M-14 Paratrooper Rifle James River Armory

the James River armory m14 paratrooper let's check it out the m14 was designed in 1959 to replace the m1 garand which was a battle-proven design with Vietnam they knew they had to kind of update things and so in 1961 the m14 started replacing these rifles on the frontlines in 1964 the m16 was accepted as the US military rifle so the m14 had the dubious honor of being the shortest issued rifle to the US military but these are still being used today all over the world by US military forces so it's also the longest serving US military rifle this is a 308 caliber semi-automatic these are just excellent firearms I did a review recently on the James River Armory standard m14 but today we're going to take a look at the paratrooper the paratrooper has a 19 and a quarter inch barrel compared to the standard model which has a 22 inch barrel they're both national matched barrels they're both forged receivers from viewla defense and these are excellent and I want to thank Ben at classic firearms for setting this up and having this sent to me to do the tests and evaluation and do some comparisons with the standard model after my review of this James River Armory standard model I just didn't know if the paratrooper would live up to this - what I had really put this on a pedestal I mean this has been my favorite review of the year it was just such a great shooting rifle the quality is there you can do up-close but you can also get out to extreme distances I mean this with the National Match barrel these guns are as capable as any on the market and then we have just the 19 and 1/4 inch barrel it's only two and three-quarter inches difference in barrel lengths but knowing that this can really is just really capable of reaching out to super long distances plus I was really concerned about recoil and we'll talk a little bit more about that at the range but one of the things about this these rifles is that they're fairly heavy the parts are really beefy and so at the range the balance it just makes these a pleasure to shoot both rifles and really the only difference between the two it's just barrel length otherwise everything else is the same but one big thing that I do love is this American black walnut stock I mean they are gorgeous and they're done to what you would expect in a US military arsenal of course the forged receivers from Bulow defense set these apart from most of what you're seeing out there on the market the original military versions were forged but a lot of the commercial versions are cast Springfield Armory which is one of the most popular which I have a Springfield Armory SOCOM I love that rifle but it is a cast receiver and the strength of the forged you know I would prefer now I still love my Springfield Armory and it's excellent but this is going to give you more life in the long run plus you have build of Defense bolts you have the National Match barrel and a lot of the parts on here are from Bulow defense which is one of the top producers of m14 parts in the world now guys here is the difference between the barrel lengths and it's just not that much but really out the distance hitting a thousand-yard range I would definitely rather have the 22 inch barrel the focus today is the paratrooper we're gonna make sure the gun is unloaded there's your magazine catch right there you kind of rock it out and you bring it back in like this then we check to make sure the guns been loaded and it's empty this is a piston-driven gas-operated semi-automatic rifle and they did make the full automatic versions in these but honestly they were uncontrollable right here is your charging handle and it's part of the operating rod and as we bring it back notice what the bolt does it kind of rotates and then locks up here we have a stripper clip guide and then back here we have our adjustable sight which is up to military spec it is an aperture sight is protected by ears and you have your adjustments on either side and the markings are in the military style u.s. rifle 7.62 millimeter m14 James River Armory and your serial number here you can see forged in the USA and then burg all North Carolina the black walnut stocks on these are just gorgeous you have your handguard on top and of course the rest of your stock and Erol is a national match barrel it's medium profile you have your gas adjustment here you have a bayonet lug front sight and then we have our usgi flash hider but all the metal parts are finished very well it does have a sling swivel on the front then here at the butt of the stock we have a sling loop the stock has embossed markings here is a p with a circle then our marry markings here right above the trigger now here we have a metal butt plate and this actually comes up just like so and the reason why this was designed this way is this actually fits over your shoulder so when you're firing full automatic it keeps the rifle from rising up but this actually is pretty effective even in rapid semi-automatic fire that makes a huge difference keeps that muzzle really flat there's a small trapdoor here at the back for your cleaning supplies just open it up you can put your cleaning kit in their classic firearm sent one of their Austrian military 308 so this is 147-grain it's manufactured by hurtin burger good quality ammo brass non corrosive and I believe it's like two hundred dollars for a battle pack of 360 rounds so good buy on these it's good hot loads and do they come in these 20 round boxes at the range I was really curious to see what kind of difference in recoil between the standard 22 inch model in the nineteen point two five inch model with the paratrooper and guys I'll tell you just shooting them side-by-side which I wanted to do just to see you know what the felt recoil was and really it was very mild the difference the balance on the paratrooper is nice it's not so long it's not so big it's more compact and easy to maneuver reliability was excellent just like the standard model we had no malfunctions one time I didn't quite seat the magazine fully in and fired the round and then it just didn't fire on the second time I've adjusted the magazine and that was the only issue he had the whole time it's