Anybody have a Poly Tech M-14 S?

[RED]

I have one... and it can put 20 rds.of LC 7.62 NATO ball into a 4" red dot at 100 meters... in less than 1 minute.

I shoot beer cans at 200 meters and usually hit them! I seldom see Poly's forr sale... there is a reason for that. Their receivers and chrome lined barrels are better than any of Springfield or even the LRB's that are selling for $1800+.

Yes, my Poly has been worked on by a Marine Armourer. It has a Wn. Bolt and is steel bedded into military birch stock, it has a Sadlak titanium scope mount, Badger Ordinance rings, and a 10X SWFA Super Sniper mildot scope.

If anybody tells you M-14S Poly Techs are no good.... tell them to go pound sand!

[p246]

I never see them for sale. But when someone that owns one posts they seem to love them like you or hate them. The only one I was around was a Springer and it was fairly new. I was impressed by its accuracy. One day I'd like to add a M-14 type though.

[swampyankee]

"Yes, my Poly has been worked on by a Marine Armourer. It has a Wn. Bolt and is steel bedded into military birch stock, it has a Sadlak titanium scope mount, Badger Ordinance rings, and a 10X SWFA Super Sniper mildot scope."

I would say hardly an endorsement , if it needed all that work. If you told us it did those accomplishments straight out of the box , that would be different.

[nf1e]

4" at 100yds is pretty crappy unless you are shooting offhand. Most of the Polys that I have seen, even with LC, will stay about 2". Handloads much better. I agree, they are one of the best receivers out there but I still prefer LRB and James River. If you have your armorer screw on a med weight Bula barrel, you will be right about an inch with FGMM.

[cplnorton]

There is nothing wrong with Poly's. They are true to a USGI M14. The only flaw you hear people say is they have soft bolts. The thing is, you will wear out the barrel before you will the bolt. But yeah poly's are pretty good.

[RED]

"Yes, my Poly has been worked on by a Marine Armourer. It has a Wn. Bolt and is steel bedded into military birch stock, it has a Sadlak titanium scope mount, Badger Ordinance rings, and a 10X SWFA Super Sniper mildot scope."

I would say hardly an endorsement , if it needed all that work. If you told us it did those accomplishments straight out of the box , that would be different.

I don't think it "it needed all that work." The scope, mount and rings were for my 70 year old eyes. The Win. bolt was because everybody kept telling me the Poly's bolts really sucked. And by the way I never reloaded a single round for the Poly and have never shot Federal Gold Medal ammo. All my results were using mostly Cavim and So. African Milsurp. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was a $700 rifle and with "all that work" it still cost quite a bit less than a LRB or SA.

[cplnorton]

Karl Maunz who is one of the guys who helped to create the semi auto M14 receiver, has told me many times that if he was building a custom rifle for shooting, the Poly's receiver was the best.

[Ltdave]

id like to pick one up. i like my $500 Fulton Armory but id jump on a POLY if one showed itself...

[joem]

I have two of them. The one with the scope shoots super. The other one just OK. If I could get some china ammo where the bullet measures .30775 and the FPS is 2700 it really shoots, hit a half dollar @ 100 yds off sand bags.

[usmc69]

Have had a Norinco, a Poly Tech and have shot several Springfield M1A's. Also had the pleasure of going through Boot Camp & ITR carrying a M-14. To be honest I prefer my Poly Tech. Yes, it has a TRW bolt and a GI trigger group and a GI stock. Shoots well enough for me to hit whatever I am aiming at and the confidence it won't be getting up anytime soon.

[nf1e]

Have had a Norinco, a Poly Tech and have shot several Springfield M1A's. Also had the pleasure of going through Boot Camp & ITR carrying a M-14. To be honest I prefer my Poly Tech. Yes, it has a TRW bolt and a GI trigger group and a GI stock. Shoots well enough for me to hit whatever I am aiming at and the confidence it won't be getting up anytime soon.

I agree. With a little work, the Chicom stuff is super. We probably had the M14s worn out by the time you went through boot camp. Mine was new in '66 and I have never shot better.
Semper Fi
Art

USMC '66-'72 6216/6611
RVN '67'68
Proud to be a civilian and I sleep in a Super 8 while attending Camp Perry. Helps, you know.

