Hi All,

I have just finished reading "Bostons Gun Bible" where he reckons that the forged steel recievers of Norinco M-14 are left too soft and that heat treatment is advisible.The passage in the book says "heat treat,giving core hardness of Rc 52-56 and surface hardness from space-program "Mellanite" of Rc 60".I live in New Zealand and have spoken to a few gunsmiths in NZ and none have oven to do heat treatment,but several mentioned maybe using an engineering company to do this.Is this feasible or do you need a gunsmith to do it?If it is feasible what would be exact instructions to engineering company?Thanks in advance.Cheers Bruce

One you need to understand that not all "Gunsmiths" are created equal. Anyone in america can call themselves a gunsmith simply by having a place of business, an FFL and a set of screwdrivers. It really is that simple.
So when choosing a smith ask around to get recommendations.
But in reference to the hart of the matter You should not need a smith to handle heat treating of your receiver. All you need to do is tell the heat treat shop what you want. And I would carborize to say one mm depth to a hardness of no more then 45 RC. Originally the M14 was made from 8620 and was case hardened. Don't have a clue what the Norinco one is.
That said maybe someone knows why this guy wants to take your receiver to cutting tool hardness.
I'm not to familiar with the M14 receiver so I don't know if this level of hardness is good or bad But my gut says bad Most commercial actions are right around 40RC they need to be tough not rock hard.
No knowing NZ law you may need a dealer or smith to handle the receiver from you the the heat treater I don't know.

I have heard of problems with the rear sight serations wearing out. I have not heard of wear problems on the lugs.

Swap the Norinco cast bolt out for a US mil spec bolt assy & shoot it.

SA receivers of late leave alot to be desired.

I would also be concerned about the very real chance of it warping a bit if handled by someone who's not familiar with such recievers, who doesn't have the fixturing required to hold it through the process and doesn't know the exact formula of the steel. Per the above advice, I would swap out the bolt and shoot the heck out of it. You'll probably wear out the barrel before you pound the reciever into submission.

As others mentioned, would swap out the bolt and as for the serrations wearing out on the rear sight "ear" you can buy a disc which inserts between the elevation drum and ear and gives either 1/4 or 1/2moa adustments. Go for the 1/2moa side for the 1/4 is too fine and skips over easy. You can buy these discs at either Fulton or Creedmore I believe.

Go here for information. These guys love the norincos. Nobody that I hve read there has sent thier reciever out fo heat treatment.
http://www.m14tfl.com/upload/

i have had a couple polytech (barely higher spec than norinco) m14 and loved them .. but i didn't put 10,000 rounds though any one of them. bedded mine, accurate as all get out.

i HEAR the trw bolt is better, but I never bothered.

Thanks everyone for your replys

Does Kiwi land have the proof house requirements when a firearm has had major repairs?

Hi SR4759,

Not as far as I am aware.We are pretty lucky with our gun and hunting laws,they are fairly liberal though you need a special license to own a semi-auto centre fire with a mag capacity of over 7 rounds(only differece from normal license is you need a better quality gunsafe and a reason to own.Saying you use it for pest control is normally enough).The politicians keep making threatening noise to change laws but nothing has changed except recently police decided any semi auto with pistol grip now needs the special license.

The problem here is that Liberals are writing the gun laws trying to take everything they can. As of right now gun control is not the top topic but it is not far down the list.
It's our conservative party that tries to protect the gun rights. The one landmark we have reached here recently is our supreme court has ruled that it is the individuals RIGHT to own a firearm. Now they just need to make it a federal ruling that all states must comply with.
I can't believe we actually got a positive piece of gun legislation passed

And you only really need on gun law.
Criminals can't own guns. Been law in the US for for a very long time

Hi,

I forgot to ask,do the trw or mil-spec bolts fit right in?I always thought you couldn't exchange bolts in a rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by southpost:
Hi,

I forgot to ask,do the trw or mil-spec bolts fit right in?

sometimes they drop in, more often the bolt or receiver needs a little relieving.

headspace always needs to be checked.