Hungry has it right ...
your #### MAY fall off if you don't use GI parts [ or have a good gunsmith who knows what is what ]
When it comes to M-14 type rifles, I've PERSONALLY seen :
TWO Chinese barrels that literally unscrewed themselves. The Chinese barrels are pretty good dimensionally [ if you don't mind the extra 10 thou or so on the breech that intrudes just enough to make fitting a GI bolt so delightful on about 1/3 of the OLD models]
BUT
the heat treating in some of the OLD Chinese M-14S [ barrels AND receivers AND BOLTS!! ] WAS erratic. Which CAN mean the steel is NOT as hard as USGI specs. Which can mean that the barrel threads CAN actually deform or stretch enough to effect barrel draw. Which CAN mean that the only thing holding the barrel on is that tiny little screw they hide under the op rod.
And you thought they put those screws in there just to PI$$ you off when you wanted to replace the barrel with a GI??
The Chinese Receivers are EXCELLENT dimensionally ... usually much better than any of the CAST aftermarket receivers [ including SPROINGFIELD ].
BUT,
again the heat treatment on the OLD ones may be erratic. I've seen two that were a bit soft [ no big deal IF the bolt is fitted to have FULL bearing on the left lug ] and I've seen one that was WAY too hard =BRITTLE. That one cracked when being fitted up with a GI barrel.
OOPS!!!
[;{(
As for the old Chinese bolts, again, SOME of them were way too soft. And SOME of them had the left lug cut at too acute an angle.... which puts only a tiny portion of the left lug bearing surface actually taking the pressure. When you had a soft bolt that was also improperly cut, you got MASSIVE headspace in a few hundred rounds, as the pressure literally peened back the left lug.
Too Bad, so sad ... if you wanted warranty, you should have bought a Sproingfield.
BUT,
installing GI BOLT and GI BARREL almost always made a Chinese M-14 into a BETTER rifle than any other aftermarket M-14 clone you could get. And for a LOT less too.
PS: these opinions are NOT SPECULATION ... BTDT
I've owned over three doxen GENUINE M-14 rifles, 5 Sproingfields [ including SM, Match, and hand built custom target ] and [ God bless them every one [ about another two dozen Chinese M-14 rifles, including many that were all GI parts on a Chinese receiver.
[;{)
LAZ 1
