This may have some answers. I have been to LRB's office and have met with the owners of JV Precision personally and have seen their manufacturing facility as well as the heat treat facility that LRB uses. The amount of work and detail that goes into making a GI spec hammer forged receiver is astonishing and LRB has incredible quality control checks that they use before a receiver is approved for sale.



Starting at the 19 minute mark, it will put into perspective how hard it is to make the M14 receiver and its parts.

I will tell you that nobody at LRB is getting rich making a receiver that starts at $1,020. The company only exists because of the love of the rifle.

Tony.

I was at LRB once, probably around 2009, to pick up a bunch of lowers. I was surprised to see how small it was, and well.. relatively unimpressive.

I was impressed to see a pretty gal assembling an M14.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
I was at LRB once, probably around 2009, to pick up a bunch of lowers. I was surprised to see how small it was, and well.. relatively unimpressive.

I was impressed to see a pretty gal assembling an M14.

That would be Miss Diana!

From 2018 SHOT Show...

I would love to own an M14 made with an LRB receiver, and have no doubt that it would be worth the price. It is great that there is enough of a market in this country to allow them to be a going concern. Over the years I have been lucky enough to acquire five very nice M1 Garands, from a 4 digit SA to a high number H&R, all excellent rifles and, of course all with forged receivers, a fair investment for sure, and all cheaper than the M1a Loaded bought several years ago. Unfortunately, as much as I would love to buy an M14 with a forged receiver it would be a real stretch financially especially because I don't shoot competively. To those who are able and willing to pay the freight it is awesome that they are available, and I hope all concerned are able to provide these guns and make them profitably.

It’s an economy of scale phenomenon. Surplus parts have mostly dried up. And everything about the m14 is expensive to produce. They have overhead costs that are high as a manufacturer. And at the end of the day, the goal is to turn a profit.

Gents,

I have a number of LRB M-14's and consider myself lucky to have them. A more affordable rifle would be a Springfield "five line" with USGI parts.
Shop with care and enjoy your rifle(s) when you get them...

Wes

What has become of Bula Forge Benny? Are they not quality? I was rather proud to know someone was making original spec receivers and parts.

quote:

Originally posted by JoshNC:
It’s an economy of scale phenomenon. Surplus parts have mostly dried up. And everything about the m14 is expensive to produce. They have overhead costs that are high as a manufacturer. And at the end of the day, the goal is to turn a profit.

Truth,

I picked up a couple of estates in the past few years that had a lot of M14 parts, as in GI stuff, and was amazed an how much they sold for on gunbroker etc,

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
What has become of Bula Forge Benny? Are they not quality? I was rather proud to know someone was making original spec receivers and parts.

They stopped caring about quality. With just a little effort and some better QC, they could put LRB out of business.

They have all the tools at their disposal to make every part needed and access to all the quality checks you could ever want. But at the end of the day, they're not trying. I stopped building off their parts in 2022. I was finding defects in their receivers, bolts, barrels, gas cylinders, gas plugs, and operating rods.

I've encountered receivers that were un-buildable, barrels that had to be rejected, operating rods that needed Dremel work and overall builds that would not hit where aimed.

In one case, I did a build for a customer and we ended up having to use a Criterion barrel just to get a rifle that hit where you were aiming. With the front sight moved to its mechanical limit, I was still hitting 5 inches from center at 50 yards!

It was taking too long and too much work for me to turn out an acceptable product using their parts.

With LRB receivers and Criterion, Kreiger, Lothar Walther, or Bartlein barrels, builds come together without additional troubleshooting or additional corrective action.

Tony.