PSA re: bolt failures in recent import M-14 pattern rifles

Other than the registry and the off again, on again, off again, on again CZ858 - how have we exactly beaten them?

Not trying to be an A$$ - just trying to figure out if I slept through a couple of decades :)

L

Even though large tracts of Canada and many old and famous Provinces have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in the Provinces, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Country, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Country or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

lol...almost coming down to that.
 
In 1977 Trudeau Sr. put the AR-15 on the Restricted list by OIC, in 1979 he was forced to remove it by means of an amendment to that OIC. In the decades since, the AR-15 has only skyrocketed in popularity, and the other guns we love, such as the M-14 platforms, have ridden the coattails of that popularity.

Here are some advantages we have today over 1979:
- Social media and online alternative media give us a public voice we've never had before.
- The mainstream media, though largely bought and paid for by the LPC, no longer hold a monopoly on how people get informed.
- Rapid mass communication helps us organize much more effectively and quickly than ever before.
- Our eyes are wide open, we've already seen what they want to do and how they'll try to do it, so we know how hard we have to fight.
- "desktop manufacturing" with things like 3d printers and 5-axis computerized milling machines that can run on a coffee table if necessary, are quickly making the whole concept of banning objects of any kind obsolete. More importantly, everyday people understand this.

We've got a fighting chance, as long as we don't give up.

The simple solution to that, is to ban the ammunition.

Pretty hard to make a primer. Good powder a close second.

So controlling the ammo, is key. Why having a lot of simple rifles fire all sorts of ammo styles, keeps it alive.
 
The simple solution to that, is to ban the ammunition.

Pretty hard to make a primer. Good powder a close second.

So controlling the ammo, is key. Why having a lot of simple rifles fire all sorts of ammo styles, keeps it alive.


whatever. The day they ban the primer is the day people rediscover flintlocks.
 
After leaving Canada in 2017, I'm finally making arrangements to send my remaining Canadian guns over to me, but my Canadian exporter just confirmed that my M14 has the MIM bolt. I want to get that sorted out before it gets sent to me. Are any of the M14 wizards who participated in this thread still active? I'd like to chat with you if you have a moment.
 
After leaving Canada in 2017, I'm finally making arrangements to send my remaining Canadian guns over to me, but my Canadian exporter just confirmed that my M14 has the MIM bolt. I want to get that sorted out before it gets sent to me. Are any of the M14 wizards who participated in this thread still active? I'd like to chat with you if you have a moment.

What kind of info are you looking for?
As far as getting your rifle serviced, that’s pretty much an impossibility right now….
 
I'd also like to decode the markings on my receiver. I spent a couple hours trying to find an answer but no one has explained the system the chinese use.

I get that some receivers are marked with something that corresponds directly to a real year, but then others use numbers in the 40s and 50s range, and I wonder if that is referring to something like "years since the CCP took over China"?

So my receiver is marked 4 5 54 4 28.

What date does that express?

The rifle itself was packed in January 2015, according to the packing slip, and I bought it from Al Flaherty's in October 2016 and is in the serial number range P142###. It's got an MIM bolt for sure.
 
Last edited:
Here in Poland, a distributor has just received a shipment of 750 M305s (in 150 crates of 5). Of course, I raised the question about the bolts, and the answer may be of interest to some of the Norinco Historians out there.

The Chinese M305 lives on!

you should not confuse the concept of factory with norinco. Norinco is a Chinese seller. There are several in china. The factory is the factory. Any Chinese shopkeeper can buy any of these*. The bad name for Chinese weapons is "norinco" because it was the only company they could export.
Regarding the cracking locks on the m305. According to the information received from the manufacturer (factory, not norinco), the factory that produced m305 in the past no longer exists. The last nail in the coffin apparently (! ) There was a contract to Canada. Production was started by the factory where these copies were ordered and the manufacturer guarantees that they will not break. Guns come with a warranty of course.
*And out of 3rd company in the world. Including after several years of battles for more than two years and us.

Of course I will keep a close eye on this. The distributor posted some photos of the new batch, and for some reason, they come with a completely different flash hider and front sight... looks pretty damn fugly to me...

Here's links to some of the posts (with photos):

https://www.facebook.com/HouseOfGun...KqKCJ1QoVvPkBktJqV2xwr4ehRK31Ei5pMaoUcwab2Khl

https://www.facebook.com/LesnyDziad...N35hxNC9DdtQoK6dkdCsRaXapknRRn2M8AAMecThFqzTl

here you can see closeups of the new bolts and receivers:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink....pymmvqFMxVZ14dmCAzBrXA9YGl&id=100063652686283
 
Last edited:
Hi,
i am new to CGN and i'm foreigner.
I am M14 style fan and recently i bought M305 from 2022 batch. (serial no #10)
It seems that bolts are well made (no mim double circle marks) but maybe i'm too noob to speak it loud so here is my bolt bottom side.
For me it looks fine what is your opinion?
https://i.imgur.com/Mp5oA7U.jpg
 
Hi,
i am new to CGN and i'm foreigner.
I am M14 style fan and recently i bought M305 from 2022 batch. (serial no #10)
It seems that bolts are well made (no mim double circle marks) but maybe i'm too noob to speak it loud so here is my bolt bottom side.
For me it looks fine what is your opinion?
https://i.imgur.com/Mp5oA7U.jpg

After reading through all the posts from the the importer and various shops here in Poland after I sounded the alert over the MIM bolts, it seems that the factory may have switched to an alternative manufacturing process. Still not forged, not MIM, but something else (I can't quite remember).

