I had my sights (I thought) at mechanical zero with the rear sight 6 clicks from the bottom. I fired 20 rounds of Federal XM80 ball at an SR-1 target about 85 yards away. Then I cleaned the barrel, fired a few more rounds, cleaned and called it good! I had no failures or jams what so ever! It was PERFECT! Then I popped off some rounds in rapid fire and finished off the magazine. I warmed up the new build and fired a few rounds from the hip for function testing. Yesterday we went to BLM land and just had a good ol' fashioned good time! I took nearly everything in the safe and shot with a couple of friends today. I reamed the chamber to 1.632".Īfter test fire, I hope to have the action bedded into the McMillan stock within the next 3 weeks. It has an identical barrel, identical chamber and identical headspace. I already have the M25 rifle with the integral scope rail. Considering I paid $1200 for the M1A a few years ago, I'd say I was ahead of the game! A standard LRB with a GI fiberglass stock or a GI un-bedded walnut stock will run you about $2200. So for about $550, I upgraded from an M1A standard to an LRB with a 3/4 heavy match stainless barrel and a McMillan stock.
The barrel hand times at 38˚ so I need to take about 0.007" off the barrel shoulder to get it to hand time correctly and I can finish the build! I already got the bolt stop and clip guide installed and I already got the bolt lugs lapped to the receiver with 90% or better contact. I posted the build details on the M14 forum and another member saw it and offered to sell me his used McMillan stock for $200! I sold my M1A standard, stripped barrelled action with bolt for $625+NIW TRW bolt. This barrel is normally about $350 before shipping. At the same time, Jon Wolfe had a 15% off sale and I scored a WMMW 5R/20 stainless barrel for $315, shipped. These receivers normally retail for $869. Over 4th of July, LRB had a sale on T44E4 marked M14 receivers (Same as M14SA receivers but with a different heel stamp) for $599.