Poly Teck ??

[Bozley]

First post...sort of long.
My shooting buddy has a new poly teck M14 clone and ask me to find some info on this weapon. So I googled.The opinions on this weapon ranged from junk to good. Some "said soft bolt,soft trigger parts,head space problems the sights shoot loose ,get a total rebuild before you even fire the weapon." Others" said good rifle,fired thousands of rounds..no problems, will out shoot the Spingfields ect." Fulton wants $2000 to rebuild ,not an option for my buddy,Smith Enterprise wants $500 to replace the bolt...getting better. I told him ,I would fire a few rounds, check the empties for signs of head space problems and go from there. From what I read on this forum...you guys are very knowlegeable on this subject. If any work needs to be done on this rifle is there a gunsmith in PA. that can do the work? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated...Thank You Tom

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[John Beall]

Bozley, I have one, and it shoots ok for a stock type gun. I don't shoot it much but I do keep an eye on the bolt. several of the bolts were not properly heat treated, but some seem ok. one day I will switch the parts over to USGI, using the receiver. right now I shoot Garands to much to worry about it. as you have already heard, some are OK and some are just bad. a new GI bolt is a good idea if you want to shoot it a lot. HTH

[goo]

see links,
...
Polytech M14 Rifle
....
Norinco M14 Bolt report [Archive] - THR
...
http://www.fulton-armory.com/M14SReview3.htm
...
Polytech M-14 [Archive] - TheFiringLine Forums
...

[threepdr]

I've had one since 1994. I shot about 500 rounds through it with no indications of a bad bolt or headspace problems. I am not a competition shooter, but the accuracy was great for a casual shooter. Everything I have read says that the only potential problems with the Polytec were the springs and the bolt and possibly the hammer. THose parts might be a little soft. Keep an eye on your headspace and shoot it. If it develops problems then have a USGI bolt installed.

Back around 1999 or so when CMP was selling M14 parts very cheap, I bought just about every thing I needed and switched out the parts. Springfield Armory at that time was selling almost new condition M14 barrels for $99. I bought one of those also.

My rifle now is all GI except the reviever and oprod. The only reason I change all the parts was because they were so inexpensive at the time.

[Ron H.]

Sir, FWIW, I've rebuilt three Polytech M14 types with GI parts and also shot them in factory trim. I have no way to check metallurgy, but here are my observations from just working on and shooting the things.

The receivers seem good dimensionally. USGI and commercial barrels screw right on. USGI rear sights and charger guides drop in. The locking lug surfaces are the correct angles. The receiver bridge is correctly shaped and timed to both stop and clear the firing pin tail. Clearance for the bolt's locking lugs is often tight, hindering free bolt rotation. USGI bolts have to be fit, and sometimes this requires replacing the Chinese barrel. (See below.) I haven't tried replacing the connector lock or bolt stop.

The Chinese bolts are bad dimensionally. The rear surfaces of the bolt lugs often are angled incorrectly and show minimal surface contact on their corresponding surfaces in the receiver. It often looks like the Chinese set headspace by grinding on the rear of the bolt lugs with an unguided hand tool (!).

The Chinese barrels vary considerably. Some will headspace correctly with a USGI bolt, and some won't. Some are quite accurate, and some aren't. [shrug] Many of the Chinese guns come with long headspace. Some say they're headspaced for 7.62 rather than .308, but I suspect the headspacing was just sloppily done and tended to err on the long side. Oddly enough, my personal rifle came with correct commercial .308 headspace, as checked with Clymer gauges.

The Chinese trigger groups I've seen all showed rough machining and had heavy, gritty trigger pulls. Replacing the Chinese hammer, trigger, their respective pins, and the hammer spring with GI parts usually fixes the crummy trigger pull.

The Chinese stocks I've handled were made of some trashy soft mystery wood. It tends to fray and shred instead of cut when being routed for glass bedding. The stock furniture (the metal parts) is fine, though the stock liner and its screws are metric and will not interchange with USGI. Same for the rear sling swivel and its screw.