So, I guess we'll have to wait and see what gremlins manifest themselves in these new guns.

If you don't mind me asking, what country did you purchase the rifle?
 
Same country that you're from my friend :)

From Poland. I'll shoot it through next week so i'll be able to tell something more about it.

Meanwhile i was searching for some shops with M1A parts like op rod guide but couldnt find anything that ships to europe. Any tips?
 
Same country that you're from my friend :)

From Poland. I'll shoot it through next week so i'll be able to tell something more about it.

Meanwhile i was searching for some shops with M1A parts like op rod guide but couldnt find anything that ships to europe. Any tips?

Zajebiście!

Have you tried M14.ca?

They make two different op rod guides and they seem to ship internationally.

http://www.m14.ca/M14_M1A_NORG_USGI_PLUS_OP_ROD_GUIDE.html
http://www.m14.ca/M14_M1A_NORG_USGI_PLUS_OP_ROD_GUIDE.html

I bought their Op Rod Spring Guide when I still lived in Canada.

http://www.m14.ca/M14_M1A_BLACK_ARRROW_ORSG.html

They also make scope mounts, chassis and other good things!

Brownells Polska also has M14 parts (but the website is down at the moment).

I was thinking one day it would be nice to buy a Springfield Armory wood stock and put that on my gun... we will see...
 
Last edited:
Looking at those pictures of the underside of the bolt, I can see what faintly looks like an MIM process circle a little behind the locking lug in both pictures the two of you provided. It's very faint and maybe a digital artifact. Can you post a clearer close-up picture of the flat area behind the locking lug clearly in focus?
 
Looking at those pictures of the underside of the bolt, I can see what faintly looks like an MIM process circle a little behind the locking lug in both pictures the two of you provided. It's very faint and maybe a digital artifact. Can you post a clearer close-up picture of the flat area behind the locking lug clearly in focus?

I see what you mean. And it's in the exact same spot as the known MIM bolts on the first page of this thread.

Take a look at this post, it has photos of the bolt on this new batch (made in 2022, but finally delivered last month):

https://www.facebook.com/permalink....8CZTVi9D7HFHBZW1xe8KLxd1yl&id=100063652686283

On the other hand, these 2022 bolts (from both batches) show lots of machining.

I went and found the post that talks about what process they used. The chinese representative stated that:

The broken bolts you sent to me are made from iron powder. That's why they're broken. Since that our factory changed material to precision casting steel, much more harder than before.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=499195635339802&set=p.499195635339802&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/HouseOfGun...Enn5FafstTaoDtrTh9PrZU2QWgyF6NDdEaFCLz68BwjZl
 
Last edited:
So the new bolts are cast steel instead of MIM?

I'm not a metallurgist but I prefer my bolt to be a forged piece
 
It's getting harder and harder to find a good M14... guess I gotta plan a side trip to Ukraine or something...

[It was probably the strange ammo... some turkish stuff]


Another gun blew up, using the same weird ZSR M80 ammo (same lot number)

 
Last edited:
Sure,
ill post some photos tomorrow. Had no time to disassembly M305 this weekend. So will try to take photos with better eq than my phone.
Although thats why i was asking if anyone knows shops that will ship to europe incase i'll have to buy USGI bolt or some other parts like op rod guide :)
 
Sure,
ill post some photos tomorrow. Had no time to disassembly M305 this weekend. So will try to take photos with better eq than my phone.
Although thats why i was asking if anyone knows shops that will ship to europe incase i'll have to buy USGI bolt or some other parts like op rod guide :)

Just remember that bolts are considered istotne części under the UoBiA (art. 5), so you would probably have to arrange for someone to import it. I guess a gunsmith could arrange it and then number the new bolt to match your gun, so you don't have to waste a promesa, or a line in your red book.

For everything else, see M14.ca and Brownells Polska.
 
Glad to see CGN is proving its value as a technical resource. The MIM bolt issue was never quite resolved in Canada, so let's hope it isn't reappearing in Poland.

There is a lot of technical knowledge on tuning M305 rifles here. Ask your questions and people will share.
 
Glad to see CGN is proving its value as a technical resource. The MIM bolt issue was never quite resolved in Canada, so let's hope it isn't reappearing in Poland.

There is a lot of technical knowledge on tuning M305 rifles here. Ask your questions and people will share.

Well... you know... until Trudeau so heroically came along and resolved the problem for you... :p
 
Back
Top Bottom