarm and I was glad to get hold of one since this was early 2002 and Marstar's big shipments had not landed for quite a few more months.
I shot a few handloads through the barrel and mike'd the chamber: 17 thou Typically large for the average (10 thou) Norinco M14's that would arrive a few months later. Normal size for the many, many USGI M14's that I through my hands in the mid 80's.
My brother sent me a used Douglas USGI barrel that cost him $ 100 USD. He picked it up at a gun show in Dallas. Previous owner was an NRA NM Course competitor with a "High Master" classification. I was merely a "Sharpshooter". This owner said that he shot 3000 rounds through this barrel and was beginning to drop a few X's from his normal aggregate of 490 points out of 500 points. Yeah, I would be so lucky with my 413 point average....
I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy.....
I unscrewed the Norc barrel (and relevant parts hanging on the barrel) and sold them on this board. I assembled the Douglas Chrome-Moly barrel. Smooth process to index... very slick, just as I expected. I re-assembled this rifle with ALL USGI parts that I had accumulated from my Dallas gun shows. Back then the US State Department did not list the M14 relevant parts as Verboten since the USA had not initiated OIF, yet.
I used a Rooster33 stainless op rod spring guide, a TRW made USGI bolt, WELDED gas cylinder assembly that cost me a Tim's double-double to have welded. Jamie (on the CGNutz board) reamed out my USGI flash suppressor at an April 2002 clinic here in Collingwood. I had installed a USGI fiberglass handguard that sat 3/16" from the top edges of the forestock, so no filing or relieving was necessary. Yes, the front band handguard retaining tabs were bent upwards to accomodate (I had to anneal it first) the fat shoulders of the Douglas barrel.
I test fired the rifle as it sat glassed into a reinforced USGI glass stock (buildup with many , many layers of glass, as fat as a McMillan fat bastard NM stock). The brass mic'ed to 1.630". Perfectly dead fzcken nuts on at the SAAMI spec of 1.630". A match chamber- RFO (Right On) Life gets better. I had mounted my Leupold LR/T Mark4 M1 6.5 x 20 x 50 mildot reticle scope using an ARMS # 18 mount and Millett Angle - Loc 30mm rings. I know I'm gonna get flamed for swearing BY these rings when many CGNutters will swear AT them, but they work for me and my budget. Not to mention many DCRA medals won at NSCC/CFSAC, and some 50-XV's shot with these cheaper Millett rings. I shot a wack of 5 round groups. Several were 3/4" and touching, many were 1" and touching, 2 of them were 0.5" , but we all know I could have gotten lucky.
Conclusion: shoots into 3/4"... good enough for the girls we go out with. More accurate than I could ever hold it.
Then I showed up at a Precision Rifle match the following weekend at CFB Boredom's Mons Range. I was shooting 155 gr. Sierra Match Kings, Moly-Coated coming out of my barrel at 2800 fps. This is what I observed...
At 300, 400 , 500, 600 yards, my comeups were the EXACT same as my settings on my 26" factory bbl'ed Remington VS .308 sniper rig. Nothing had changed. Life is ducky !! I was impressed with my rifle. This is great. Maybe I should shoot this for the remainder of the season. Wowsers...
Then we moved further back to 800 yard mound. Things changed QUICKLY. Remember that I am shooting the same load/bullet/powder/ammo that my Remington sniper rifle shoots. So now I have to add another 6 MOA to my familiar 800 yard setting, as recorded in my notebook. You do take notes on your scope settings don't you ? I just held ONE mildot higher or so.
Discoveries from this project:
* Up to 600 yards, this would be a great sniper rig, same comeups, tight groups... yeeeeha
* After 600 yards, ballistically you are at a disadvantage with trajectory, time in flight and of course wind deflection
* You want small groups ? Save your money and buy a Tikka, Savage, Rem M700, Win M70 Stealth, SAKO, Weatherby Threat rifle, yada yada yada
* You really gotta love the M14 platform to shoot long range, otherwise you are wasting your time, money, bullets, weekend, etc.
* Shooting Long Range ? Less money gets you a 7mm Rem Mag or 300 Win Mag Winchester Laredo or Remington Sendero right outta the box, even a custom 6.5 x 284 is cheaper using a Rem M700 action.
So there ya go. If you really and truly wanna drop a pile and I mean a BFP (big pile) of money to build up an M25 DMR wannabe, it can be done, but you might be better off spending less $$ and buying above mentioned tactical rifle(s). Plug for Mysticplayer here.... better yet, give him your money and he can build you a 1000 yard tackdriver!!
In closing: Just like I say in my clinics, SAVE YER Money !
