What's your experience with the M-14

[steelslaver]

Boot camp San Diego, CA
M14
rifle range, aced the 500 yd target A target
Okinawa M14 in locker C targets
Rifle range, aced the 500 yd line
Camp Pendelton
Rifle range, aced the 500 meter line C targets

I hated the 200 meter off hand. Was always lousy at it. Prone always got me scores

Great rifle, shot and messed with M16s, always qualified with a M14 except when stationed at Philadelphia and the range was at Lake Hurst NJ and we qualified with old M1s.

 

[cmansguns]

Ah............some old memories come home to roost!

US Army 1966 - 1974 (2 hitches)......shot the heck out of M-14, got fairly decent at it so when a chance came along to join the 3rd Armored Division Rifle Team, I jumped and went TDY.

Talk about burning taxpayer dollars in ammo....if you didn't roll up a GI (OD green of course) hand towel and turn your fatigue shirt into a "shooters coat" your shoulder would be black and blue for weeks.

Took 1st place in Commanding Generals Trophy Matches in 1967......got an "atta-boy" certificate, held the trophy for photos and never saw it again. I heard the trophy and many others like it ended up at Hood when the Division folded its colors for the last time in the 1990's.

Several years back I had a momentary cramp of nostalgia when I took a Springfield M1A in on a trade, daughter dug around in my old duffel bag, found a OM (Olin Matheson) marked 20 round mag I had brought home ages ago, loaded her up, out to the range.....beat the heck out of my shoulder, cleaned it and last Christmas......gifted it to my son-in-law who just got out of the Army after 8 years. He and my daughter are enjoying it now days on their small farm in Ohio.

Thanks for the memories guys......it has indeed.....been a fine ride!

 

[old tanker]

C-9-2, October 1968, almost opposite of everyone else, we were issued brand spanking new XM16E1s, chrome bolts, three prong flash suppressors and all. Part of some kind of test (they said) as all other basic trainees we saw still had M14s. BRM with M16 was a snap, lots of guys shot expert. Bayonet training, however, broke a few butt stocks. Last week of basic we all had a couple days of training with wood stock M14s.

Fort Knox, April 1969, ANCOCC, was issued fiberglass stocked M14. Butt ugly, with a pinkish brown hue, but shot OK; no problem qualifying expert. Ours were issued without the selector, but everyone knew the "matchstick trick" to wedge the connector and sear release. Not practical with ball ammo, but fun with blanks during training exercises. The steel buttplate lets you deliver a horizontal butt stroke with conviction.

After that, aside from the random unit sniper's XM21, did not handle another M14 until 1981. At that time I was assigned as an adviser to a National Guard tank battalion in Wisconsin. The unit supply guy said they were awaiting a pair of M14s for the color guard and asked if I knew anything about them. When the box from Anniston Army Depot arrived, I helped inspect them and noted with disappointment that they had shaft locks.

A couple minutes with a pin punch and that was corrected and selectors installed. After a short discussion, the decision was made that the color guard should not be issued rifles that had not been test fired and zeroed. Securing a can of M80 ball, we load up the TMP sedan, head out to the county range to zero the rifles as prescribed in FM23-8.

Everything was going well until the young armorer asked about shooting on full auto. I gave him instructions, he followed them, no problems, until a highly irate range master comes complaining. Gesticulating wildly and pointing at the sign, which, he shrilly reads for us, "No automatic weapons except for organized military or police."

I point the the "US ARMY" over my left pocket and say, "That makes it military. I outrank him," pointing to the guardsman, "...and THAT makes it organized. So what exactly is (insert senior sergeant descriptive modifiers here) problem?"

For what it's worth, I like the M14, but, for a full size "battle rifle," I prefer the FAL. The G3 is a clever, abrupt recoiling, beast.

 

[TheLastBoyScout]

I am too young to have been issued an m14 but my uncle used one in the early years of the Vietnam war and spoke very highly of it (he was out before the switch to m16's. I have shot them a few times and would take it over an m4 any day. The accuracy is great and the round will do a lot better job of putting people down at longer distances. The recoil doesn't bother me and the weight is nothing.

 

[PPS1980]

Appears that the DoD has broken some M14s out of storage for actual combat use over the last couple of years to fulfill a mid-range precision fire role. 7.62 can certainly reach out and touch someone better than 5.56.

 

[black1970]

Fort Polk,LA. Spring 1967-what else is there to say?

 

[Lightning69]

Ft. Benning - Summer 1967
Indiantown Gap - Summer 1968
Ft. Knox - December 1969
The M14 was one of the finest rifles I have ever shot. Every single M-16 I shot jammed.

 

[RobertJ.]

I liked them but never got to shoot for an official score. Our landing force locker had 3 with the select fire switch, and on full auto, they would get your attention!

I didn't like them well enough, though, to buy one in later years.

 

[CH47gunner]

Had M14's for Basic training at Ft.Ord, CA. Jan./Feb.1969. Loved the rifle, had no idea it was heavy. Ran 1 mile every morning b/4 breakfast holding that rifle at port arms.
On to AIT, aircraft maint. & doorgunner school at Ft.Rucker, Ala. Learned M60's & helicopter weapons systems.
RVN 12/2/69 in Holding/replacement company for aviation companies & pulling perimeter/bunker guard every night - issued an M14 & was thankful. Packed that M14 for 6 weeks before I went to the 213th ASHC (BlackCats) to fly CH-47C Chinooks.
Never had any "official" training on the M16 & didn't really care.
Am now a proud owner of an M1A.