[swampyankee]

"Have had a Norinco, a Poly Tech and have shot several Springfield M1A's. Also had the pleasure of going through Boot Camp & ITR carrying a M-14. To be honest I prefer my Poly Tech. Yes, it has a TRW bolt and a GI trigger group and a GI stock. Shoots well enough for me to hit whatever I am aiming at and the confidence it won't be getting up anytime soon"
So we have another endorsement on the chicom rifle. It is great after you replace half the parts and have a USMC armourer work on it. REALLY!!!

[UUURah]

Let's take any Military weapon, out of the crate, sight it in, and see what it does.

I was the first one to fire the M-14 I used at Parris Island. It was the very first Hi-Powered rifle I had ever shot, other than 22's. By the time Qual Day was over, I had put 9 out of 10 in the black at 500 yards.

Gee, if someone had been able to "Poly Tech" it, I could have probably put 10 out of 10 in the black at 500 yds.

[Stephan]

I've got two Polytech M14S rifles and a Springer M1A.

The Chinese stocks and springs are 'soft'...one of the Poly rifles could use a new bolt..the other one is just fine with the Chinese bolt.

These were cheap back in the day. I paid $575 for a brandnew one....a month or so later got another one near new at a gunshow for $300. Back then(1990's) I paid $800 for my M1A used at a gunshow.

[John Kepler]

"Yes, my Poly has been worked on by a Marine Armourer. It has a Wn. Bolt and is steel bedded into military birch stock, it has a Sadlak titanium scope mount, Badger Ordinance rings, and a 10X SWFA Super Sniper mildot scope."

I would say hardly an endorsement , if it needed all that work. If you told us it did those accomplishments straight out of the box , that would be different.

Yeah.....well.....maybe so, but you SHOULD be aware that a USGI M-14 won't do that without a fair amount of "professional help" either! FWIW, my CAI-Norinco M-14 was a solid 3 MOA rifle right out of the box. It was so good, in fact that with very few changes (none that weren't required by ANY "stock" rifle!), I had the rifle VERY close to 1 MOA, and fired the rifle in both National-level Service Rifle and Long Range. The Chink barrel was simply phenomenal......I was sorry to see it go at roughly 5000 rds, or about the same round-count as the Kreiger that was added next. Dimensionally, the receiver makes a Springfield Armory casting look like a paperweight....the safety bridge, always a bit of an "adventure" with an SA receiver, is dead nuts in the Chinese jobs. The rifle shot me to Sharpshooter in both XC and Long Range, it's on its 3rd barrel, and is still my LR Service Rifle when I decide my eyes are up to it, and I have turned down $2800 for the rifle. So.....what's your major malfunction?

[Clark Howard]

Thank goodness our government recognized the threat presented by these rifles and prohibited their importation some years ago. Otherwise, the country would have been flooded with reasonably priced high quality sporting weapons. Just look at the havoc they have caused in our neighbor, Canada. Remember to vote dem or rino in the next election! Regards, Clark

[BudT]

Yes it is a relief that these superior quality rifles were no longer allowed to be imported. Just think where the junk company's like LRB or Springfield Armory and their inferior products would be if they hadn't been protected by the consumer friendly government. Anyone interested some high quality Chinese products, children s toys panted with lead paint for your grand kids.

[swampyankee]

" I have turned down $2800 for the rifle. So.....what's your major malfunction?"

You turned down $2800 on a used chicom piece of junk and are bragging about it. I have to ask, who is dumber the guy who offered you the money or you for refusing it. If that story is even true.

[John Kepler]

Bud, it was 1996, my rifle and I had just won the NRA Midwest Regional Long Range Service Rifle match (the only time I ever beat Ed Shank!). That's what good comp rifles cost back then, and my rifle was demonstrably a good comp rifle by the only measurement that means a damn, your "opinion" of what constitutes "junk" notwithstanding! What IS your problem there Chum? You pass on one you should'a bought or what. Oh......the rifle STILL isn't for sale, though I did build 5-6 more of them for friends.....they won't sell them either! In over 50 years of active shooting, almost all of it in some form of competition....I have YET to see a target that was the least bit impressed by the appearance or pedigree of the rifle firing at it.....what shoots good, IS good!

