DaveMachine
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- That one place with a cowboy complex
So, here's my situation thus far:
Purchased a Socom 18 from CanAm some time ago. Works great, no issues with functioning.
I decided I would like to make a few mods in order to achieve more accuracy. After reading some threads on this board and others, I opted to install a new spring guide rod. There was one available locally by M14Medic so I bought it and installed it in the rifle - it dropped in fine, everything seemed to fit.
Upon taking the rifle out to the range to test fire and zero, the rifle would bind up with the bolt/oprod on the rearward most position on most shots - say 3-4 times per magazine of 5. A gentle tap of the oprod handle would send the bolt home and into battery and strip a round out of the mag no problem.
After taking the rifle out of the stock to see what the problem was, it appears that when the oprod travels backward, the spring seems to bind up in the oprod "tube" (the part that houses the recoil spring) when it reaches the point maybe 1/16" away from the receiver. After reading about the issue it seemed that there is an issue with using Chinese springs with American made guide rods so I ordered a spring pack from Brownells - the Wolff kit to be exact (extra power recoil spring, ejector spring, extractor spring, hammer spring). I then put the rifle together using the Wolff extra power recoil spring and M14Medic guide rod and no luck, still binding in the bolt rearward position (both when firing live and cycling manually), although the problem seemed to be slightly reduced.
So I used my googlefu to see if other M14 owners had come across anything similar - not surprisingly I didn't find much on American gun sites. Performed a search here and found a thread where one of the resident M305 buffs suggested stoning down a portion of the guide rod to help centre it within the tube, which after looking closely at the problem area seemed to make sense. The spring seems to rub and eventually bind on the bottom portion of the tube. After some stoning, fitting, and cycling (rinse and repeat) the problem still has not resolved itself and I am reluctant to keep stoning the guide rod as I do not want to remove too much material.
So my question is, what next? For the sake of clarity I would like to reiterate that everything works fine with the stock Norc guide rod and spring.
Here is the thread that I referenced:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/935209-Upgraded-Spring-Guide-causing-bind-%28M305%29?highlight=Guide+rod+binding
(Post #7 to be specific)
Purchased a Socom 18 from CanAm some time ago. Works great, no issues with functioning.
- The finishing is good
- Indexing looks okay by my untrained eye
- Oprod guide is a bit loose but nothing crazy
- Decent bolt engagement from my untrained Mk. 1 eyeball
I decided I would like to make a few mods in order to achieve more accuracy. After reading some threads on this board and others, I opted to install a new spring guide rod. There was one available locally by M14Medic so I bought it and installed it in the rifle - it dropped in fine, everything seemed to fit.
Upon taking the rifle out to the range to test fire and zero, the rifle would bind up with the bolt/oprod on the rearward most position on most shots - say 3-4 times per magazine of 5. A gentle tap of the oprod handle would send the bolt home and into battery and strip a round out of the mag no problem.
After taking the rifle out of the stock to see what the problem was, it appears that when the oprod travels backward, the spring seems to bind up in the oprod "tube" (the part that houses the recoil spring) when it reaches the point maybe 1/16" away from the receiver. After reading about the issue it seemed that there is an issue with using Chinese springs with American made guide rods so I ordered a spring pack from Brownells - the Wolff kit to be exact (extra power recoil spring, ejector spring, extractor spring, hammer spring). I then put the rifle together using the Wolff extra power recoil spring and M14Medic guide rod and no luck, still binding in the bolt rearward position (both when firing live and cycling manually), although the problem seemed to be slightly reduced.
So I used my googlefu to see if other M14 owners had come across anything similar - not surprisingly I didn't find much on American gun sites. Performed a search here and found a thread where one of the resident M305 buffs suggested stoning down a portion of the guide rod to help centre it within the tube, which after looking closely at the problem area seemed to make sense. The spring seems to rub and eventually bind on the bottom portion of the tube. After some stoning, fitting, and cycling (rinse and repeat) the problem still has not resolved itself and I am reluctant to keep stoning the guide rod as I do not want to remove too much material.
So my question is, what next? For the sake of clarity I would like to reiterate that everything works fine with the stock Norc guide rod and spring.
Here is the thread that I referenced:
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/935209-Upgraded-Spring-Guide-causing-bind-%28M305%29?highlight=Guide+rod+binding
(Post #7 to be specific)
