M14 dillema ... suggestions?

[Reckless]

okay ... picked up an EBR M14 off the boards for a great price... and it's a sexy sexy gun. but it's F'N HEAVY, not condusive to the small fast scurmishs played mostly round here.

now he's my dillema, is the EBR conversion bits worth it to sell? ... I just wanna switch it to a DMR stock . or am I better off the sell the whole unit and buy all new stuff to build it?

basically the sale of the ebr bits or the whole gun has to pay for the DMR build or conversion, I just don't have to funds to collect guns I don't want to use alot.

[Cheesevillage]

What brand internals?

Im not sure how much weight you will save in a conversion (someone else should be able to give you an idea). A nice sling will make your life easier, though, even in the meantime.

[Reckless]

its a Kart EBR ... but it's had some tinkering in it's guts.

it's 13-15 lbs (the conversion should drop 7-9 lbs ) ... and I run a 3 pnt tac sling (which does help)

[Cheesevillage]

I've heard those KART internals are terrible. Just keep the gun together as a single unit.

I'd take a look into how much you could sell it for and what you would have to spend to replace it. No one can really tell you if its worth it or not. You'll have to decide.

If it were me I'd buy a more reliable, lighter gun.

[SHÖCK]

I don't know, a stock M14 socom weighs like 9-10 lbs with battery and scope on it. You won't save as much as you think.

[ujiro]

MAN UP!
Just kidding :P. I agree with SNK though. Once you've got the battery in there, even a normal M14 is still pretty heavy. However! What I think the key difference between a normal (or DMR) M14 and the EBR is the balance. The EBR is very front heavy, considering the thin stock, and adding to that the fact that the battery is stored up front. So a normal M14 would most likely feel much more maneuverable and "light" than the EBR, due to the reduced weight, and better balance. There was just a thread about this, I think it is the one titled "Light AEG". But the general consensus is (which I agree with) that properly balanced guns feel light and easier to maneuver/move around with than an imbalanced gun.

[Reckless]

well according to the previous owner the mechbox's guts are all aftermarket.. as far as I know it had a M120 tune up kit and a tight bore installed...

anyways... friend of mine mentioned that he wanted to buy it for occasional use in a few months ... so I guess till then I'm keeping it.

honestly I was playing around with what each peice weighs and where the weight is... and I think I've come up with a few options which will help with weight and balance and are reversable later on

- take a die grinder to the inside of the pot metal body and shave the thickness of non structural parts ... mainly the front end
- change the stock to a full stock and move the battery there
- see if i can find a socom length alum outter barrel set (and use the flash hider to hide the bit of exposed inner barrel )
- remove any un used rails
- switch the bipod to a bipod convertable foregrip
- remove the inards that make the bolt/charging handle functional


the only things not easily reversable would be the thickness of the body shaved.. and what ever of the top rail I remove


and for the die grinder sounding extreme... the body of this beast is THICK... I'd say 7/16 of an inch... really a hair over 1/4 inch would be fine...