If you would please help, I promise to post pics when I get it.  The story is my Brother in law bid on one and he wants to trade me for an AR carbine I have.  It's a pretty nice carbine with a match barrel and DD defense free float system etc. etc.  It's almost a dollar for dollar swap.  But that's not what I came to ask about.

I have the AGI video on the M1 garand and the M14.  And it's disappointing because he does the whole garand but goes into very little of the breaking down of the M14.  If and when I get this, and I possibly get a new bolt , do they need to be installed by someone?  I have no clue how they come out.  Nor do I know how the heck the the op rod comes off.  My dad has a springfield M1a and we put the GenIII mount on, but the most broken down we had it was out of the stock.  Which was difficult in itself because the dang thing was tighter than a...., well you come up with something.  

Thanks for any responses in advance.

Edited to Add:  And what twist are polytechs usually?  And I'm still confused if shooting commercial type ammo will be ok if it's a nato chamber.  I'll probably be shooting UMC and American Eagle and WWB, etc. etc.  And eventually handloads.

First I suggest you get Scott Duff's book "M14 Owners Guide"  Is a very well written book that can be had for about $20 and will answer all of your questions.  The first thing I would check with the Chinese rifle is the headspace.  You have to be able to take out the bolt which entails removing the oprod.  The bolt must be stripped to check the headspace with most commercial guages.  Not sure of any military gauges that you can use with a non-stripped bolt like the military M16 field gauge.  Depending on how long the headspace is you may or may not want to fire some types of ammo (this is what I have heard)  

I personally consider a Polytech a $600-700 rifle BECAUSE you have to factor in the possibility of it needing a bolt conversion. Figure $300 unless you get lucky. Then figure on a stock for $30-50. Then factor in the sights maybe needing work for $50-75. Then you'll want to change to a true flash suppressor for $50. You're going to need some $$$ thrown into the deal for you to come out on it.

Aaaaaaaah.  I'll take that into consideration.  Thank you.

Quoted: I personally consider a Polytech a $600-700 rifle BECAUSE you have to factor in the possibility of it needing a bolt conversion. Figure $300 unless you get lucky. Then figure on a stock for $30-50. Then factor in the sights maybe needing work for $50-75. Then you'll want to change to a true flash suppressor for $50. You're going to need some $$$ thrown into the deal for you to come out on it.

All true. But once that is done, you've got a rifle that is head and shoulders above a current production  S.A. Inc. M1A.  It may not have a warranty, but I've owned my Poly mixed with G.I. parts for many years, fired several thousand rounds out of it and have never needed anything other than routine maint.

Quoted: Quoted: I personally consider a Polytech a $600-700 rifle BECAUSE you have to factor in the possibility of it needing a bolt conversion. Figure $300 unless you get lucky. Then figure on a stock for $30-50. Then factor in the sights maybe needing work for $50-75. Then you'll want to change to a true flash suppressor for $50. You're going to need some $$$ thrown into the deal for you to come out on it. All true. But once that is done, you've got a rifle that is head and shoulders above a current production  S.A. Inc. M1A.  It may not have a warranty, but I've owned my Poly mixed with G.I. parts for many years, fired several thousand rounds out of it and have never needed anything other than routine maint.

Everything my brother and I have read agrees with this.  Some of the most knowledge guys are saying the polytech receivers are top notch.  I somewhat understand the other concerns.  My goal is to get some gauges, keep an eye on it, but just the same, shoot it.  If I have enough ammo, shoot the pi-- out of it.  And along the way, pick up a bolt.  If I need to fix other things, I will.

Why would I have to replace the flash hider?

Quoted: I personally consider a Polytech a $600-700 rifle BECAUSE you have to factor in the possibility of it needing a bolt conversion. Figure $300 unless you get lucky. Then figure on a stock for $30-50. Then factor in the sights maybe needing work for $50-75. Then you'll want to change to a true flash suppressor for $50. You're going to need some $$$ thrown into the deal for you to come out on it.

Were we separated at birth? Because that sounds almost exactly like one of my posts.

I'd add that one advantage to this is that you can pay as you go, you don't have to come up with a whole grand or more at one time as you would with a SA. But go ahead and buy your USGI bolt ASAP, because prices are going up almost daily. In another year, the bolts alone could be bringing $300, or close to it.

