This is one of the most interesting and undiscussed things about the M14. Both of mine were all USGI except the LRB receiver and I never, ever, ever experienced a malfunction with either in over 5000 rounds. The first time I held a Springfield M1A I said out loud "whoa, this isn't right at all". The weight, the balance, the sound and feel of the metal parts, the width and shape of the stock, the trigger, the recoil, the sights—everything felt off. This makes some sense—producing M14 parts in the manner specified by its TDP would be insanely expensive today. Hell, it was expensive and difficult then! People forget what manufacturing was like before CNC.
Everybody talks about "HK clones" but nobody talks about "M14 clones" with the same (and probably more deserved) derision. At least license-built G3s were actually built under license and not in a commercial free for all. I found the vast majority of revisionist internet M14 lore is a. not contemporaneous and b. actually about Springfield M1As, not real complete WRA/HRA/SA/TRW rifles or all-but-receiver kit builds.
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