BTW, I realize I'm old, but is Ron Smith a name you recognize? When the Chinese receivers started arriving in the US, he quit making his own forged/milled receivers and started building rifles that cost more than a good used Buick on PolyTech receivers....they sold for quite a bit more than I turned down for my rifle! You may need to get out a little more!

[swampyankee]

I,I, me,me. Roosters that crow to much are usually weeded out of the hen house.
The norinco is junk. Yes it has a forged receiver which someone can work with but all the rest of the parts on it are complete crap and you know it. No one was paying $2800 in 1996 for a match 14 unless there was a ton of work to be done on it like replaceing every part. Listening to you, maybe you did and are hopeing someone will buy your chicom mistake.

[John Kepler]

Nope, but in 96, and 92 and 88, and 14, there is ONE place where my rifle commands a premium, and that is in Long Range. I can run loads in my Norinco that'll bust an SA casting! BTW Sparky......how many "stock" parts do you think are in ANY competition rifle? How long do you think ANY part in a comp rifle lasts? Yes, right now, there are only a handful of Chink parts left on the rifle (basically, the Upper Handguard, the rear sling loop, and the butt-plate screws). But when it started, most of the rifle was Chinese, and it out-shot me by a considerable margin. Over time, as parts wore or "better", newer parts became available, the Chink parts were consigned to the "spares" status., and I'd use'um in a heartbeat if I needed to. On to the next issue, what part of, "The rifle is NOT for sale!" did you fail to understand, not for $2800, not for ten-times that! I want the rifle more than I want the money! Oh, and Sparky......like my Grandpa always told me, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it!"

[2111]

[QUOTE=swampyankee;391178]. No one was paying $2800 in 1996 for a match 14 unless there was a ton of work to be done on it like replaceing every part. QUOTE]

So what you are saying is that in 1996, someone would ONLY pay $ 2800 for a Norinco, IF it needed "a ton of work" or needed all the parts replaced. If that's the case, why wouldn't Johns match conditioned Polytech be worth considerable more than $ 2500.00 ??

[swampyankee]

"Nope, but in 96, and 92 and 88, and 14, there is ONE place where my rifle commands a premium, and that is in Long Range. I can run loads in my Norinco that'll bust an SA casting! BTW Sparky......how many "stock" parts do you think are in ANY competition rifle? "

First if you are running any loads that can blow a rifle ,you need reloading lessons, nothing to do with a receiver quality.
Second replacing original G.I. parts with parts that are more in match spec. is one thing. Replacing them because they are soft or will strip or the wood is pallet board is another thing. If you said that you like there forged receiver, I could understand, but claiming it was a great quality rifle is another. Even you admit you have replaced just about every part. You tried to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. You like your rifle and that's good enough.

[RED]

John is exactly right! Go out and buy the absolute best M1A you can find. My $700 Poly, with iron sights, and bedded into a $40 GI stock will shoot at least as well.

[swampyankee]

How is John right? The first thing you state is that you bedded and replaced the stock with G.I. Sounds more like you proved my point.

[Stephan]

Back in the 1990's you could buy brandnew USGI M14 walnut stocks still in the bag for $19.....recoil springs were stupid cheap. Chinese M14 rifles were pissing-off some of the M14 gurus of the time...I mean really?...Those darn Chinese were selling M14 rifles cheap! Had to be junk

That's back when a company or two existed that swore on a stack of bibles that Chinese M14 rifles needed every part re-heat treated...and the gun refinished....Later it's just 'soft/out of spec' bolts. Lots of voo-doo BS floating around regarding Chi-com M14 rifles.

[John Kepler]

"Nope, but in 96, and 92 and 88, and 14, there is ONE place where my rifle commands a premium, and that is in Long Range. I can run loads in my Norinco that'll bust an SA casting! BTW Sparky......how many "stock" parts do you think are in ANY competition rifle? "

First if you are running any loads that can blow a rifle ,you need reloading lessons, nothing to do with a receiver quality.
Second replacing original G.I. parts with parts that are more in match spec. is one thing. Replacing them because they are soft or will strip or the wood is pallet board is another thing. If you said that you like there forged receiver, I could understand, but claiming it was a great quality rifle is another. Even you admit you have replaced just about every part. You tried to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. You like your rifle and that's good enough.