Quoted: Quoted: I personally consider a Polytech a $600-700 rifle BECAUSE you have to factor in the possibility of it needing a bolt conversion. Figure $300 unless you get lucky. Then figure on a stock for $30-50. Then factor in the sights maybe needing work for $50-75. Then you'll want to change to a true flash suppressor for $50. You're going to need some $$$ thrown into the deal for you to come out on it. Were we separated at birth? Because that sounds almost exactly like one of my posts. I'd add that one advantage to this is that you can pay as you go, you don't have to come up with a whole grand or more at one time as you would with a SA. But go ahead and buy your USGI bolt ASAP, because prices are going up almost daily. In another year, the bolts alone could be bringing $300, or close to it.

Yeah, I hear you on that one.

Quoted: Why would I have to replace the flash hider?

If it already has a USGI flash suppressor, you wouldn't need to. You really don't "need" a flash suppressor at all. The rifle will fire fine without one or with the non slotted Chinese fake flash suppressor for that matter. But it does complete the authentic look. And it does reduce the muzzle flash considerably when firing in low light conditions.

Quoted: Quoted: Why would I have to replace the flash hider? If it already has a USGI flash suppressor, you wouldn't need to. You really don't "need" a flash suppressor at all. The rifle will fire fine without one or with the non slotted Chinese fake flash suppressor for that matter. But it does complete the authentic look. And it does reduce the muzzle flash considerably when firing in low light conditions.

AAAH, the chinese ones don't have slots.  Gotcha.

Well, here she is:















I realize some of these are redundant, but give me a break, it's my first.

My impressions.  Bore looks very good, not like you guys care, Parkerizing is very grey, as you can see.   Looks like I got a GI flash Hider (although I don't see it marked anywhere) because it has the slots and it's definitely a different park job than the rest of it.

Yes, the poly rear sight sucked.  I couldn't get it to work.  So I put my Garand one on there for now until I get another set.  I did reuse the poly aperture because it's a hair bigger and seem to fit fine.  Well actually the OD is not bigger it's smaller, and the Ap was bigger than the garand, I liked the sight picture better this way.  

The stock, although I don't think it's GI is serviceable and actually very comfortable.  But I'd eventually like a GI fiberglass brown one.  The handgaurd is from my Dad's springfield which he swapped out for the vented metal one.

It  handles really nice.  The mag I got with it sucks.  I don't know what kind it is but I don't think it will pick up the rounds on the left side of it.  I'll have to get some GI ones.

Seems like it might need some tweaking and yes, I'll get a GI bolt but I'm pretty excited about it.

Looks like you got a winner there!

As long as the headspace is OK, then find a GI bolt " as you can", and shoot the piss out of it in the meantime.

beautiful rifle you got

Thanks guys!!!

As a fellow Wisconsinite I must say: "Well I'm jealous!" Nice Rifle!

Try to find out about whgat american-made parts are on the weapon. The flash suppressor probably counts as one, but remember you need a total of nine in order to legally have the flash suppressor on there.


Nice rifle. I'm looking for a similar one myself.

Quoted: Try to find out about whgat american-made parts are on the weapon. The flash suppressor probably counts as one, but remember you need a total of nine in order to legally have the flash suppressor on there.

You're on the right track, but not quite. What the deal is, is that you cannot have more than ten major foreign-made parts (from a list of 20) on the gun and legally have the flash/lug on there. It sounds the same at first, but if you think about it, you'll see there's a big difference between the two concepts.

Quoted: Quoted: Try to find out about whgat american-made parts are on the weapon. The flash suppressor probably counts as one, but remember you need a total of nine in order to legally have the flash suppressor on there. You're on the right track, but not quite. What the deal is, is that you cannot have more than ten major foreign-made parts (from a list of 20) on the gun and legally have the flash/lug on there. It sounds the same at first, but if you think about it, you'll see there's a big difference between the two concepts.

It's not nearly as difficult as many people think. The definitive answer can be found here;

www.ambackforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=21217

Quoted: Quoted: Try to find out about whgat american-made parts are on the weapon. The flash suppressor probably counts as one, but remember you need a total of nine in order to legally have the flash suppressor on there. You're on the right track, but not quite. What the deal is, is that you cannot have more than ten major foreign-made parts (from a list of 20) on the gun and legally have the flash/lug on there. It sounds the same at first, but if you think about it, you'll see there's a big difference between the two concepts.

That's right. I guess I need to bone up on it before I go telling others about it, huh.

First thing you need to do is get the headspace checked. Then you can (as said above) take things one at a time. Stock from Fred's counts as a US part. USGI mag counts as (I think) 3 parts. USGI hammer and trigger count for 2 more. Check Different's info on it. I'm in the middle of the whole process myself.