1. TRW M14 it was a rec. registered by Neil smith, not a re-weld, but the s/n range is not a s/n ever produced. I spoke to Frank I. about it and sent him pics to confirm it wasnt a re-weld, and it wasnt one. But, the s/n is not in the manuf. range. All TRW and a beautiful stock. Any idea on a selling price? Will put a pic below. 

2. an M14 rec. is springfield (commercial) that was built as a T44E5 with the majority of the parts being original T44E5 Mint, along with an original T44E5 magazine. Looking to get an idea on a realistic selling price. Thoughts?

I want something "fun" to shoot on FA so leaning towards the FAL.   

What say the collective?

50 round blaster.... Very cool!

One of my regular range rifles include this Winchester M14.

It's an early one, December 1960 under barrel.

Local range max distance is 500 yrds, although the open sights keeps accurate to 300 yrds (for me).

Converted to semi auto.

Great stock and a pleasing heavy rifle to hold & shoot.

When I locate a Springfield scope mount I'll should tighten the groups.

Best

Note that if you shoot with a barrel less than 18", the round will tumble. 

I'll post a video of me shooting the gun with subs.... very easy on the ears, quieter than 9mm subs through a smg. 

Anyone have a similar experience with these brakes. They are made by Smith Enterprises.

Most other videos only show the brake on semi-auto M14-M1As.

Abyone have experience with it?

Rare M14 ARTEL vietnam era scope coming up for auction 7-28-2024 at GunauctionsUSA.COM LOT #86575 one of only 2000 produced by Leatherwood during vietnam war using the ballistic cam as used on XM21 M14 sniper system. Redfield 3x9 scope on a mount manufactured at Frankford Arsenal.

Try finding some!  Holy Moly! I have a stash of 300 but wish I had bought more. Anyone know what's up?

The process included two phases:

1. Supressing the gun, and
2. Tuning it for subsonic loads

First of all, the M1A/M14 platform is not designed to be suppressor friendly, which I discovered right away. I'll skip the details of removing the flash hider as most of you are familiar with the process. Once done, I installed a Fulton Armory Flash Suppressor Thread Adaptor, installed the crown nut and front sight post. I decided to run the GemTech "One", .30 cal suppressor so as to have a dedicated matched round unit. After mating the GemTech quick detach adaptor/flash hider to the Fulton Armory Adaptor, it was time to gage the whether the Adaptor unit (collectively the Fulton and GemTech adaptor) were concentric. Using a bore gage, I did so. The rule is that the rod cannot touch the outer edge of any surface. It's important to note here, that of the 6 M1A's I modified, only three passed the test. It appears that the OEM flash suppressor threading may not be fully true for all units. Once done I installed a Shutter Adjustable Gas Plug to moderate recoil.

IF the unit passes the concentric test, great. If not, try remounting the adaptors again. If it still fails, then you are SOL for that gun.

Next I mounted the suppressor and conducted the concentric test again. Same as before. If it passes, lovely. If not, then it just does not.

Shot the gun using NATO supers with the can, mildly loud, but tolerable. Certainly not "shoot off the back deck" quiet. Then I switched to Sellier & Bellot 200 grain factory subsonic loads, with specs saying 1050 FPS. Wonderful! Easily shot with no hearing protection and super consistent. I zeroed at 75 feet, (using a bench rest) with a strike 1/5" above point of aim (looking to hit anything out to 100 yards). Shot groups were very tight, all inside a 1/2 inch diameter circle. The gun was, as you would expect, a bolt action with me having to cycle the action after each shot.

At this point in the project, I was very happy. Super pleasant gun to shoot and the S&B ammo met my expectations. And I could dedicate this gun to subs, so why not!

Now on the part 2. Could I make the gun cycle.

The issue is gas pressure and can it be made sufficient to work the action, but not push the bullet above the speed of sound. Spoiler alert! Nope, and here is why.

The following analysis uses a few math/volume estimates that appear to be correct based on the results. With a 200 grain bullet moving at 1050 fps, and a full NATO round of 147 grains moving at 2850 fps, quick math tells me that the pressure in the bore, for the subsonic round right about the time the bullet exits will be roughly 51% that of a full power round. Assuming that the designers over-engineered the gas system so that there was plenty of gas pressure to cycle the operating rod and overcome the operating rod spring compression, and enough energy to overcome the frictional resistance of the spring compression on the rounds in the magazine, I used a 15% pressure margin.

So my target pressure ratio to full load should be in the neighborhood of 85% of normal. Using a bit of math, I was able to determine that the volume of the barrel and gas cylinder (to include the gas plug) was 760.38 units and 4.56 units respectively, or 764.94 units in total. Since gas pressure and volume are proportional, raising gas pressure is as simple as reducing volume. Here is where the problems started.

The barrel accounts for 99% of the volume and it cannot be reduced (otherwise the bullet cannot be shot). No amount of reduction in volume of the gas cylinder will achieve the desired target of 85% of full load pressure. I even had the OEM gas plug threaded (3/8 x 24) and milled a threaded rod to exactly fit it AND to extend into the gas piston cavity. As expected, the gun shot but did not cycle.

So what next? Only thing left is the recoil spring. Well, experimentation (and a waste of a $20 spring) revealed that any OEM spring length less than about 80% of the original reduces the spring tension beyond what is necessary to impart the required inertia to feed and lock the bolt into place with a loaded magazine. Just for the heck of it, I used a shortened (~80%) spring length and shot the gun using the 200 grain subsonic load... no go. Not enough pressure to cycle it even with the reduced spring length.

So, after several days of grinding, measuring, calculating and so on, I have come to the conclusion that as far as my amateur gunsmith talents go, the M1A platform will always be a "bolt action" subsonic shooter. Plenty of fun to shoot like that!

Gun Details:

M1A Scout Squad

2.75 Burris forward mount Scout Scope

GemTech "One", .30 dedicated can

Fulton armory flash hider adaptor

GemTech quick mount .30 adaptor

Shuster Adjustable Gas Plug (not used when trying to modify gun)

$400 and $375 plus $10.20 postage 

Aldo a usgi trigger group complete, Vg conditiin

$300 plus $15 postage 

Anyone have any suggestions or experiences running suppressed?

For the serious M14 Rifle enthusiast

30+ years of research material used for the M14 book, U.S. M14, The Last Steel Warrior 1^st and  2^nd Editions.  

In Binders and are heavy  $750.00 plus actual shipping

1. M14 Rifle Procurement History and Analysis 182 pages Jan 1969. very few copies were distributed and were to “be destroyed” after review.

2. Springfield Armory Accuracy Study of the M14 Rifle and 7.62 Ammunition 830 pages, 1965

3. Quality Assurance Manual M14 Rifle, ORDP-608-R-SA 1959 700+pages

4. Miscellaneous M14 documents/studies: M14 folding stock project report, Engineering and Operational Characteristics M14E2 Rifle. SA 1963  

5. Infantry Board Confirming Test of Production M14 Rifles 23 Oct 1959

6. Technical Report 68-4 Oct 1968 M14 Cost Analysis.

7. Rock Island Arsenal Statistical Analysis of M14 Rifle Dispersion and Dimensional Data Jan 1970

8. PS Magazine Articles about the M14 Rifle

9. FM 23-8, 1965

10. TM 9-1005-223-20, 1972

11. Several personal notepads from an M14 Project Engineer

Pictures can be viewed here:

https://www.sturmgewehr.com/forums/index.php?/topic/35134-for-the-serious-m14-rifle-enthusiast/

$75.00 + $10 shipping

$60.00 / shipped

PM if interested