The Chinese gas systems are carbon steel with chrome plating, whereas USGI parts are stainless steel. I've seen the Chinese parts corrode, though not often. The Chinese gas cylinder lock has metric threads and will not interchange with USGI. I've neither seen nor heard of any problems with the Chinese op rods. They're reputed to be forged in one piece like the TRW op rods, but I have no way to confirm this.

The Chinese rear sights' clicks are not as positive and "clean" as those of GI sights.

The Chinese magazines work well.

In stock trim, the guns shoot well enough. My personal rifle has never jammed, either in factory trim or after USGI conversion. The same is true of a friend's rifle. His gun was surprisingly accurate in factory trim--off the bench it would keep five rounds of Federal Gold Medal in 1 inch at 100 yards. Mine was not so good in factory trim--3 inches or more was typical with most ammo.

The vast majority of the Chinese parts will interchange with USGI, at least as assemblies. For example, a complete GI rear sight assembly drops right into the receiver, even though some individual sight parts will not interchange. Same for gas systems, stocks, trigger groups, flash hiders, etc.

Parts that do not interchange or require fitting are the gas cylinder lock, bolt body (has to be fit), stock liner and screws, rear sling swivel and screw, the castle nut (though these threads are close enough that a GI castle nut will work on a Chinese barrel), and (I'm told) the connector lock.

Were I to get another Polytech M14 clone, first on my priority list would be to fit a USGI bolt, replace trigger components as described above, and replace all springs with USGI. Then I'd consider other changes as money and whim dictate.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

[John Kepler]

The primary problem with the rifles is an incompatible helix-angle between the receiver and the bolt locking lugs. The bolt locking lugs (the problem is with the bolt, not the receiver) are only supported in the receiver on the very tips of the lugs. Eventually, the metal on those over-loaded lug-tips collapses, and the headspace opens up a LOT, fast! In my Norinco, the headspace opened from a very nice tight 1.632" to 1.644+" (the longest gauge in the set and it was visibly loose!) in less than 50 rds. FWIW, I donated the bolt to Fulton Armory...they used to have pictures of the collapsed bolt lugs on their web-site.

In addition to opening the headspace precipitously, the bolt lugs collapsing also displace the the firing pin extension from the receiver safety bridge, severely compromising or inerting the "out-of-battery" safety feature.

This failure with the Chinese bolt is as inevitable as it is unpredictable. That it will happen is a given....when is the real rub, and the consequences can be catastrophic.

The only real solution involves replacing both the bolt and the barrel with USGI parts.

[goo]

don't hardly seem worth it.
pretty sure these had all 'merican parts


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/114/3...0f3e51.jpg?v=0

[John Kepler]

You shoot what the PTB let you. That Chinese receiver is as close as you can buy to what you have in the picture that you CAN'T buy. Reality versus rhetoric.

[Sarge]

97% of the bad things you hear about the chicoms is Pure B.S.!!! That which is true pertains almost exclusevly to the early imports - about the first 2 yrs or less when they were all metric.
I have never seen any major catastrophic malfunction of a chicom reported on the internet in the past 10 yrs. I HAVE seen such reported on ALL of the "American" rifles!
I have made the following offer many times over the 10 yrs I have been on the internet - Let's have a shoot off, your standard grade sprungfeld against my all original norinco M14SA. We shoot till one rifle malfunctions such that it can not be quickly repaired (fp, extractor etc). The looser pays ALL of the winners expenses AND gives him his rifle (IF he wants it?)! No one has yet taken me up - says a lot for their confidence in the junk factor of my chicom!
I know of chicom semis with over 10,000 rds thru an all original rifle with out any problem. I have a chicom M14 Full Auto and have never had a problem with it.
Sarge

[RED]

I had my Poly's bolt replaced with a GI bolt and at the time I also had the rifle steel bedded into a nice looking GI birch stock. It will shoot with any SA standard rifle and better than most. The Fulton article posted by Goo was VERY interesting. Did you notice the guy said he was shooting INDIAN ammo and couldn't fathom how poor his rifle performed. Gimme a break!