Review of Tartan Tactical Op Rod Spring Guide

Hungry

Hungry

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Super GunNutz
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Georgian Bay, ONT
Wow, another op rod spring guide to review and play with! :D

This is the Tartan Tactical Op Rod Spring Guide, made by Robmcleod82 (another dealer on the CGN network) who is stepping up to provide great upgrades for us M14 addicts! :evil:

* Norinco Spring fit: Life is great fits perfect, no outrageous slop on the sides of the spring guide

* USGI Spring fit: Life is also fantastic... no problems to report here either

* Finish is BLACK and tacticool looking. Nice smooth finish, reasonably smooth on my soft skinned 'teacher' hands
* Just added, "The finish is Liquid Nitride coating. It actually hardens the metal. The spring guide is made from 4140 heat treat stress relieve, MIL SPEC MIL-S-16974." That input was from our dealer Robmcleod82!

* Length is next to spec, I'm pleased!

* Side slop in my PolyTech 2009###x receiver is great. No concerns here.

* Magazines show no adverse conflicts at all. Everything works

But what I really like about his unit is the black finish. I'm going to wait for Robmcleod82 to chime in here and tell us what this black finish is all about.

Those of you who are wondering how the Rauch Tactical unit is/was reviewed; have a look here:

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375258

I'm happy with all of the units! :)


Sale price is $ 40 from him! I'm happy to see that Rauch Tactical, Tartan Tactical, and Marstar are stepping up to provide us with great products for the M14's we love. Sure beats spending $ 100ish landed for some Brookfield or SADLAK or SMITH unit when these guys do the job well.

Have a gander at the picture:

DSCN1855.jpg


Support our dealers, they are great!

Hope this sheds some light on these great upgrades!

:cheers:

Barney
 
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The finish is Liquid Nitride coating. It actually hardens the metal. The spring guide is made from 4140 heat treat stress relieve, MIL SPEC MIL-S-16974. If you have any questions send me a message.
 
I agree. I love the Tartan Tactical Op-Rod. My groups shrank significantly after installing it on my Norc M-14. I have been meaning to post a review and range pics but my wife decided to lose our only TWO cameras. Oh well.
 
I bought these guides and was extremely impressed with the quality of the machining adn finish. I am pleased with the fact we can now get parts for the Norc's on par with anything available in the US. Steve
 
I have had the opportunity to instal and use the Tartan Tactical Match Oprod spring guide rod and will be giving it a 100% endorsement. Other canadian sourced guide rods are not to spec and the fact they are stainless makes them a poor choice when a high quality part such as Tartan's guide rod is now availlable to those wishing an accuracy upgrade.
Top shelf product from a Canadian source, if you are after simple accuracy upgrades for your M305/M14s or your M1A, you should be putting a Tartan guide rod in yer rifle ;)
 
M14Doctor said:
I have had the opportunity to instal and use the Tartan Tactical Match Oprod spring guide rod and will be giving it a 100% endorsement. Other canadian sourced guide rods are not to spec and the fact they are stainless makes them a poor choice when a high quality part such as Tartan's guide rod is now availlable to those wishing an accuracy upgrade.
Top shelf product from a Canadian source, if you are after simple accuracy upgrades for your M305/M14s or your M1A, you should be putting a Tartan guide rod in yer rifle ;)
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate on why, and I quote " the fact that they are stainless makes them a poor choice" How is stainless steel a poor choice? Quite the contrary I would think. And also, " other Canadian guides are not to spec" What are the differences in tolerances we're talking about here?
I would like some facts.
 
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It is my experience that stainless is more succeptable to surface galling and wear, especially in
this application. There are obvious spring track marks on all the stainless rods in my posession. One speific guide rod of recent manufacture seems to be too long in the mag capture tab, and too thick at the surface at the bottom of the tab, causing the oprod to sandwich the spring upon full compression. I have witnessed this upon installation of most Rauch guide rods and many marstar guide rods. That said, if you know what to look for, a file easily remedies the issue if it is present with any rod you install. So far I do not see any issues with the Tartan, I build these rifles full time.
I will recommend Sadlak guide rods for Usgi and Wolfe springs, as a personal preference
For chinese springs, I'll stick with the Tartan
 
S&J Hardware

For any of you eastern guys or credit card orders you can go through S&J hardware. They are good guys and will look after you. Thanks a bunch to all who have purchased our parts thus far, especially our men in uniform. Our guestimated time for our extended bolt stops, mag releases, rem 700 pic mounts, and M14 scope mounts was a little off but we are hard at work making these products right for you guys. Expect an update on these soon.
 
Bump! :D

So I finally got my 2007 Norc out to the range today, first time firing it with the Tartan Tactical Spring Guide installed. As expected it ran flawlessly with both 5/5 and 5/20 mags, no issue locking in or retaining the mags at all. I also noticed an apparent reduction in group size, however until I fire it back-to-back against the stock guide off a bench I can't be certain.

One group had 4/5 rnds touching at ~40 meters! :eek: Yes this was a fluke as I was shooting old surplus from the standing supported position with iron sights but it still made me feel happy in my special area. :dancingbanana:
 
I've been fielding many questions about this sensible upgrade for the small sum of $ 40. I'm very happy with all of them and the results I've experienced over the years.

So here is the review; once more for old times...

For you M14 lovers coming to the March 19th, 2011 M14 clinic in Ottawa, I will have these for you to play with! :)

:cheers:

Barney :ninja: high speed, no drag! :D
 
Where can I get one of these I PM'd Robmcleod82 but got no response then I realized his last post on this thread was 2 years old are these still available would like to purchase direct but looking like that might not be an option.

Thanks
 
I got a message from Rob a few weeks back saying that he was no longer able to manufacture parts. Very sad to hear as his NM guide rod was rapidly becoming my favorite AND was added to our inventory as the "house choice" for installing in our builds.

One of the hardest things for me as a rifle builder is keeping enough of these types of items in my inventory. Out of necessity, an associate went ahead with plans to manufacture an NM guide rod and he now has a couple hundred units ready to go. Coincidentally NEA has also now released thier version of this simple but effective low cost upgrade.
This is ALL good news as now we have two solid choices for upgrade parts that are readily availlable in Canada.
 
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M14Doctor said:
I got a message from Rob a few weeks back saying that he was no longer able to manufacture parts. Very sad to hear as his NM guide rod was rapidly becoming my favorite AND was added to our inventory as the "house choice" for installing in our builds.

One of the hardest things for me as a rifle builder is keeping enough of these types of items in my inventory. Out of necessity, my associate went ahead with plans to manufacture an "M14Doctor" NM guide rod and we now have a couple hundred units ready to go. Coincidentally NEA has also now released thier version of this simple but effective low cost upgrade.
This is ALL good news as now we have two solid choices for upgrade parts that are readily availlable in Canada.
Click to expand...

I agree.... it's a matter of serving the needs of the M14 addicts on a consistent basis. Easier said than done; I'm observing now with the challenging situation of making these units. I too, liked RobMacleoud82's rendition :D of the NM Op rod spring guide.

I just have a strange suspicion that the M14Doctor Op rod spring guide will sell out also! All of these units are in great demand.

Cheers all!

Barney
 
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