I built this off a James River Armory marked receiver (made by Bula), GI trigger group, op-rod, bolt and unitized welded gas cylinder.

I used a Criterion barrel from Fulton Armory, a Sadlak Airborne mount and a carbon graphite kevlar stock (limited run by some guy who had a bunch of leftover aircraft composites a long time ago). Also used a reclaimed SAI SOCOM gas lock and a vented hand guard from JAE.



Now I just have to break it in and see what she can do. I built this for research purposes as I have never owned a 16" M14 before.

Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

It's going to be better than the Springfield factory model.

That said, I've had a SOCOM 16 for a long time and love it.

I like it.

Yes please! I need that pic of Fry saying shut up and take my money. Nice!!

That rates a solid 10 right there.

Nicely done!

Excellent!

I was up early this morning messing around with some data and possibilities.

The business end. (Schuster gas plug)






This stock has been around the block a few times...




Threw on a red dot for giggles...


9 pounds 11oz without optics or magazine.


The stock alone is 3.5 pounds.


In comparison, a McMillan M3A is 4.5 pounds.


Dropped it into a factory Springfield plastic stock and it's over a pound lighter at 8 pounds, 6 ounces versus 9 pounds 11 ounces with my aerospace stock.


9 pounds, 3 ounces with a GI fiberglass stock.


The whole package is 11.5 pounds with the SWFA fixed scope and an empty magazine as pictured in the original post.

Tony.

As a side note, I intend on running bullets as light as 110's or 125's and as heavy as 168's. I'm running the Schuster to tune the gas system so as not to overstress the operating system when running hot 168's and maybe even 175's with slow burning powders.

I'd like to see if I can get some nice load development to effectively take it out to 600 yards. Will probably turn to the Varget, RL-15 and 4064 for that.

I cut it with an M852 chamber reamer which was designed around the 168 grain SMK. I may even experiment with some Berger hybrids.

Tony.

More details to come later. After a barrel break-in and tuning the Schuster gas plug, I ran a few rounds of 168 grain FGMM. Rifle shot great and grouped around 1.1"





Tony.

Do you mess width FALs any? Looking for someone to work one one of mine.

Sorry, I've never shot a FAL and I can't remember even touching one.

As for the FrankenSOCOM,

I broke it in with some factory XM80 and had the Schuster gas plug wide open. As I broke in the barrel, I kept closing the port on the gas plug until the bolt would cycle enough to lock back on an empty magazine.

The iron sights are nicely centered and with the rear sight bottomed out, I was about an inch high at 50 yards. The front sight was pretty close to mechanical center.

I moved out to 100 and threw on the SWFA fixed scope. The Sadlak scope mount has a channel you can look through to see the iron sights. I managed to dial in the scope close to the irons and get on paper at 100 in a relatively short time.

I then put in some 168 grain FGMM and got the scope dialed in. Once One thing to note is that the 168 grain factory ammo wasn't enough to cycle the action reliably, The rifle would short-stroke, eject the case but not pick up another round.

I had to close the valve set screw 1/4 turn to get the cycling to work with that ammo.

I had 8 rounds left by this time and that's when I shot the first group of 1.15" and the last three shots landed in at 1.198."

I should also note that I threw in a trigger group from another rifle before I even went out. It has an adjustable trigger from Shooting Sight, so its already set at a nice 4.5 pound trigger pull.

I think I'm going to name this rifle FRANK as in FRANKEN-SOCOM.

Tony.

Great project!!! Keep us posted!!

That's pretty good grouping for a SOCOM barrel! I'm curious about your break-in specifics, Schuster aside. Did you clean after every shot, every 5, etc?

I'll be picking up a Schuster plug and one of those killer Atlas bipods, too.

I shoot one shot and run an eyelet with a patch with Hoppe's 9 through it twice, hit the chamber with a nylon 45 ACP brush wrapped in a cotton patch and wet with Hoppe's 9 and a flexible chamber maid scrubbing handle, then run a couple of patches to dry everything off. I wrap the 45 ACP brush in a dry cotton patch and dry out the chamber too.

