N Jensen

Shooting in Vegas. You can shoot anything you want except a 50 BMG in our Palma practice match or in the HP across the course. We normally shoot a 80 shot practice match on the other weekends. On the months were there is a 5th weekend, it's a 1000yd only rifle match. Again F-class is welcomed as well.

In the late 80's when I talked to one of the Marine armors he talked about ensuring the housing, gas port , and piston were all aligned while in battery. He would shorten the op rod and or piston. But one could only remove only so much on either part to accomplish the goal. After looking at my rifle, I decided to shorten the gas plug as it was a 6.00 part vs a 125.00 op rod. The piston is hard, and using a file, that was a long process. My idea of shorten the gas plug accomplished the same goal. Not being there with you and your parts it's hard to tell you which way to go. I have several shorten gas plugs in my kit, but one day one gas plug might work on another gun. Not a lot of people looking to glass bed and accurize M1A's any more. Until you have the chamber done and empty case and action in battery it would be hard to tell which way you should go. You understand the end goal, I'm sure you will be fine. If the gas piston was shorten, I would recommend getting a brand new one and start with new parts.

We shoot HP every weekend in Las Vegas except Thanksgiving and Christmas. On the 2nd Sunday of each month is Palma practice 800, 900, 1000yds. F-class is welcome as well. So come and shoot and you can bring your M-1, more than happy to show you anything you want.

For a great trigger I would contact http://tlcgunworks.com/ and talk to Tom. He could tell you anything about m-1/M14 trigger work and could also build a very good M1A. As far as installing gas systems one needs to ensure the gas system doesn't move. The old way was shims, they can be bought from fulton armory. The shims come different thickness. Place the shims on the barrel and using the figure 8 drive the gas system into the shims to the shoulder of the barrel. Once done, the gas housing hole is now centered of the hole in the barrel. It might take all 3 shims or one, or a combo. Use a small drill bit you can tell if the house is centered. Once that is done the figure 8 may not come to 5:30 position. If it is at 3:00 you will need to thin the figure eight. Other words, use a flat file and file the one side of the figure 8 until it goes snug at 5:30 and then pulled tight to 6;00. if the figure 8 goes past 6:00 flip it over and try the other side. Another way to ensure the gas system doesn't move is red lock tight. But you need a propane torch the heat it up and to remove the housing again. If you had to thin the the figure 8, the gas plug will need to be shorten. Lastly, place a empty case into the chamber and close the bolt. With the gas piston in, slowly tighten the gas plug. Gas plug is tighten it should only push the op rod off the bolt roller by a 1/4 turn (1/4 turn the plug should bottom out and with the op rob barely moving), a small gap between the roller and the rearward end of the op rod area. If it takes like 2 turns to bottom out the plug and pushing the op rod while doing this, the gas plug is to long. File it shorter as needed and try and keep it square as well. Using a small pencil make a mark on the piston through the vent hole in the housing. If everything is done correctly, that pencil mark should be in align with the hole in the piston, which should line up with all the other holes. In other words properly timed. You have to admire the 14 gas system. Once it receives pressure from the barrel it shuts off the pressure hole in the barrel as it starts to move. The area within the piston and gas plug ensures enough gas volume to function the rifle. Once fully stroke happens, it vents over board. When the piston shuts off gas, that short distance on the op rod travels before the roller goes into the caming action area. This short space allows the bullet to be further down the barrel and a higher FPS before the action unlocks. This is why one needs to check that the op rod is fully fwd as possible when the action is in battery. Some people thought/think the op rod should engage the roller in battery while others thought it was more important to ensure while in battery that the gas system was back to the exact same spot each time, to ensure parts are not moving. I prefer a small gap / 1/4 turn on the plug. Food for thought, every gun smith has his ideas, one can nick pick this away. Just my 2 cents, if the gun is short stroking, its the gas system. If the gas system is installed to tight, IE snug at 3;30 and pulled to 6;00 it will bend the barrel. and no matter how low the rear sight is, the bullet impact will be 8 inchs or so high at 100 yds. I have seen this many times. But the barrel will go back to it's normal straightness once the gas system is installed correctly. Have fun.