You seem to be having this central conceptual problem about "liking" a competition rifle....I don't give a $hit about what ANY competition rifle intrinsically is, but rather what it does! I don't own/build them to develop any "emotional" attachments any more than I get emotionally attached to a 1/2" drive socket set. I am interested in one thing.....how they perform. In competition shooting, equipment CANNOT add to the developed skill of the shooter.....it can only subtract. That equipment that subtracts the least is what you strive for. What shoots good, IS good! M1/M14 competition rifles go through parts like a wolf goes through rabbits. Like any race car, you trade longevity for performance, and while you CAN make one shoot extremely well, the cost is that precision-modified parts drop from that position VERY quickly. When I was seriously campaigning an M1/M14 in Service Rifle, I carried the better part of a complete rifle to the range in spare parts.....a fully tuned weight-checked trigger group, a unified gas cylinder/lower band, a complete headspaced bolt and freshly profiled op-rod (and over the years I used every one of those pieces at least once at the range), and there is the constant "futzing" that the rifle required between matches, like skim-bedding etc. One of the absolute joys of shifting to the AR platform is getting rid of all that heavy, expensive baggage...AR's are like the Energizer Bunny, they just keep going and going and going without stuff taking a dump! So, short version: the Chinese parts that I built into the rifle originally didn't fail any sooner or more catastrophically than the USGI parts that I replaced them with. And when you consider that the entire rifle only cost me $250 NIB, it's the best firearms deal I've ever made!

As for your first comment: it's quite likely that I've been running a loading bench longer than you've been alive, and all your rather nasty comment proves is that you've never fired Long Range Service Rifle.......consider what's required to deliver a bullet out of a .308 case accurately and supersonically to a target 1000 yds away with a USGI-length barrel? In that competition venue, you do those things or you go home and sit under the porch....because you sure as hell won't be running with the "Big Dawgs" otherwise!

[John Kepler]

How is John right? The first thing you state is that you bedded and replaced the stock with G.I. Sounds more like you proved my point.

You are confusing what you HAVE to do, with what you CHOOSE to do! FWIW, in my very first year of competition Service Rifle, I had a DCM "loaner" M14 (so I could "qualify" for my "one in a lifetime" M1 Garand)......yes, the "real deal" with a welded selector switch (a TRW that I wanted to keep like a wolf wants a sheep)). Like every other competition M14, the stock was bedded by the Army/DCM.....which sends "your point" right out the window...if the rifle was "perfect" as it sat by your logic, why did they have to bed the rifle and modify half the parts in it so a duffer like me could toss 150 shots-for-record in the general direction of a target (which I wasn't required to even hit!). QED: I have a Winchester Mod. 70 in 7mm-08 that shoots passingly close to sub-1 MOA.....but only after I pillar-bedded the action, floated the barrel, and replaced the trigger. Before I did that work it only printed about 2.5 MOA....does that make a NIB Winchester Mod. 70 Classic a POS out of the box? No! 2.5 MOA is perfectly adequate for hunting deer in PA and WV....I'm just one of those weird hairpins that figure "too much" accuracy in a firearm is like having "too much" money in the bank....all I can get ain't enoug!

[John Kepler]

Back in the 1990's you could buy brandnew USGI M14 walnut stocks still in the bag for $19.....recoil springs were stupid cheap. Chinese M14 rifles were pissing-off some of the M14 gurus of the time...I mean really?...Those darn Chinese were selling M14 rifles cheap! Had to be junk

That's back when a company or two existed that swore on a stack of bibles that Chinese M14 rifles needed every part re-heat treated...and the gun refinished....Later it's just 'soft/out of spec' bolts. Lots of voo-doo BS floating around regarding Chi-com M14 rifles.

And the FACT (as confirmed by Charles Petty!) that every one of those "hit-pieces" were bought and payed for by the "Fratelli-Reese Gang", the owners of Springfield Armory Inc. had absolutely nothing to do with any of it! The Chinese M14's meant complete ruin and bankruptcy for "The Gang", so they were willing to "play dirty", and spend significant money, so they did!

