m14 conversion to BAR?

[wallbangers82]

hey all something a friend of mine brought up is converting an M14 aeg to look like the rare BAR, any ideas on if thatd be a good idea?

[2ndranger]

Did you try the search button?

Franz

[YankeeDiv26]

currently 2nd bat is working on a conversion i believe. A m14 to B.A.R. conversion would only be a good idea if you have the skills, tools, parts, and plenty of spare time it requires to make a custom gun essentially from scratch. To make a B.A.R. that most airsofters here would approve would probably mean using the mech box from a m14 and installing it into a B.A.R.'s reciever. To someone inexperienced this may sound much much easier than it really is. The first major you'll run into is just getting a B.A.R. and still having enough $ left over to pay the bills. Original B.A.R's run upwards of $20,000 and Semi-auto B.A.R.'s are nowhere close to cheap. I'd say unless you know you can complete the project and not end up with a frankengun than go for it. If not I'd back off. We all want these types of things but few of us can make them possible.

[killbucket]

Somebody get me a hacksaw...

Where there's a market, somebody, somewhere will fill it. we are finally getting low-cost M249's...don't lose hope for a BAR one day...

[2nd Bat]

I finished a BAR and learned alot about the process of building it using the mech box (mag feed system and various bits from a M-14. What I did was marry a Resin BAR with a AGM M-14.




The outside bolt and mag release don't actually work (The mag release is hidden beneath the phoney mag release which is fixed. The gun doesn't dissasemble as it is literally bondo'd together.

It's not a VFC or JAC by any means but it looks and feels good, shoots great and didn't cost me alot other then a lot of time and trial and error. I'm working on my second one now as I learned a great deal doing the first one.



My plan was to just use regular M-14 magazines but they were considerably smaller thus hence looked kinda funny. I got some actual BAR magazines ($24 each) stripped them and placed the M-14 magazine guts inside.

I only drilled out enough area in the butt stock for a small battery on the first one (The resin model was full of rebar and crap that made hollowing it out miserable) I'm making the next stock and hand guards with real wood using the resin model as the template. I am halving the stock, hollowing it out and will gorilla glue it together once done. There is tons of room in the rear stock for a huge battery.

It is not my intention to sell these as the VFC once available in the non CnCd version should actually be selling for what I would probably have to sell these for but I do hope to have at least one for my own use and enjoyment by late winter.

[biged]

Nice work 2nd Bat!! I have never seen a resin conversion before.
Gordak is converting an original stock for his BAR - the stock one snapped.

$20,000 for a real BAR is insane, OOW has semi-auto versions for under $6,000.
www.ohioordnanceworks.com/semi-auto/A1918-rifle.html

///ed///

[2nd Bat]

I've found them at assorted gun shows and they seem to run anywhere from 150.00 to 350.00 which is rediculous for a resin prop gun but made the production efforts a lot easier. It is remarkably solid although I suspect it will need to be repainted from time to time!

I'd like to do one with real wood and ABS sheeting so it could be dissasembled readily.

[gryphon]

Nice stuff! Did you have to machine half of the resin BAR receiver off so you could inlet for the gearbox? Did you have to bore out the barrel? If you could design a BAR housing from scratch, what features would it have? (a leading question hint hint....)

[2nd Bat]

I literally shave sawed the side plates off the receiver group area Cut out the center from there and then used a thin strip of the top and the trigger assembly along with a small portion of the bottom to re assemble it all around the M-14 gear box.

The barrel was unusable completely as it had a rebar running right down the middle of it. I couldn't have drilled it out anyway and even if I could it wouldn't have been strong enough for my needs anyway.

The front handguard and lower barrel assembly from the resin model was salvaged and used. I cut straight down on either side of the portion that connected it to the barrel (Through the rebar) and then drilled it out to accomodate my outer barrel which I bondo'd into the receiver group.

All of this could be molded of course and you probably are just the guy to do it based on the cool job you did on the Mosin Nagant. I suppose in an ideal situation it'd be cool if the bolt actually slid back and forth and if the mag release worked instead of just being a facade to hide the mag release I set up underneath.

Personally I'm fine with them being fixed. Unless one of the manufacturers gets serious about the BAR and builds one priced for the masses I think there is a business opportunity here for someone if they wanted to go after it.

It's a very large gun of course but one of the mainstays of the US army hence a great weapon to add to the inventory.