Jing Gong JG1404 M14 EBR Enhanced Battle Rifle AEG

The M14 Enhanced Battle Rifle

The M14 battle rifle was initially designed to replace the M1 Garand rifle in service with the US military and saw service in its original form during the Vietnam war. The M14 was quickly replaced by the M16, primarily due to the shorter range of engagements during the conflict, and a need for counter-ambush firepower to counter the AK47 rifles of the Vietcong with their larger 30 round magazines.

The M14 is a full-sized battle rifle with exceptional accuracy and some of the best iron sights ever devised, but suffers from uncontrollability in full-auto due to its large 7.62x51mm NATO chambering. Following their replacement, the M14 rifles were put into storage by the US DoD, only to be resurrected in the late 20th century as a designated marksman rifle, firstly for US Special Forces troops, and later issued to the US Army for long-range engagements during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The old M14 rifle was thoroughly updated, with a new chassis with 20mm Picatinny rails, a pistol grip and a multi-function collapsible stock with a built-in adjustable cheek riser. The new "M14 EBR" was issued with a Leopold M3 telescopic sight, allowing the exceptional accuracy inherent in the platform to be taken advantage of.

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The JG1404 stays true to the external form and role of the original M14 EBR, with its faithfully reconstructed EBR chassis providing home to a Tokyo Marui based M14 design, with a version.7 gearbox and the thoughtfully designed "V-HOP" system. Clocking in at 340 FPS +/- 10% and sporting a 6.03mm tight bore inner barrel, the JG1404 is already a bit of a beast at long-range, and with the addition of an M14 scope mount rail, your optic of choice, and some choice internal upgrades, this would make one heck of a DMR rifle.

Starting at the tip of the rather long 24-inch alloy outer barrel we can find an M14 style muzzle device, which combines the front sight, bayonet lug and flash hider into a single piece. By turning the knurled nut between the sight and bayonet mount you can remove the muzzle device, revealing 14mm CW male threads beneath. This allows you to attach any 14mm clockwise (CW) threaded accessory, or a thread adapter to convert this thread to 14mm CCW if you want to add a more common CCW suppressor or tracer unit to the EBR. A big ol' suppressor would be perfect for this beast if you are taking it in the DMR direction!

Moving rearwards, we come to the dummy gas block and gas tube of the JG1404, which is also constructed from alloy and matches that of the real M14 perfectly, including the addition of the mount base for the MK.14 Mod.0 front iron sight. In an Airsoft AEG, the gas block part serves no function other than to give the rifle its realistic silhouette, but the dummy gas adjuster can be threaded in and out for extra cool points.

The JG1404 provides both the M14 EBR front sight, mounted onto the muzzle device, and the more modern MK.14 Mod.0 front sight, which is mounted on the dummy gas block, offering you the opportunity to choose which sight works best for you, and which look you prefer; the US Army M14 EBR look, or the US Navy SEAL MK.14 Mod.0 look! Each of these sights mounts onto a dovetail, so if you want to remove either one of them simply unscrew the retention screws (a single Allen screw at the front for the MK.14 sight, a Phillips at the top and an Allen at the back for the M14 EBR sight) and slide the sight off its dovetail.

Moving rearwards, we come to the interesting bit of this M14; the chassis. The EBR chassis is intended to be a drop-in solution to replace the original M14 wooden stock with a modern metal chassis with collapsible stock, Picatinny rails and a pistol grip for improved handling in tight quarters. The EBR chassis is simply bristling in 20mm Picatinny rails; with 27cm of attachment space at the 12 o'clock position, a 9.5cm section at 3 and 9 o'clock positions, and a further 9.5cm section at the 6 o'clock position, just ahead of the textured polymer handguard and perfectly positioned to mount a bipod. Regardless of what you intend to mount, the EBR chassis has room for it, and given the rifle's intended role, this is no bad thing!

Over on the left side of the EBR chassis, we can find out first sling point positioned just above the 9 o'clock Picatinny rail. This sling point is constructed from strong alloy and attaches to the chassis via two steel Allen head screws and a backing plate. This sling point can be repositioned and installed on the opposite side of the chassis, or in the holes in front or behind its standard mounting position when the chassis is disassembled.

On the bottom of the chassis we can find the handguard, which is constructed from high density polymer with a comfortable and grippy crackle texture applied to its surface. The battery compartment of the JG1404 is found beneath this handguard, and can be accessed by removing the three Allen head screws in the bottom of the handguard, after which the handguard can be removed. Within the battery compartment you will find a mini-Tamiya connector, allowing the most common Airsoft batteries to be used. For the JG1404 we recommend a 7.4V LiPo battery in block configuration to take advantage of the large battery space in the handguard. Most medium block batteries of under 2cm cell thickness should fit.

As we move down the chassis towards the stock we can note weight reducing cuts on either side, and "swiss cheese" style holes machined into the magazine well to further reduce the weight of the platform. These cuts do their job, but the all-metal EBR chassis still makes this M14 a weighty beast at 5.4kg, and we do not recommend it for those with less physical strength unless you have more of a static playstyle. At the bottom of the chassis, we can find the magazine well, with the magazine catch sitting partially recessed into the chassis in the centre. This magazine release is accessible from either side and can also be used for emergency reloads with the AK style "mag flip" technique (as seen on CoD). To the rear of the magazine release, we can find the steel trigger guard, within which the rifle's trigger and safety catch are located. The trigger is a curved design intended to encourage a proper finger position for perfect marksmanship. The safety catch comes in the form of a metal plate which can be pushed forwards through a slot in the trigger guard to release.

