I've owned a couple of Norinco M1A clones - an 07 and 09 - and would offer the following comments:
The overall quality in answer to the question "does it work and is it safe ? is that the rifle works fine out of the box. Even if you have an 07 with the Chinese Chu wood stock the answer remains the same. Most people choose to change the old wood stocks for USGI walnut or synthetic because they are simply superior. The stock issue seems to be resolved with the new 09 plastic stocks ( they ain't no MacMillan or anything but they are really fine and no need to change ).
If "fit and finish" are important to you then you have to understand that there may be rough spots and tooling marks that you won't ( or at least shouldn't ) find on a Remington 700 or similar-quality hunting rifle.
Operational flaws that I have personally obseved are pretty much limited to two things - an op red misalignment and crappy ( gritty and almost meaningless elevation and windage controls ) rear sights. The former is a easy fix for a gunsmith or M14 hobbyist and the latter can be either managed or replaced ( with USGI ).
Scope mounting is more of a challenge than with a bolt gun and the better mounts ( ie won't loose friggin zero ) can cost in excess of $200. This platform is also reported to be hard on scopes ( having said that I had a crap Leupold clone that held up fine but others have wrecked quality scopes on this rifle).
Accuracy - this issue is, to me, simply a case of managing expectations. If you want to shoot tight groups ( 1 MOA or better ) then I think you are better off with a bolt gun. There may be people on the board who have M1A clones who can shoot sub-moa with their rifles but my personal experience is that 1.5 to 4 inch groups are more the norm. But, the M1A clone is a lot of fun to use, challenging to master, and a rifle that you can add a lot of toys and mods to. I can't think of a better platform for ringing a gong at 200m !
Personally I think these rifles are awesome value and every board member should have one plus an SKS, a CZ858, an AR and .22LR bolt and a Rem 700P (or better ) !!
Anyway, enjoy your M1A Clone, M305, M14s or M14 or whatever you wanna call it - I say this because eventually you will get one
