Unusual wear on M1A/M14

[Round Dial]

I’ve got some unusual wear on my M1A/M14 and I’m hoping someone can help me diagnose the problem. The rifle is a Springfield M1A and is of early 1990’s manufacture. The bolt was made by TRW. The rifle was built as a match rifle and has 500 rounds though it. The wear on the receiver seems excessive to me. When I cycle the bolt across the area with the wear, it does not appear to be rubbing or binding in the area of question. The rifle has been lubed prior to each range session. Frankly, I don’t know exactly when the wear began to occur. Generally, I inspect the rifle very carefully during each cleaning and I’m surprised that the wear got so bad before I noticed it. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[chuckles]

You might get some more activity on your question at the M14 forum.
http://www.m14tfl.com

 

[nicholst55]

Perfectly normal. Put a dab of grease there and cycle the bolt a couple of times; you'll be fine. You DO grease your rifle, don't you?

 

[Speedo66]

Perfectly normal. Put a dab of grease there and cycle the bolt a couple of times; you'll be fine. You DO grease your rifle, don't you?

He specifically said "The rifle has been lubed prior to each range session".

 

[Gordon]

M14s NEED grease IMHO

 

[earlthegoat2]

there is a pretty big difference between lube and grease on an M-14.

 

[H2O MAN]

M14s love grease.




I doubt you would get this kind of information over on that tfl place

 

[Daniel B]

M1A/M14 platform needs grease not oil.

that wear is perfectly normal. You cant keep them looking new by shooting them. Just aint going to happen.

 

[Slamfire]

Don't freak out, your M1a bolt cams down at the point, and it also unlocks under pressure at that point.

All my receivers have a little wear at this location. I don't have any good top view to show a comparison.

In my opinion, ammunition that is overpressure at unlock will increase wear and deformation on this edge. Match barrels have big gas ports. Makers don't like ordering special diameter drills, so they simply drill the gas port hole one drill size larger than GI. It is not like there was insufficient gas volume with a GI barrel.

It is to your benefit to use powders between IMR 3031 and IMR 4064 in burn rate, and keep your velocities moderate to compensate for the large gas ports.

 

[Round Dial]

Thanks for the info guys. Yes, I do use grease on this rifle, specifically, Lubriplate. As far as powers go, I originally used IMR4895 and then switched to H4895 due to availability. When I switched to the Hodgdon powder, I put a couple of rounds through the rifle that were towards the higher end of the pressure limit, but they did not appear to be over pressure. With 168gr bullets, this rifle is most accurate at about 2500 fps with either powder. I've got a couple of M1's and inspected a friends M1A and none of the other rifles had wear like this. That is what sparked my concern.

 

[rcmodel]

It appears to me in your photo that ding or dent has always been there since the receiver was made.
It seems to have parkerizing in the bottom of it anyway.

Now, just the high point edge of the ding is showing finish wear, which would be expected.

rc

 

[Round Dial]

It is definitely wear. For some reason in the picture there appears to be color in the spot.

 

[GunTech]

Very normal wear. Here the same wear on one of my M1As

 

[Round Dial]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I hadn't noticed this type of wear before, so I got a bit concerned. I'm not gonna worry about it and get back to shootin'

Thanks Again

 

[Mark whiz]

Yeah - my late 90's Loaded has the same thing going on too. Mine almost looks like it is a ramp machined into the rail edge.