Originally Posted By tony_k:

The weak points are bolts, sears, disconnectors, and to a lesser degree small parts like knobs, pins and springs.

The reason there are so many transferable M11/9's is that when the manufacturing ban surfaced in Congress, Cobray started cranking them out 24/7 to make as many as possible before the May 19, 1986 cutoff. There are about 30k in the Registry, and IIRC at least half of those were built in the last eight weeks.

Cobray did not have nearly enough parts in hand, so they put a rush order through subcontractors ... and got a lot of subpar quality components -- pretty much everything except the welded receiver itself, the magwells, upper-receiver housings. Remember, it was a $150 retail gun at the time and normal (non-rush) quality wasn't that high; add in sub-Q parts and you can see the potential for problems.

You can tell when yours was made by the serial number -- the first two numbers are the year of production, so the following applies to "86-" SN M11's:

--First, check the welds on the rear of your receiver, where the flat is folded up and welded on the sides. A significant number (maybe 5-10%) of "rush" guns had poor welds. Check used guns for cracks, and keep an eye on NIB examples when you first shoot them. Cracks are easy to fix if noticed asap; if ignored, the rear can bend or even let go. Usually if the first 500 rounds are fine, your welds will hold forever. (Just never, ever fire an M11 with an age-deteriorated buffer, or no buffer at all.)

--Bolts and sears made in the rush were not sufficiently hardened. Some of the '86 M11s had old-stock, correctly hardened components; as many as half did not. They were drawn out of inventory at random, so you can't judge by the SN. Soft metal will wear away fast, and after as little as a coupla hundred rounds you can have runaways -- you get a mag dump every time you touch the trigger. It's best just to keep it aimed downrange and let it run out, but it can be intimidating to a newbie (I let a friend's wife shoot my M11 as her first full-auto experience, and she had a runaway the first time she pulled the trigger. "Was it supposed to do that?" she asked.)

The problem is that a lot of those 1986-rush soft-metal bolts are still in inventory today, so a factory replacement bolt purchased today may go bad just as fast. I finally took all my "rounded" bolts to my machining genius, who rewelded them, recut the notches, and once fixed they have never worn again. I can't recall what metal he used, offhand, but if someone needs to know I'll ask him.

Sears are the same -- soft metal that rounds off, allowing runaways. I've got a whole bag of worn-out examples of 'em. Some of the improved aftermarket ones are supposed to be better, but I don't have enough experience to recommend anyone. IMHO, it'd be worth having a good welder redo these as well.

--Disconnectors are stamped steel, and many are so out-of-spec that they bounce into the "stop" position while firing, and turn full-auto into an unplanned burst-only SMG. The easiest thing to do is just pull them out -- an M11 will run fine without 'em, you'll just have safe/FA with no semi function. Who shoots an M11 in semi anyway? I don't know of anyone making improved disconnectors.
--Factory top-cockers like to break the cocking knob and bounce it off your forehead at 1,000 rpm. Again, it's a combo of soft metal and poor machining tolerances. Personally, I will not shoot a M11 without a sidecock upper of some sort.

--Keep an eye on misc pins and springs. Fer instance, the retaining pin that holds in the stock catch likes to break, which will allow your stock to slide out and fall off the gun. It won't happen while you are shooting -- the recoil keeps it in -- but it gets embarrassing to have your $3k toy fall apart when you are showing it to friends. Some of the aftermarket stocks do not use the factory catch, so I vote for those as a better alternative.

Now, the odds are against all of the above happening to a single M11/9. But each is common enough that they are worth anticipating if you own one.

As far as aftermarket parts ...

I have heard nothing but praise for Lage products from shooters whose opinions and experience I highly respect, so I would recommend anything Richard makes. For stuff he doesn't make ... well, you prolly won't have a problem, and if you do, there is little that can't be fixed in minutes by a talented welder, if you keep the above in mind.

Modified M11's are winning subgun matches everywhere these days -- they have incredible potential. Just remember that they are product-improved examples, like race cars, and the winning shooters train like race-car drivers. Don't expect to run a box-stock M11/9 against them and win, or even finish the race.

Flame suit on....

Originally Posted By amediocreshooter:


This has always fascinated me. The amount of Mac10/11s out there with $50 optics on them is mind blowing. What's up with that? Nowhere else but the MG world do you see cheap optics on $7000 guns.