[Mocos]

My first socom which I bought in '05 or '06 has several thousand rounds through it and last year I finally got around to adding a Sadlak rod and immediately the cycling became noticibly smoother. The original guide rod had it's edges worn smooth and yet did not duplicate the smoothness when the Sadlak unit was installed. Over the course of the several thousand rounds fired many of the contact and friction points of the action became smoother from wear. I've since then acquired two more socoms and have been experimenting with mini red dot sights...but that's something else. I pretty much got the red dot sight thing down and want to address making the socom more accurate and reliable but as much as I would like to do it by shooting another several thousand rounds through each one I wondered why I have not encountered any threads on stoning and polishing parts, track and raceways where friction occurs. The only thing that is polished is the Sadlak piston and they also offer a tin coated one. These two additions appears to have everybody's approval. Why not a polished or coated op rod and the fixture that it rides in. There are machine marks in the track that the op rod end rids in. There are the races in the receiver that the bolt rides on ..etc
The trigger group itself show friction point that could benefit from polishing.

I have done my own smithing on my 1911's, revolvers and even glocks and they all benefit from it both accuracy and reliability.....so I don't see why the m14 platform would improve likewise....Is there a reason why I don't see that kind of threads on "improvement" here?

 

[tonyben]

My guess would be that people don't want to remove the surface hardness. Or they just don't have that kind of time. I have thought about it though.

 

[Bamban]

While I have not done any extensive polishing on the 14s, what I did on my one of my M1Garands was Teflon coated (done up by Blackice Coating) all metal except the bore and the springs. I can tell you along the lines on what you talking about, that M1 runs so smooth and shoots great. Pull on the op rod it feels like it is riding on glass.

 

[Phil “Murphy” McGrath]

After awhile most parts wear in or burnish together, why use up elbow grease and the posibility of ruinnning the part? Mosts rifles run smooth after a few rounds down range, if its been refinnished what feels ruff and gritty will smooth out again.

 

[donker2]

I had a bit of trouble with mine long ago so we polished, we also did the bore but that's hard to photograph. please excuse the poor quality pictures. I'm proud to say its performed 100% not a single hick-up Thanks go to my Friend Mark and to Rammac.

 

[Mocos]

tony ben....is there a list of what parts are surface hardened. I don't think that all parts are. I recently had to have the op rod tab rebuilt ty Tim Shufflin as it was worn to half it's original dimention and was popping out of the track. Tim indicated that the tab could not be surface hardened because it should be a softer metal than the track is ran in.....easier to rebuild a tab than a track. If the parts that are not hardened and are friction points or surfaces, then it's grease that protects it and polishing could only benefit it.

 

[Gus Fisher]

tony ben....is there a list of what parts are surface hardened. I don't think that all parts are. I recently had to have the op rod tab rebuilt ty Tim Shufflin as it was worn to half it's original dimention and was popping out of the track. Tim indicated that the tab could not be surface hardened because it should be a softer metal than the track is ran in.....easier to rebuild a tab than a track. If the parts that are not hardened and are friction points or surfaces, then it's grease that protects it and polishing could only benefit it.

M14 receivers have a surface hardness of about 57 Rockwell. M14 op rods WERE surface hardened to about 42 Rockwell and that includes the lug. IOW, they were surface hardened, but not as much as the receiver.

 

[Rojkoh]

My first socom which I bought in '05 or '06 has several thousand rounds through it and last year I finally got around to adding a Sadlak rod and immediately the cycling became noticibly smoother. The original guide rod had it's edges worn smooth and yet did not duplicate the smoothness when the Sadlak unit was installed. Over the course of the several thousand rounds fired many of the contact and friction points of the action became smoother from wear. I've since then acquired two more socoms and have been experimenting with mini red dot sights...but that's something else. I pretty much got the red dot sight thing down and want to address making the socom more accurate and reliable but as much as I would like to do it by shooting another several thousand rounds through each one I wondered why I have not encountered any threads on stoning and polishing parts, track and raceways where friction occurs. The only thing that is polished is the Sadlak piston and they also offer a tin coated one. These two additions appears to have everybody's approval. Why not a polished or coated op rod and the fixture that it rides in. There are machine marks in the track that the op rod end rids in. There are the races in the receiver that the bolt rides on ..etc