just a very shootable rifle in 308 even though it's a pretty high-powered caliber the way that this thing is built with the gas system it makes it a very soft shooting gun and then of course you put the muzzle brake on the end and that also tamed somewhat and just the heft of the rifle now one of the big things that the m1 a is known for is accuracy especially with a National Match barrel but without optics it's really difficult to get a real good pinpoint group especially out the distance so I've got one of the side Lac scope mounts we're gonna attach to the standard and we're gonna take it out to a thousand yards and we're gonna see what kind of accuracy but from all reports that I've seen the accuracy on these are excellent now we did take it out 250 yards to shoot groups because I just wanted to make sure where I was on paper now with the iron sights I just wanted to get a decent reading on the accuracy this was my first group 5 shot group and here another group 5 shots and that was using the Austrian 147-grain ammunition and one thing about the ammunition is that it will shoot 7.62 by 5:1 as well as the 308 and that's one thing that sometimes the garand could be kind of finicky with 3006 ammunition with this you don't have to worry it's built to have that kind of a tolerance to be able to use different type a munitions without any issues now the difference in the barrel length to me is not going to make that much difference unless you really get out to extreme distances if you're getting out to a thousand yards I would much rather have the 22 inch barrel now it comes with a James River Armory do everything manual and this actually goes through all the breakdown processes of the rifle a lot of information right here at the trigger guard just pull down if it's a very tight rifle there's a hole here you can put a tool in and bring it through grab hold of the trigger and just pull the action right out now you can see how big and beefy the parts are in your trigger group and of course right here is your safety if we pull that back it actually blocks the hammer from being able to go forward and the sear it actually locks it right into place and so it's a very secure safety Beulah is also marked on the trigger assembly as well to remove the stock grab a hold of the receiver and on a padded bench just bring your stock down like that and it'll just loosen up the action and that way you can you have your action out and of course you can see all the different the recoil spring the gas system we're not going to go ahead and break all of this down now we'll do it at a later date when we show a complete disassembly of this rifle but the main reason I wanted to go ahead and get it to this point is for you to see the inside and you can see bilder markings right here on the operating rod the barrel under here and of course it's marked underneath just a very beautiful finished piece I mean this is looks like it's nitride finish and just the interior of this rifle is just excellent of course here with the inside of the receiver just very well done and again this rifle has not been cleaned then marked right here on the receiver Beulah defense systems Cleveland Ohio James River Armory though is located in birgül North Carolina the total length on the paratrooper is 41 inches the length of pool is 13 point 2 inches and the weight is 9 pounds 6.2 ounces and that's according to my scale now here we have the Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 the paratrooper done looks so small now but this is a very short 16-inch barrel compared to the nineteen point two five inch barrel of the paratrooper so it's a considerably shorter another thing is they have a Picatinny rail built-in for long I relief scopes or for red dots this is really made for more of a CQB close-quarter type firearm while this is still accurate out to distance the James River Armory is definitely gonna be able to reach out farther with the 19 and a quarter inch barrel but again cast receiver versus Forge receiver now I really like this setup it's really handy it's short but it is somewhat heavy but with this fiberglass type or the the polymer stock it weighs a lot less and guys this runs about 200 dollars more than the James River Armory with the forge receiver versus cast now there definitely some extra features on this one but you're still getting a lot of quality and the National Match barrel on the James River Armory I'm not throwing this one out I love the SOCOM 16 but I think for what you're getting James River armory is superior which brings us to the price which is 14 9999 or a penny short of $1500 but again this is very comparable to most of your commercial m-14s and yet you're getting some features on this one that are superior so again I want to thank Ben at classic firearms and the guys at build a defense and James River armory this is a beautiful collaboration between these guys and they are producing just some of the best m14 m1 a's out on the market there's a lot of different options out there that I'll tell you what if you're really looking for a top-notch rifle in a classic design you're not going to beat the James River Armory m14 whether it's the standard or the paratrooper and guys if you're used to shooting the ar-15 or even the ak-47 you're gonna go for the m14 you better man up a little bit be strong be of good courage god bless america long live the Republic it's really not that big of a deal I didn't really know if the paratrooper would live up to it I mean I was pretty in just overwhelmed and then here and then here at the butt of the stock we have another sling swivel and then here at the bottom we have a sling loop and then here at the bottom of us then here at the butt of the stock we have a sling loop and guys even though and guys and guys even know and in 1962 they began to [Music] you

Channel: sootch00

Views: 694,122

Rating: 4.90095 out of 5

Keywords: Sootch00, Sootch, Review, M-14, M1A, Paratrooper, James River Armory, Bula Defense, Classic Firearms, Vietnam, Military Rifle, Military Issue, M-1 Garand, M-16, Springfield Armory M1A, SOCOM 16

Id: ew5fQXhh67Q

Length: 14min 58sec (898 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 23 2018