By any chance can you recommend the best scopes

So, any chance you can share that m118LR clone load data? PLLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEE?

@@damonbfriendly 43.1 RL15 + 175smk + LC brass

@@9HoleReviews Awesome! Thanks.

@@9HoleReviews What kind of velocity were you getting?

Many people - even military history fans - are not aware that the top-scoring U.S. sniper of the Vietnam conflict was U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Bert Waldron, of the 9th Infantry Division. Until the late Navy SEAL CPO Chris Kyle surpassed his record, Waldron was the top-scoring U.S. sniper of all time with 109 confirmed kills in combat. Waldron utilized an M21 - an accurized M-14 rifle with a scope - during his entire tour. He operated both during the day and at night using a Starlight scope, and once downed a V.C. guerilla at 900 meters from the prow of a moving riverine patrol craft... with his CO (commanding officer) looking on, no less. The old saying goes, "It isn't the tool, it is the craftsman" - and Waldron probably would have been successful using any number of other platforms or weapons systems, but the fact of the matter is that he accomplished what he accomplished using an M-14. The received wisdom is that the M-14 was unreliable in Vietnam but this is not the whole story. During that era, scoped M-14s were parted-out as a unit, scope + rifle, so that if either one of the components of the system was defective or malfunctioned, the whole thing was red-lined for repair and went into the books as needing service. The reality is that the scopes in those days failed a lot more in the harsh climate of SE Asia than the rifles themselves did. Thereby skewing the statistical data. For what it is worth, I know a half dozen or so combat veterans of Vietnam, men who are 5-10 years older than I am (I am sixty-one), guys who used M-14s in Vietnam, and to a man, they all speak highly of the rifle. I know that because at a BBQ fifteen or so years ago, to welcome home one of the men's son's from Iraq where he'd done a tour as an 11B, they talked about the rifles - the M-14, and the M-16, which they hated! It was pretty funny, if you have ever heard a bunch of liquored-up grunts & former infantrymen start to use harsh language.... those guys... well, let's just say they could cuss quite creatively and leave it at that. They started with calling the M-16 a "poodle shooter" and things went on from there. We then button-holed the son, and asked him his opinion. He'd never used an M-14, but he liked his M16 just fine and said it never let him down.

@@GeorgiaBoy1961 I have the opposite experience. We were issued M14s in McMillian stocks with Leupold optics as DMR in Iraq, and found them to be finicky and unreliable. The rifles were bedded, and the bedding made standard disassembly an armorer level task. We weren't allowed to remove the receiver from the stock for fear of disturbing the bedding. The roller bearing required grease to function and the open receiver invited grit and debris in. So the rifle's would inevitably gum up and freeze, and there was nothing we could do to restore function because we were forbidden from taking them apart. Consequently, we removed the Leupold optic from the rifle and replaced the RCO on one of our A4s with the Leupold from the M14, then called that our DMR. The M16A4 was a fine service rifle, much more reliable than the M14, and we could at least maintain the rifle to a usable degree of reliability and accuracy. The M14 was technically issued and saw service, but it rarely saw actual use, and mostly just banged around in the back of Humvees with MREs, bottled water, ammo cans, and rolls of Cope Long Cut. Later, we were issued Mk 12s as DMRs, and we happily surrendered our M14s for them. The Mk 12s and the Mk 262 became the most coveted rifle outside the wire. They were the only thing we saw high speed enough to be suppressed, they were accurate, and they did everything we asked of them out to pretty incredible distances; 600 yards pretty easily, sometimes 800 if you needed it. I have an M1 Garand I inherited from my grandpa, and an M1A that I tried to supplement it with. The Garand gets played with for nostalgia on occasion. I really tried to like the M1A, but the gas system rattled loose around 1000 rounds and had to be sent back to Springfield for a unitized gas cylinder, and then my roller bearing fell off within 12 rounds of getting it back from Springfield. I was having a helluva time getting it scoped, and having things rattle loose and fall off was kind of the the last straw. So I bought an Aero Precision AR-10, and it has been functionally superior to the M1A in every way. It is more reliable, more accurate, more durable, easier to maintain, easier to accessorize. I like the Aero Precision so much that I bought another, and now the M1A, like the M14 we were issued, is relegated to collecting dust in the closet. I have no use for it because anything it can do, my AR-10s will do better, I am hesitant to spend more money getting it shooting again because I'd rather just spend that on ammo and components for the AR-10s, and I can't get rid of it because I was bought with money I got when my mom passed, so it has sentimental value. For anything serious, I would take an AR variant over an M14 any day of the week without hesitation. It isn't even close. If you read up on the history of the M14, it has literally never been more reliable or more accurate than the M16. The M14 was like a Democrat, it couldn't win anything without cheating and was only ever adopted because Ord Corps lowered standards and sabotaged competition until it won. The adoption of the M14 was such an expensive, embarrassing debacle that both the Ord Corps and Springfield Armory never recovered from it. Then some company in IL buys rights to the name Springfield Armory so they can claim by association prestige they never earned and starts pumping out cast receiver garbage variants of an abomination service rifle and people are surprised when they have problems, like Springfield Bolt Roller Impact Defect, which I unfortunately never discovered until researching why the roller just fell off my rifle for no apparent reason.