I repeat this process for the first 5 shots.

Then I load a mag with 5 rounds and shoot 5 in semi-auto and clean once as described above.

Then I load a mag with 10 rounds and shoot 10 in semi-auto and clean one last time, then I'm done.

I'm thinking of using this in a 200/300 tactical rifle match next month.

Tony.

Tony,
I sent you an email about an M1a question as to not hijack your thread.
Thanks,
Mark

Well, looks like I've got a scope all picked out for it. I worked out a deal on a Vortex HD Gen II 1-6x24.

Hope to have it before next Friday.



It should fit the role of the rifle much better.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
Well, looks like I've got a scope all picked out for it. I worked out a deal on a Vortex HD Gen II 1-6x24.

Hope to have it before next Friday.



It should fit the role of the rifle much better.

Tony.

Excellent choice!

I have been working with FRANK a bit and have been toying around with some 155 grain Berger Hybrids and some IMR-3031. I've also been messing around with my new Labradar. Even in the JAE, I typically see erratic groups and usually a 45˚ group dispersion in the 2.5" to 5" group range. It's really frustrating and disappointing.

One thing I noted was that as I used a lighter charge, the dispersion pattern changes.

Yesterday I did a ladder test in .5 grain increments using LC cases and Remington 9-1/2 primers. Since groups are pretty large at 100, I decided to test group size at 50 first. I found 41 grains seemed to give some good results and 41.5 wasn't too bad either. I took it out to 100 and managed to pull off a 2.2" group with the 41 grain load. It would have been a great group if not for the flyer, but it looks promising.

The flyer could have been a poorly matched handload, so I'll be making more loads in this range to see if that's the accuracy node. I'll also re-test the 40.5 grain load as that was the first group of the test and after I shot that string, I checked the action screws on the chassis and managed to get an 1/8th of a turn before they were properly torqued again. After that, I torqued the screws between groups to ensure that nothing was shooting loose. The vertical string on the 40.5 could have been to the looser torqued screws.

But after seeing the 41.0 grain group, I was happy so I proceeded.



I also installed a Delta-P gas lock and a Precision Armament muzzle brake. The brake is very effective but is obscene to shoot under cover and cruel to anyone beside you. It's even cruel to the shooter.

I shot it and the group that was about 8 benches over still felt the shockwave. They thought it was cool, so they weren't bothered by it. We have a portable blast shield for rifles with brakes, so I put it up after my first group.

A short time after, a guy came in and was eyeballing the empty void between me and the other group. I spoke up and said he may want to shoot farther over or wait for me to shoot a string to see if he can handle the blast. I explained that I had chosen the farthest bench on the end to be courteous to other shooters.

He waited for me to shoot a string and chuckled and said "I'm going to shoot somewhere else."

So for the 155's, the rifle seems to like the 2600FPS range. I'll have to order some more 155 Bergers and more IMR-3031 and do a finer test on the low end.

Once I find a great load, I'll bed it into the first stock and maybe even a wood stock and see how it works.

Tony.

makes me want a vented hand guard..!

cheers

I did a coarse ladder test with 168 grain Nosler Custom Comp's yesterday, IMR-4064, LC cases and Remington 9-1/2 primers. COL: 2.815"

Looks like it likes low-mid range loads in the 41.5 grain range. As I reach the max load which matches FGMM, the pattern develops the signature right forward slant dispersement pattern I've come to expect with warm 168 and 175 grain loads.

Now I can load up some mid-grade 168 grain loads and fine tune the barrel tensioner. I ran out of 155 hybrids, but will order a few hundred more again and try again, as well as do another test on some 125 grain TNT's.



The velocity from the 168's with 41.5 grains of IMR-4064 taken with a Labradar were:
Average 2411.75 FPS
Std Dev 13.33
MAX 2421
MIN 2392
MAX spread 29

Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,