M1A 5 line, Pics Now

Retired W4 · Feb 10, 2023

Way back in the summer of 1968 at basic training, Ft. Polk, LA, I was in Company A/5/1. We were one of the last BCT companies, if not THE last company to be issued the M-14. What a great rifle. Wednesday I picked up a fine example of the civilian, semi-auto version, the M1A. IAW data bases I have found the gun was assembled from mostly GI parts in 1983. I did not know until I picked it up that it has a NM (national match) barrel.

As usual, I have it apart for a thorough cleaning. I ran into a little snag with the gas piston nut. Likely someone over torqued it in combination with old carbon build up. It's bathing in Kroil now to loosen it up so as soon as I get it back together I will post pictures. In the mean time here are some pics from my BCT year book, featuring the mighty (and heavy) M-14.

What a joy it was toting that thing around in the hot and humid, mid-summer Louisiana sand.

SnidelyWhiplash · Feb 10, 2023

I bought a M1-A back in 1979. When my brother first saw it...it brought back memories of Basic Training for him in 1965. He took the rifle and lay on the floor and started doing the alligator crawl with it. He said he was good at it because he could flatten his butt down lower than most.

Retired W4 · Feb 10, 2023

Ah yes, memories of the Infiltration Course and the low crawl pit.

Get that chest in the sand, Trainee!!

Retired W4 · Feb 10, 2023

Inside back cover of my yearbook.

murphydog · Feb 10, 2023

Cool memories.

And here we are, 55 years later, on the cusp of adopting a big, heavy service rifle with a cartridge 51 mm long and bullets 0.82 mm smaller in diameter because our next major conflict will need them. Maybe?

ameridaddy · Feb 10, 2023

Retired W4 said:
Inside back cover of my yearbook.

I see you have a couple of pinecone grenades there - weren't they obsolete by M-14 time?

ameridaddy · Feb 10, 2023

Retired W4 said:
What a joy it was toting that thing around in the hot and humid, mid-summer Louisiana sand.

Summer 1964 for me; toted that 9.5 lb thing no problem, manual of arms, no problem, a few spins, no problem, shot expert on a rainy day with a worn out rifle. Got to my outfit, and the next year, got a brand new M-14 and next qualification dropped 87 out of 90 silhouettes on the Trainfire range. I felt like I could hit anything I could see.

Fast forward to ~2018, thought I'd maybe get an M1-A. I went to LGS, shouldered the thing a few times and found out in the intervening years it had grown from a 9.5 lb thing to a 38 lb thing. I had to pass.
Sigh.........

erikpolcrack · Feb 10, 2023

murphydog said:
Cool memories.

And here we are, 55 years later, on the cusp of adopting a big, heavy service rifle with a cartridge 51 mm long and bullets 0.82 mm smaller in diameter because our next major conflict will need them. Maybe?

My big fear is the new cartridges might not be able to be loaded/reloaded in standard automated reloading machines. Got lots of those around the country to help out in a major conflict.

Retired W4 · Feb 10, 2023

ameridaddy said:
I see you have a couple of pinecone grenades there - weren't they obsolete by M-14 time?

Yep. They were not the same ones we threw on the grenade course. I did qualify expert on the 14, and I knew nothingabout guns going in. The DIs were pictured in the book. I don't need pictures to remember those faces as close as they came to my face. Most of them were VN infantry combat vets who wanted us all to make it home.

SF VET · Feb 10, 2023

Same here, summer camp,Ft. Riley, KS, 1968, issued the venerable M14. I found on the pop up targets at the range, that if I shot low, I either hit the target, or the dirt in front of it, and both impacts would drop the target. Expert.

Our TAC officer, a Captain out of Notre Dame was a real tuff guy, drove a 427 Corvette with side pipes, license plate was WETSU.

On Saturdays, we couldn't leave our barracks at Camp Funston until we passed his inspection of our rifles. None of us could meet his expectation, always a dirty bore. Then one cadet remembered he had been taught to pull a piece of cellophane thru the bore, to make it shine, and then we were good to go.

We had M14's in Ranger School, and also was issued one when I was a platoon leader, 3d Infantry Division, Schweinfurt. I now wonder why as a LT I wasn't issued a sidearm instead. Each squad had two of the E2 Versions, with the special stock, pistol grip, front drop down handguard, and I think a bipod. My rifle had a wooden stock, with a fiberglass upper hand guard.

