Questions about about a Heinz-57 M305

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doowroh

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Alright so I'm working with a 2012 era M305 shorty. To me, this is a tool. I'd like it to be as nice as possible, but its still just a tool to me. I have not shot it yet.

It has an upgraded op rod spring guide, a mostly tight op rod guide, and what appear to be otherwise matching and un-modified parts/numbers. Both the bolt and the receiver have strong tooling marks, and no dimples or casting lines, so I assume both original and forged, and not swapped with USGI. It has a NM front sight, and I suspect the rear sights have been changed out as well, but I don't know with what, other than "M" on elevation, and "WCE" (Wico Electric?) on windage. The rear face of the aperture is definitely 'checkered', and the diameter of the aperture seems reasonably small, although I haven't measured it yet.

So after disassembly, cleaning, lubing and several hours of (newb) f*ckery, I have several questions:

General:
The safety is REALLY stiff when engaging. It's tolerable coming off. Should I just live with it, or is there a potential issue at play?
What can I use to touch up the parkerized/finish? I know there's going to be wear on a lot of the moving parts, and I'm not looking for a beauty queen, but there are some parts/accessories that I'd like to try and clean up.
The charging handle is razor sharp in a few spots. I'm considering filing/polishing the sharp bits. See question about finish/parkerizing above.

Bolt:
The ejector spring is not wound/ground flat, so reassembly of the bolt is a PITA because the ejector sits all c*ock-eyed AND wants to rotate when being reassembled.
The extractor spring also seems quite long. It made putting the extractor back together a total C*NT. That being said, it may be just part of the learning curve.
Would modifying these springs be a bad idea?

Ammunition:
I've got some AE Fake Lake City 149gn ball ammo that I'm going to start with, but for hand rolled ammo, does this action tolerate soft points (Hornady SP, etc.) or plastic tipped stuff, or is it better to stick with FMJ or OTM bullets?
Should I be using "service rifle" loads when using hand rolled ammo?
I also expect a few "try it and see what it likes", so fair enough...

Sights:
The left wing on the front sight looks decently bent (from a drop?). Do I need it for sight picture, or should I just live with it?
The NM sight blade seems very short when compared to a friend's OEM Norc front sight. Will I be able to re-index the rear elevation knob after sighting it in?
The barrel seems to be indexed reasonably well. The front sight *looks* indexed, but the feed ramps don't look quite as nice. Are there any improvements to be made/had when it comes to indexing?

Magazines:
What's better? 20 round mags pinned to 5 (short follower), or unpinned long-follower mags?
Does it even matter as long as they both work?

Tools:
- I have some go/no-go gauges coming.
- What other tools should I be looking at/considering?
- Do I need the chamber cleaning brush??

That's it for now... I'm sure I'll have more in the future.
Thanks for your thoughts.
 
The M305 I had, had to set to 800 yards for zero (was way out of index or front sight post was too high). Front sight was to the right, rear sight to the left.
Most people try to duplicate military loads. Most load data available is from Hornady or Nosler for service rifle loads. For their load data, they appear to still use .308 cases which may not get the same results in 7.62x51 brass.
People recommend the plastic tipped bullets, instead of the soft points. The action shouldn't have problems feeding both. People think the lead tips may get chopped down by the action, leading to lead fouling in the bore, possibly dangerous pressure? Make sure you don't have the MIM bolt.
Still yet, that's only theory. Do a test for yourself. Load two SPs into the magazine. Shoot the first, eject the second. Inspect.
The 5 round mags are a PITA to remove from the rifle. The 20 round mags are too bulky. Elander 10/10 mags don't fit properly and the bolt will charge forward on last shot or removal (though seems to feed well).
As such I'd recommend 5/10 mags. They're not as common but marstar seems to have some in stock. Not sure what you mean by long/short follower?
Check the butt stock. Should come with a chamber cleaning brush.
 
The NM sight blade seems very short when compared to a friend's OEM Norc front sight. Will I be able to re-index the rear elevation knob after sighting it in?
Click to expand...

I have two Norcs that I had cut the barrels to 18.5" from 22". On Both of them, this resulted in the point of impact being far lower than the point of aim. My choices were to raise the rear sight aperture to a very high position with the aperture well above the protective ears on the rear sight, or to carefully shorten the front sight with a file. I did this, following the original angle and profile, and kept the file level. I think I had to take off over 0.050" but that is more of a guess, as it was a few years ago.

And to the question, you should have no problem indexing the rear sight to a new position.
 
wow..so much fail with some of these m305 rifles. Nim bolts ect.
I wanted one....was going to buy one......now,,,the hell with it.
 
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