Within the wide ejection port of the EBR, we are in for a treat. The dummy bolt features realistic rotational movement when the charging handle is pulled and makes a lovely "click-clack" sound that really makes this M14 feel like it means business. The dummy bolt features mock locking lugs which rotate to overcome the locking wedges in the receiver, just like the real thing. As far as the realism of this dummy action goes, the M14 platform is the leader in AEG designs. The dummy action features a realistic charging handle/operating rod assembly, which connects to the dummy bolt carrier and can be pulled to the rear and locked. The bolt release catch can be found on the left side of the receiver and is in the form of a wide paddle with linear texture on its upper section for additional grip. This part is a replica of the MK14 bolt release catch which pairs perfectly with the EBR chassis for a complete M14 EBR package, even for the stitch/rivet counters out there!

The receiver of the JG1404 is constructed entirely from alloy and features a threaded hole on the left side, and a dovetail recess on the top, allowing an M14 scope mount rail to be added. The rear iron sight of the M14 comes in the form of a fine aperture which can be raised and lowered using the dial on the left side of the sight, and adjusted left and right using the dial on the right side. At either side of the aperture, the sight is protected by alloy protective wings, which should prevent damage to the rear sight if it ends up getting bumped or scraped. This sight setup is one of the best iron sight setups out there, and provides an extremely long sight radius (essential for accuracy) and an ultra-low height over bore, meaning you don't have to compensate as much for bore-offset (the distance between your sights and the centre of your barrel) for accurate shooting up close.

The fire selector is located on the right side of the EBR chassis, directly above the trigger, and is a rotary switch which can be turned 180 degrees to switch from semi-automatic to fully automatic. When the selector is positioned with the small protrusion at the top, the rifle is set to semi-automatic, and with this protrusion at the bottom, the rifle is on full auto and ready for some suppressive fire! This is an unconventional design by modern standards but works well with the separate safety lever which allows the rifle to be taken off safe and fired extremely quickly despite its old school selector design.

As we reach the rear of the chassis we can find the rear sling point, which is a dual-slot constructed from steel for added rigidity. This slot is positioned on the top of the chassis, and its dual-slot arrangement allows for both left and right-handed sling setups. Following the rear sling point, we reach the stock assembly which comprises a 6 position collapsible stock, ergonomic texture pistol grip and stock mounting apparatus. The pistol grip is a comfortable design with textured panels on either side to ensure you can keep a tight grip on the EBR in any weather condition. This grip has a similar angle to the M4/AR15 and also has a palm shelf at the rear to help support the rifle and encourage a comfortable and effective grip.

The adjustable stock of the EBR is one of its stand-out features, providing 6 positions of adjustment to allow for all body types to comfortably use the platform, as well as allowing for comfortable use whilst wearing body armour. The stock can be adjusted by pressing the adjustment lever, which can be found behind the pistol grip, concealed between the stock bars, and pulling the stock out to the required length. The adjustment lever is textured on its upper surface to prevent wet weather from making the stock difficult to operate. Right at the back, we can find the grippy rubber butt plate which ensures the EBR does not slip out of your shoulder as you take the perfect shot.

The stock also features an adjustable cheekpiece, which can be raised and lowered by pulling the locking lever out. This lever can be found on the butt plate of the stock, protruding from the right side. With the adjustment lever pulled out, simply position the cheek piece in a comfortable position, then push the adjustment lever back in. You aren't fixed to pre-set positions when using this cheekpiece, so no matter what optic you use, and what shape your face is, you will be able to get a comfortable cheek weld to provide perfect sight alignment. With the cheekpiece raised, you'll see something a little confusing! A Picatinny rail mounted on the stock assembly, hiding beneath! Whilst this won't be much use for most Airsofters, this rail section was originally intended to allow thermal and night vision scopes to be mounted behind the conventional optic on an M14 EBR to allow for day/night use without having to re-zero the sight.

Internally the JG1404 is well equipped, sporting a metal version 7 gearbox with 7mm steel bearings for smooth long-term operation. Being a close copy of the Tokyo Marui M14 platform on the inside, the JG1404 sports the fantastic TM "V-HOP" style HOP-up design, with a rotary adjuster located inside the magazine well which provides an audible and tactile click when adjusted This allows for super fine adjustments, and locks in the setting securely. Coupling this with a 6.03mm tight bore inner barrel gives the JG1404 some serious long-range poke, with above average long-ranged performance even before upgrading this to a DMR is considered!

So, if you are looking for something that can reach out at a woodland skirmish which also packs some superb inherent design advantages which could make it a supreme DMR in the future, the JG1404 M14 EBR would be perfect for you. With an optical sight added and set up on a bipod, you could not ask for a better tool to hold back the enemy when defending a static position!

Features

• Full metal construction
• High density polymer handguard
• M14 scope mount rail ready
• 14mm Clockwise (CW) threaded outer barrel
• Functional mock bolt release - MK14 style paddle
• Version 7 gearbox with 7mm steel bearings
• 6-Position adjustable stock
• Adjustable cheek riser - Great for use with scopes
• Textured ergonomic pistol grip
• Ambidextrous safety catch
• Ambidextrous magazine release
• Front sling point - Can be repositioned
• Ambidextrous rear sling plate
• Superb iron sights - Fully adjustable, no tools needed!
• 20mm Picatinny rails everywhere!
• Includes both M14 front sight, and MK14 front sight
• 550mm 6.03mm tight bore Inner barrel - DMR potential
• Hefty weight - 5.4kg - Perfect candidate for a bipod!

Package Includes

• Jing Gong JG1404 M14 EBR Enhanced Battle Rifle AEG
• 400rnd High-capacity magazine
• User manual