Norinco M14, One Thousand Rounds Later

[Tengoo]

If you looked at the thread history you would see that it was Battlerife that brought it back to life yesterday.

Indeed. How about it, Battlerife?

 

[BattleRife]

Guys....this thread is FIVE YEARS OLD....

If Battlerife is still around and still shooting his M305, it would be interesting to hear the round count and how the rifle is holding up.

Oh, I'm still here, and so is the rifle, and as others pointed out it was I who necro-bumped this thread to keep it from vanishing into the graveyard of the internet.

Looking at my notes, I loaded over 870 rounds of 7.62x51 that first summer, plus the 100 rounds of factory Federal I bought along with the gun and the odds and sods of surplus I shot through it, so it was definitely over 1000. But since then we have been in a near constant state of shortages, first bullets in 2009, then the acute primer shortage of 2010-11, now a fairly serious powder shortage, and these all have driven me to shoot my easy-to-provide-for handguns a lot more and my hungry, expensive centrefire semi-autos a lot less. I loaded less than 600 rounds of 7.62x51 over the summers of 2009-2013, and bought little or none, so the rifle probably still hasn't seen its 2000th shot fired.

I realized I never described the rifle in any of my previous writings so that people could identify what batch it came from. It is a 2007, so marked on the right side of the receiver, with a six digit serial number 010### on the left, along with the CJA / Southfield, MI address. Obviously it is a full length, wood stocked variant, and I bought it direct from Marstar.

So how did the TZ80 work? Any split cases, case head separations? I purchased a can of it and stopped using it when I discovered a bunch of bad reviews. The 100 rounds I shot were all fine and mine did come in a can individually packaged in cardboard boxes. What I understand is the bad ammo is sold loose and shows some signs of water damage. I've put mine away with the RG.

I didn't shoot very much of that stuff, a box or two. I think I still have 3 boxes left. It came in cardboard boxes, not loose, and I had no troubles that I recall.

Anyway, a couple of pics of the rifle to show, well to show nothing, really. I haven't changed or modified a single part on it since the flash suppressor was changed out and the safety adjusted. It still beats itself up below the ejection port, you can see some bare wood there now. Apart from that it is soldiering along on its current assignment of "light duties".

 

[BattleRife]

Boy, comparing these two images, the stock sure has darkened a lot. Maybe I should throw it in the dishwasher?

 

[Lost...again]

Boy, comparing these two images, the stock sure has darkened a lot. Maybe I should throw it in the dishwasher?

Cheers mate, that got tea coming out of my nose.

 

[garandguy10]

Try a USGI ejector, extractor and springs to help prevent the stock from getting more damaged.

 

[BattleRife]

Try a USGI ejector, extractor and springs to help prevent the stock from getting more damaged.

I'm reluctant to fiddle with it. Most people report M14s are hard on brass, but mine is the most polite semi-auto I own when it comes to the way it tosses empty cases. No dents or significant dings, and the cases get placed in a convenient pile about 1.5m to the right and a little bit forward. I don't want to mess that up.