M14 Memories

[froster]

I guess I should share a few memories of this model. Back In 1987 I got one of the early type Norinco 305s which was a semiauto rework of quite old select fire production. The stock was crude and the barrel was not timed right but the bore was nicely finished, better looking than many usgi bores. After lots of tinkering, including my design of a three screw scope mount improvement and adding a gi flash hider, it would shoot into 1.5". Some people on my base thought I should use it as the base defense sniper rifle since we only had FNC1s.

At one point I noticed that the firing pin tip was eroded from pierced primers so later I put in a gi chromed one.

In the mid 90s I saw a USMC silent drill team and talked to them and saw what wrecks their show 14s were, all beaten up and deactivated.

In 1987 lots of Isreali surplus M14s were imported and sold here for as low as $250, receivers around $135. Two or three years later I got a Winchester for more than that and it was in good shape but had an H&R trigger mech. The first time out it got 1.5" with iron sights and misc. ball handloads.

At ranges across the country and especially at the few auto shoots I attended these rifles were quite common and popular for their low prices. After May 1992, of course, most went underground.

They were pleasant to use but it is still too bad that a proper FN style gas plug and block haven't been made for them. One shouldn't need tools for routine handling of his rifles.

[froster]

In addition to the main body of my post , I should say that I have the Collector Grade book about the M14 and it is good, but it missed out on including any real users' anecdotes up to about 1986 when the book was written. It is interesting to see the Taiwanese versions that were mentioned and the TRW 5.56mm conversion.

It is a real shame that the contractors of the M14 and the other models before it never had the foresight to make their own runs of all those guns to sell to the public. Wouldn't it have been simple for them to make extras or would it have been prohibited or just prohibitively expensive?

Also, back in the 80s in Canada the M14 was for a while the SKS of its time until the real SKSs became cheap and common.