The classic USGI NM op rod spring guide was a polished surface. Only problem was the way the end was attached to the rod, since it was not once piece construction. The cut ends off USGI guide and attached them to the guide rods. Any guide like Mikes does better with polishing of the rod itself, not the area that is connected to the pin.

If you have a cranky or creepy trigger, there are ways to improve it, but for this an education would really help, unless you do it the way I did. I went through a trigger/sear match before I got a TJ right on the second attempt. Actually polishing the parts in the trigger group normally isn't needed and can contribute to rust and real issues when it interfere's with the movement of the parts.


The trigger group itself show friction point that could benefit from polishing.

Any moving parts will show this. Especially where they engage with others. The M14 type rifle really doesn't need the polishing you might do on a 1911 type. All my IPSC .45s had 2lb triggers. My "Cowboy" 3 screw Blackhawk has a 1lb trigger. The 1911 and the 14 types are two different creatures and function differently. Trust me, I have two great loves: M14 types and 1911's including 1911A1, Series 70, my lightweight commander and so on. Yep, carried an OM for years. I even had my friends Lichtman for awhile. It's a tiny little manually operated .45 with 5 shots. It's smaller then a PPK. My early 45's were polished and had edges "rounded", I kissed that one off early on. I love them tuned and very functional. I hate yet to be bit by a .45 edge. But, my 45's are well known for biting others since I don't use the beavertail grip safety. Most of my .45's have the grip safety pinned, with ambi safety's... only safety I believe in is my finger.

I have done my own smithing on my 1911's, revolvers and even glocks and they all benefit from it both accuracy and reliability.....so I don't see why the m14 platform would improve likewise....Is there a reason why I don't see that kind of threads on "improvement" here?

It's usually over in the smithing area. But from time to time I drop in. I've worked on 14s and M1As since 1975.

 

[Rojkoh]

After awhile most parts wear in or burnish together, why use up elbow grease and the posibility of ruinnning the part? Mosts rifles run smooth after a few rounds down range, if its been refinnished what feels ruff and gritty will smooth out again.

Chuckle, an old friend of mine sent me mail today about "breaking in" a brand new Wilson Combat model after 200 rounds. I replied with the old IPSC adage, 500 rounds to break in a .45. Chuckle. Let the things break themselves in. Funny, my first Series 70 lasted roughly 100,000 rounds (guestimated) before the frame fatigued enough to start cracking. I had the hard chrome finish removed, I repaired it and had it refinished and sold it to a new shooter. It was fine. Lord I do love 70 series Colts. That 100,000 was with the old IPSC hardball equivalent, a load I won't repeat because nowadays it would be called a frame cracker and it did. I did load some up with the Hornady Truncated flat nose (called something else these days) and handed two magazines to a friend of mine that was a motor officer. His hardball loads were deflecting off the side of a car in a deflection shot. These penetrated just fine. I had tested them with an abandoned 1971 Firebird in the desert north of LA.

 

[Mocos]

M14 receivers have a surface hardness of about 57 Rockwell. M14 op rods WERE surface hardened to about 42 Rockwell and that includes the lug. IOW, they were surface hardened, but not as much as the receiver.

Is there any info on how deep the hardening might go in different parts?

 

[Gus Fisher]

Is there any info on how deep the hardening might go in different parts?

Yes, but to get that information, you have to look at the blueprint for each individual part in the package of blueprints that was made for each rifle. Usually there was one blueprint per part, but on parts like the receiver, there were two or three blueprints as I recall without pulling them all out.