Originally Posted by
geargnasher
Hi, Bruce, thanks for weighing in!
I remember about you using the Wilson gauge, and also four or five different bullets with nary a jam.....there indeed seems to be a correlation there.
Did you have the issues with gauged case shoulders that Rick is describing?
>>>> No, the whole procedure is boringly simple.... no problems at all in my rifle. I have an "X" die but have yet to use it much. Standard RCBS .308 dies work fine, as do their .308 small-base dies.
Also, a newbie question, after putting cartridges in the magazines, do you tap them all the way forward so that the bullet tips contact the front wall, as they will under recoil?
>>>>>No. I just load 'em up and stuff them into the rifle. Now that I think about it, I realize that I ensure the rounds are seated all the way BACK in the mags.... but the first round fired will move the whole stack forward under recoil.
I traded off the 10-round mag that came with the rifle; a friend likes that size and I don't.
Right now I have some Taiwanese Type 57 mags (bought new from Midway), some Checkmate Industries 20-rounders (they supply current US military needs for M14 magazines) and some original US GI M14 mags as well. The Type 57s were made on US machinery that we sold to Taiwan way back when.
All these mags work perfectly. I don't recall ever disassembling an M-14 mag, but that's mostly because of the environments in which I lived. Dirt etc was just not a problem. Certainly, smoothing up the internals won't hurt. Be careful about changing feed angles etc.
Gear