M14 Forum

MesaRifle

I recently received one of these fun little rifles for a local customer. Since I have become a bit lax in getting out to shoot my own stuff, usually having a number of rifle-smithing jobs that require sighting in, barrel break-in, sight alignments and accuracy tests at all sort of ranges, I don't get the chance much any more to "jist go/n shoot up them danged targits!" with my own arsenal.

I also found out there's a short-range indoor .22LR limited shooting range here in my town. It's been there all along! It meets every Thursday evening. So... having tested my customer's rifle for accuracy @ 50 yds (I shot some older Winchester Target grade .22LR ammo into a 5 shot 0.6" group, off a not quite concrete-solid tripod rest). But that was enough: these are nifty shooters. And so... predictably, I bought one of these "cute" Baby Ubertis for myself! It weighs only about 5lb max! Next will be the accuracy test of mine today, but I'm hopeful!

Pix to follow. (they do also list a longer octagonal barrel, but only in 22 WRFM, which is too 'hot" and expensive to shoot. Perhaps they could be convinced to chamber some octo-bbls in .22LR? Now that would be a collectable shooter!)

BTW, I also disassembled mine completely, since it had a laterally loose trigger lever, unlike my friend's rifle. I fixed that with a shim on the trigger axle pin. Then I saw that "Luigi" (poor Luigi! It's ALWAYS his fault! They oughta fire him!) had perhaps not been on his best form when he ground the sear and trigger lever sear engagement lip. Both were not square to each other, and there was only partial contact on one lone edge of the sear. So I carefully stoned them both up to be smooth and parallel to themselves. The factory also left a lot of dust, dirt and machining frass in the gubbins! I carefully greased the necessary points with my own proprietary SlixGun5™ synth gun grease, and it all feels so much better now. BTW, it's hard to lighten the trigger pressure on these; you have to tinker with the engagement angles, no handy spring to shorten, etc. I'm investigating, but for now, it has that sorta OK @ a clean 5#. But... I'd like 3 - 3.5# please!

Then I'll clean and break in that bbl over at least 50 rounds. Then I'll go and win a few local competitions, right?

Those other old foggies won't know wha-hittem! Just this...

sac troop

Whoa, This thread brings me back to when I was more involved in black powder stuff. More than once I found that some of my Italian made stuff while real nice lookers on the outside, often left much to be desired when I started unscrewing things and looking inside.
I'm with you on the engagement question on the trigger contact. When you start pulling the trigger back on the cocked hammer, how much does the hammer continue to move back in the cocked direction?
I'm guessing that they may have cut the engagement angles too far over. It's the way to play it safe but as long as you keep the engagement positive and not neutral or even worse negative you can often get that trigger where you want it. Not a project that I'd recommend for my local Bubba mechanic friend who likes to express himself with a 4" hand grinder.

Disclaimer In no way was the Bubba reference meant to besmirch the fine character of my forum brothers residing in the Land of Dixie. I find my Bubba friends know no State boundaries.