I handled a Springfield M1A at Palmetto State Armory yesterday, and I agree, it sure is heavy beast, and did not have the flip up butt plate. I reload 308 for a bolt rifle, but just not sure I want a M1A now. Somewhere I too have a pic of me keeeling with an M14 which was published in my home town paper. I look tired in the pic. Think I will look for it.

Thanks for the memories. SF VET

BB57 · Feb 11, 2023

I was in the last company to be issued pickle suits. Everyone behind us was in BDUs.

We looked a lot sharper.

BLACKHAWKNJ · Feb 11, 2023

Fort Dix, C-4-2, Summer of 1967. An M1A is on my list to get "someday"

LVSteve · Feb 11, 2023

ameridaddy said:
Fast forward to ~2018, thought I'd maybe get an M1-A. I went to LGS, shouldered the thing a few times and found out in the intervening years it had grown from a 9.5 lb thing to a 38 lb thing. I had to pass.
Sigh.........

My Dad was visiting from England years back and said much the same about the surplus No4 I owned. Then I gave him a P14 to hold...

ISCS Yoda · Feb 11, 2023

Fort Leonard Wood. Summer of 1969. Woodstock. Manson-Tate-LoBianco murders. Heckuva summer.

We were issued M-14s and I was one of the only trainees who was issued a rifle with a fiberglass stock. I could clean it in the shower and I did - and no linseed oil afterwards!

I bought a fiberglassed stock M1A 31 years later. Loved it! I'd still have it but the fiberglass stock was ruined in a fire in 2018, my FFL restocked it with wood, I hated it thereafter and I sold it.

My M1A was totally milspec, done by Springfield Armory using parts 100% made by a company whose name skips my mind - TCW or something like that.

PALADIN85020 · Feb 11, 2023

This M14 semi only clone was put together by AR Sales in 1969 using GI parts including a National Match barrel. I later added the GI fiberglass stock. Best $150 I ever spent. Totally reliable and amazingly accurate.

John

(Click for larger image)

quikdraw67 · Feb 11, 2023

ISCS Yoda said:
Fort Leonard Wood. Summer of 1969. Woodstock. Manson-Tate-LoBianco murders. Heckuva summer.

We were issued M-14s and I was one of the only trainees who was issued a rifle with a fiberglass stock. I could clean it in the shower and I did - and no linseed oil afterwards!

I bought a fiberglassed stock M1A 31 years later. Loved it! I'd still have it but the fiberglass stock was ruined in a fire in 2018, my FFL restocked it with wood, I hated it thereafter and I sold it.

My M1A was totally milspec, done by Springfield Armory using parts 100% made by a company whose name skips my mind - TCW or something like that.

That would have been TRW.

Fred's M14 Stocks used to sell all variants of USGI stocks including fiberglass, but I'm pretty sure that he retired.

Harper · Feb 11, 2023

Good ol' Ft Polk. Went through there in '66, D-2-5. Also trained with the M-14. Was going to go to Wolters for flight training next, but went to AIT at Ord and to OCS at Benning, then to flight school. Retired W4, I see you were in the 1st Avn Bde. I served in the 1st Avn Bde in Nam, too. 190th AHC, '68-69, Bien Hoa. Here's a couple pics from my Polk "yearbook."

smithman 10 · Feb 11, 2023

Reality rears its head

murphydog said:
Cool memories.

And here we are, 55 years later, on the cusp of adopting a big, heavy service rifle with a cartridge 51 mm long and bullets 0.82 mm smaller in diameter because our next major conflict will need them. Maybe?

Wouldn't the AR10 have been just about as good at a fraction of the cost? I know the new cartridge is part steel cased for higher pressure and velocity to penetrate body armor but still.

Troops will have to do more PT to lug the new gun around!

One Holer · Feb 11, 2023

All of you that like the M14 should really visit the M14 Forum. Good group of guys.

SnidelyWhiplash · Feb 11, 2023

The AR-10…depending on who makes it…is an excellent rifle. Transition from the AR-15/M4 is seamless.

Several years ago the Pentagon put out a request to the industry for an off-the-shelf 7.62 rifle based on the Armalite pattern…companies were lining up, salivating for their rifle to be chosen…but the request was withdrawn after not much time.

M1A 5 line, Pics Now

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