[swampyankee]

John you have no idea of who I am or what I've done or how I shoot. You are so busy patting yourself on the back that you don't realize there are a lot of other shooters that shoot competition including long range service. Which you think is a big deal.
You are the one who called me names in your post, not I.
I still state, if by your own words you load high enough to blow a rifle ,you are an unsafe reloader.
I bet John if you buy a Volkswagon and change the suspension and motor and brakes and wheels and interior, you will have a car just like a Porsche. at least in your world.
One more last thing and I'm done. Your norinco is a piece of junk it has NO resale value and you know it.

[UUURah]

I wouldn't give one of YOUR nuts to have a Norinco.

I picked up one once ... I said to the seller, "Haaaa Soooooooooo".

[John Kepler]

Actually, I know your "vitae" fairly well....you gave it to me at a time when you weren't being quite so bilious...I save such things. BTW, you never asked me how much money I got for the OTHER Norinco-based rifles I built....why is that? Oh.....point of order, I NEVER called you "names", certainly nothing derogatory or pejorative. You post under a handle (I obviously don't!).....something I refuse to acknowledge on principal, so I used a generic, completely non-specific, gender neutral appellation rather than the nonsense you apparently prefer....don't like it, post a real name, or be content with what I choose to use absent something real! Second, the loads I shoot are perfectly safe for MY rifle and are within published load and pressure limits for the cartridge....my rifle does NOT have an ambivalent quality cast receiver built to forged dimensions and web thicknesses, and I HAVE seen SA receivers effectively destroyed by loads similar to mine, making it a problem with their choice of receiver, not the load...so you were saying?

Oh.....and I strongly suggest you do a search for "Formula Super-Vee".....you MIGHT gain some knowledge you currently lack....my partners and I built several of them on Ralt chassis and one (a water-pumper) on a Riley! I never really liked open-wheel formulas, so we generally stuck to GT's but there were exceptions, not to mention racing a VW/Porsche meant you had to deal with Joe Hoppen...a guy who was probably sorry he wasn't born early enough to be an SS guard at Auschwitz! It was a very happy day when we went to work for Nissan. As for Porsches.....you should take a drive in my restored '84 928S (something that CAN be arranged).....it's an orgasm on 4 wheels (NEVER listen to ZZ Top driving that car.....it gets expensive...ask me how I know....it's nick-name is "Der Nickelwagen"!)!

[John Kepler]

.. I said to the seller, "Haaaa Soooooooooo".
Uhhhhh.....that's Japanese, not Chinese (the Mandarin equivalent is "Nee How").....which I'm sure just amused the hell outta the guy you made a fool of yourself to!

[can14]

I have usgi m14 rifles, all the makers. I had a trw bolt split with Norinco 308 ammo. It came out in two pieces.
The gun survived, put in another trw bolt to match the gun. Never had that happen with my Norinco/Polytech's in over 20 years of shooting. Get new Chinese parts here in Canada for your Chinese M14 rifles. They have made many improvements
over the years. Guns have to be checked because China quality control is an issue

[Matt K.]

I've seen two for sale recently under $1000. Again, I have only heard you want a GI bolt. I have no problem owning Chinese AKs, SKSs, etc., but something deep inside won't let me own a Chinese M14....

[duke133]

I picked up 2 NIB years ago. One has had a lot of lead out the barrel, mostly thanks to some friends who enjoyed the heck out of it on an outing back in '09 where I believe they went through about 2,00 rds. The other is still NIB and I have absolutely no complaints. It is about as close as I can get to the 14 I qualified with back in '69.

[meterman]

Boys, enlighten me. I only shot an M14 once, in about 1970. (I have a Springfield M1A in my basement that I have only shot once..not too interested in it.) Anyway, what's the deal on the Chinese ones? I have heard that we gave the M14 tooling and machinery to the Nationalists. I have heard that they sold it to the Bad Chinamen, who have produced commercial versions. I have heard that the Bad Chinamen supplied Filipino rebels with their rifles, and these were captured and sold here. And blah, blah, blah. What is the real story on these Oriental rifles?? Just curious. Thanks.

[smle-man]

There is nothing wrong with Poly's. They are true to a USGI M14. The only flaw you hear people say is they have soft bolts. The thing is, you will wear out the barrel before you will the bolt. But yeah poly's are pretty good.

I haven't heard of a bolt failing yet in a Polytech. The bolt swapping thing is a real moneymaker for the shops doing it. I have one and so far it hasn't blown up and killed me after a couple thousand rounds.