I have seen the JAE stocks but have no experience with them. If I'm correct Allen was an outstanding service rifle shooter on the Army Reserve team through out the 80's and into the 90's. He even won the Porter cup at Perry with a NM M-14 twice. He builds a very good NM M14 or M1A. i'm sure his stock would work very well and would have a great shooting gun. If you are temp installing your action into old light military rifle stock you may be disappointed in the accuracy but at least you will be shooting. Installing the gas system by most people are installed to tight, not center over the gas port on the barrel, and piston not in alignment with gas housing center over the gas port in the barrel. Lastly, gas plug to long which makes a short stroke on the op rod before unlocking the bolt. For maintenance, clean your gas system, use drill bits to clean the carbon out of the plug and the inside of the piston (the piston will require two different size drill bits to clean). The rear lug in the rack grade stock will not provide any benefit unless the lug is glass bedded. Original M-14 relied on just the receiver legs against the insert in the rifle stock. The trigger needs to lock up very tight, shim with bedding material or some shims. If it locks up tight from the get go, it would be good to go. You should place grease on the op rod guide and in the track on the side of the receiver. Also put some grease inside the receiver, the area on the bottom side of the receiver where the bolt rides in while the hammer is pushing up on the bolt when in the stock, lastly a little grease on the hammer as rides on the bottom of the bolt. Shooting a rifle dry doesn't help, but over time, all it does is wear parts out. lastly I always thought that the gold piston didn't make the rifle shoot better, it really sucked. Just use a standard piston. When tweaking your rifle to get the most out of it. Try a bunch of different pistons. The Marine Corps rifle team when testing new builds would swap out pistons to get the rifle to shoot less than a minute on a machine rest at 300 yds. If after ten pistons or so and no improvement the rifle was sent back to the main gun shop. I was never in the Marine Corps but shot at Quantico enough to learn their routine. Hope this helps if you have questions, I'm more than happy to help.

I've used M1A in HP for many years and used 1-12, 1-11, 1-10 barrel twist before going to the match rifle and then AR 10 match rifle. My experience is that I couldn't tell the difference. As long as the rifle was built correctly and a good bedding job they all shot the same. That goes the same for no lug, single lug, and double lug as well. The rule of thumb in the hay day of M-14/M1A at Camp Perry was if one was going to shoot 168 at all yard lines was to use the 1-12 as it was closer to what the twist rate was for 300 meter rifles and the 168 MK. But if one wanted to shoot the 180 and later on 175 or heavier bullets go with the 1-10 for 600 yds and beyond. The 1-11 was for the guys who couldn't make up their minds. Also, even a Palma rifle with a 1-13 twist barrel will shoot 175g MK just fine. I also like to add that with the new version of the 155g Palma bullet at 2800 FPS (which is very due able in a M1A) with a .500 BC is another option that can clean the target at 600 yds very easily. Just food for thought. P.S A good bedding job for a M1A isn't that hard to do, if you want I could give you a basic step by step procedure if you like. I know this isn't a M1A form but I couldn't help myself. Sorry.

I have been using the DPMS Ar 10 in High Power as a match rifle for 6 years now. Shot some of my best scores with an AR 10. 498, 792 - both were shot at the creedmoor cup matches one in a team match and the 792 to win the match rifle class and placed 3rd over all. Right now my 6.5 Creedmoor gun is my best shooting of the 3.

I'm new to this board. I have a question for vertical displacement at mid to long range (600 to 800 yds). I have AR 10 in 308, 6mm, 6.5 Creedmoor and have noticed that after shooting 60 rounds that the action becomes more and more sticky/binding when unlocking. When this happens I see more high shots not on call. When the action is clean, the rifle is far more consistent in vertical displacement. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this and if anyone has heard if the Army M-110 sniper rifle has the same problem.