It should be service policy that armorers aren't allowed to disassemble. None of them have a clue what they are doing.

@@OverlordGrizzaka I think he ment like basic field stripping. For field stripping an m14 it requires removing the receiver from the stock so you can get the the gas system for cleaning. But because the stock is bedded for accuracy it means you can't take it apart for basic maintenance like how it was originally designed and then used in vietnam but because we made it a Frankenstein sniper rifle you can't do basic cleaning on it

@@callsigncrusader9877 I don't care, and facts don't care about your feelings.

Neat thanks for sharing!

Nearly the same situation here. Rifle was one of the biggest “money sucks” I’ve ever known. Beautiful rifle, a true “rifleman’s rifle”, but an out of the box AR10 shoots just as well, even a little better.

If you would have sent it to Clint Fowler and saved some money it would have shot sub MOA If you do your job.

Sent it to Ted Brown, well regarded M14 Smith. The rifle's design has too many things against it as far as potential accuracy and maintaining accuracy, mainly stock to action fit. Only an M14 apologist would try to defend the rifle not being as accurate as other designs. I see it on the M14forum all the time.

What barrel length did you chose for your ar-10?

Further evidence the M14 is just a dogshit rifle design

Oh Fast is that “Fleet something Security Team” (Cant’t remember the name) right? I used to have a Marine Corps history book as a teen and remember reading about them. Always thought they were cool since they were a lesser known group.

I really wish someone would make those again.

@@Ripper13F1V BPT's owner Mitch Mateiko did briefly come out of retirement a few years ago to make a few batches of M25 stock liners. There were only around 75-80 of them produced in total but there are some newly minted units out in circulation to be haggled for and pried out of the clutches of whoever holds one now. I was lucky enough to get ahold of one and it is currently installed in a McMillan M3A stock with my own rifle built off a Polytech M14/S receiver done up in a similar manner to Henry's own example. All the gunsmithing for the rifle itself was done by Smith Enterprise and the stock and liner work was done at Accuracy Speaks by Rio Salado Sportsman's Club. The final finished product is a beauty of a rifle.

Deploy the PS-PS-PS.

Cat needs ear pro and a vest, lol

I actually got that when we were in Afghanistan during spring thaw. Every day, it would melt, then mud, and wet boots. Like you , I also would much rather be in colder temps in the Alps than wet afghan mountains in the spring with wet everything for weeks.

Send your Poly to Smith Enterprise, Ron Smith knows more about the Chinese M14 than the Chinese do.

@@THEH2OMAN awesome ! Thanks so much :)

Quietus13 - You caught my eye with the mention of the Blackfeather system. Can you get them in the 'States? I'm asking because they're a Canadian design, if memory serves.

@@GeorgiaBoy1961 yes they are Canadian but I had no problems ordering mine shipped to my house in the US. I was able to do the installation mostly myself, although my NM barrel was just slightly too fat for a ring component that I had a local gun smith machine for me.

@@quietus13 - Thanks for the info!

use it all the time in cod

I shot High Power competition for years with the AR and the M1A. The M1A is a super finicky thing. It costs three times as much to make an M1A shoot as well as a box stock Rock River Arms NM rifle.

I think a lot of this is also fine tuning a rifle for gnats ass accuracy when there is a practical accuracy for a DMR style rifle. If your goal is to punch tiny holes in paper, there are better, cheaper, platforms. If you want something with some history, which is also quite accurate, the M14 platform just fits. Nothing else quite shoots like a Garand action does. It's VERY distinct. FWIW, my M1A Loaded, basically a national match in a non bedded wood stock, has always shot consistently 1-1.25MOA 10 round groups without any tweaking after cleaning. There is DEFINITELY a settle in period of about 5-10 rounds after you first mate the stock to the action from a full disassembly, but once you are outside that window, it settles in quite nicely to being boringly predictable. As it stands, I'm about 1,000 rounds into the current full disassembly/reassembly, and it's been consistently at 1.25 MOA 10 round groups. I'm about 4,000 rounds in total through the barrel and she is just a straight shooter. Now, back to that practical accuracy thing, what goal are you attempting to achieve with your rifle? If you cannot define that mission, then should you really be buying a rifle at all? I don't think so. I bought mine for a fun plinking rifle that I could also take hog hunting if I wanted to. It's plenty capable of that job... again, practical accuracy. If you really want gnats ass tiny groups on paper, which is totally fine, the M14/M1A offers very little to you other than history, a good trigger, and great looks.

The M14 is a mistake. It doesn't matter whether it's good or not-it never should have existed.

The undeniable fact is that we had a better rifle available, and the Army chose to ignore it. In the world of precision, "fine" isnt supposed to be okay.

Well it did completely choke on the mud test.

People trash the M14 because the FAL was a better choice from a technical and operational perspective but the US wanted an American design

@@jesseterrell2109 It fired one round, the FAL fired two. Not much difference.

Don't worry. Our government will change soon. Liberals days are numbered. M1a will come back as non restricted. Trust on this.

@@eagleace67 FYI, Conservative Party is no better then the Liberal Party in my opinion.

Its an adverage rifle.

what was the defect?

@@GunFunZSBoeing hit man got to him

Sorry I couldn't resist 😋