 

[Backlighting]

Here's something else I remember. After spending some hrs on the range with the M14 our Company did the trek back to the barracks. When we arrived a Sergeant volunteered me and 2 other boots to clean on Sunday all the magazines that the entire Company used. If I remember correctly, it took most of the day...I can still smell the cleaning solvent...we did the job in the confined back of a truck. That, the smell of a skunk & experiencing tear gas are 3 smells I'll never forget.

 

[mgort]

When we arrived a Sergeant volunteered me and 2 other boots to clean on Sunday all the magazines that the entire Company used. If I remember correctly, it took most of the day...I can still smell the cleaning solvent...we did the job in the confined back of a truck. That, the smell of a skunk & experiencing tear gas are 3 smells I'll never forget.

Backlighting: I can relate to the skunk and Army cleaning solvent. I have no memory of the smell of tear gas, just the feeling of intense pain. We thought that was the worse until our DIs, angered by the number of boots who did not bring their gas masks to a 2 am defense formation, rolled several CS grenades into the formation. I had my mask, but just the short exposure getting it on and clearing it was excruciating and lasted for hours.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[eb07]

I own one, Fultons commercial version, Love it, but heavy. Also own a FAL. Prefer that.

Bought a plastic fantastic SCAR-17 a few years back aka star wars gun. Cannot believe how lightweight and accurate it is. It's my favorite rifle now.

 

[CajunBass]

Well, I had a battery powered, plastic one, that made a really neat "bup, bup, bup," noise until the batteries went dead. Then the operator was responsible for any sound effects. Between it, and a Mattel "Tommy Gun" the Germans were stopped in my end of Hanover County, Virginia.

I've never been in the service, but thanks to all who were.

 

[BigBill]

I use the orginal USGI RIFLE BORE CLEANER and the USGI LIGHT WEAPONS OIL to lube the bores. All the metal to metal contact moving parts get lubed with moly.

I picked up a bushnell scope that has the mechanical adjustment for bullet drop compisation. It's from a 100yd zero out to 500yds with no error. Too bad bushnell discontinued these scopes. I did stash some away. I been using the bushnell bdc scopes for over two decades now.

 

[Drm50]

The thing that most freaked me out was in basic we had to take
our rifle to the shower with us. They had cleaning stations set up
in the head. Water was so hot you could see it evaporate before
your eyes. It worked very well, it just seemed reverse of what I
was taught. The only water we ever used at home was on Muzzel
Loaders. I trained with both, m16 first in Basic, M14 in AIT in
Automatic Weapons MOS. Later M16 in RVN, where m16 was not
my main weapon but I was around a lot of m16 fire and the bugs
in gun and ammo had been taken care of. Very little complaint
on m16 from then on. I like to hear Remington Raider war stories
about using a AK instead of a m16. Did they ever stop to think
that there would be a lot of fire directed at AK fire. SOPs guys
used them to confuse Commies, but a US Army soldier best be
carrying his issue weapon. We were lucky we could carry anything we wanted, as long as we were carrying our issue weapon.

 

[BigBill]

This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for killing, this is for fun,,,, quote Emery

 

[much ado]

M14 Memories

Really enjoyed reading these...it appears a lot of us are of "a certain age" to have experienced the M14. My story is similar: Qualified Parris Island in summer 68, trained in ITR with one (as many/all have said full auto will have you shooting the sky), got an M16 for Staging in California, and that XM16E1 in RVN. Today I have numerous bolt and lever rifles and an AR but I will never fail to think of "my" M14 as a "real rifle". 49 years later, whenever I encounter a Vet that trained with the M14 the words "real rifle" almost always come up.

 

[peyton]

I had the privilege of firing the M-14 while on the Fort Hood Rifle team in the 70's and early 80's. We had the local matches with the M-16's and then if you were good enough the local unit team traveled up to FT Riley and then on to FT Benning. So between the first or second trip, we put away the M16 and stepped up to the M-14.
The first few times shooting standing at a bulls eye target 200 yards, well I admit I shot some holes through the sky and probably killed a bunch of worms.
With a truck load of ammo and this being our only job we all got good at it.
The matches came and went and then one day my bride said, "This traveling has got to stop if you want to keep this marriage". I thought about it for a moment and said OK.
I got out of the shooting team and then we transferred to Germany. When I returned to FT Hood I found that the whole shooting program was closed.
My wife asked why that dang shooting was so important, I gave her a simple reply, "I could of participated in the Olympics".

I have a M1-A and used it in the last match I fired was in 1991 at FT Richardson Alaska. I came in 3rd Place overall. It was amazing how it all came back, my shooting partner gave me enough ammo to finish the course because I ran out.

Afterwards, someone asked about the premium ammo I was using to get such a great score, I replied "Portuguese surplus".
Now days they have the giant matches but none of the feeder matches that takes a soldier who shoots his rifle twice a year to the expert level of shooter.

 

[Backlighting]

Thanks to all who shared their experience with the M-14.
I hope more stories will be forthcoming.

 

[BigBill]

I was at my LGS with the cash to buy a new SA M1a ($2,500) when I spotted a rack full of the Russian izmash saigas in 308win. For $289. I grabbed one. We benchrested it at 100yds with no scope, she was shooting 1 1/2" groups using surplus South African 308 ball ammo. Now months later the norinco m14 shows up for $750. I got it for $375 with some free stuff I had to trade in. Maybe someday I'll do a custom build.

Up north were we hunt we have this 16/20pt buck that stays away just far enough. I'm sure the m14 can hit him.