I don't know why they kept making them, but they didn't "copy" the gun. When the US dropped the M14 for the M16, the chinese actually purchased the machinery from the US to make what we now have as the M305's.
The US sold China all of the machine tools that produced the M14
So would these re-machined receivers have a variation in the metal along the right side of the heel where the selector would have been as if it were filled?
They very well could, but the serial number would have to start with AL, and they'd also have an angle cut on the front.
Incidentally, the Philippine Marines were still using US supplied M14's until very recently. Some probably are still issued.
I has been my understanding that:
A persistent rumor states that M14 rifles produced by the People’s Republic of China were reverse engineered from enemy captured M14 rifles in Viet Nam. China North Industries Corporation, known as Norinco, is reported to have produced M14 rifles by the early 1970s. The story continues that 100,000 Chinese M14 rifles were produced for an armed revolution in the Philippines. In preparing for this work, the author interviewed a very reliable source with extensive firsthand knowledge of Chinese and Taiwanese production and export of small arms was interviewed for this work. This gentleman wishes not to be identified. He is referred to as Other Source # 12. - See more at:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...-the-chinese-m14-clones/#sthash.bju6uHnu.dpuf
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2007/10/06/history-of-the-chinese-m14-clones/
Also the US sold the machinery to Republic of China NOT Communist China. The republic destroyed the machinery when they switched to a domestic production 556 carbine.
does that mean I can put a usgi fiberglas stock on my old norinco without having to do the "popsicle" trick?
These M14 rifles were apparently US manufacturer marked.
The M14 rifles manufactured in the 1960s at State Arsenal 356 (Kunming, Yunnan, People's Republic of China) did not have US type markings. The receiver heel was marked M14 with an eight digit serial number underneath.
Taiwan government produced T57 rifles were marked on the receiver heel with two rows of Chinese language characters above a six digit number.
Oh to get ones mitts on a T57 .... Probably unobtainium I would assume. My collection is incomplete![]()
what????
sorry man, but if complete and utter misinformation is all you are here to post....... maybe post elsewhere LOL
I only know what a somewhat vertically challenged, polite gentleman told me, if he was wrong, that would be interesting. He described those receivers to me as being "bit of a mixture - some remains of Philippine misadventure, some commercial production". These were the first Chinese made M14 receivers sold (at least in Canada to my knowledge).
BTW - lose the tone, I don't care who you are, I don't come here to entertain you or anyone else, that's what I was told by Allan, take it or leave it.