Howdy guys,
When I was in the Army I trained with the M-14 in basic training. That was in 1969, when I entered AIT we changed over to the M-16 rifle. So this must have been the last year of service. What I was wondering was , when did the M-14 come into service? I know it did not see combat during the Korean war. This was a very good rifle, I know I did'nt want to change over to the M-16 ! I had developed respect for the M-14 , tough and rugged just like the M-1 Garand. A very dependible weapon indeed! It seems to me to be all but forgotten. Anyone have any history on this rifle?

Cheers,

Garry

thats a good question, i know they used it quite a bit in vietnam.....but other then that, i dont know, i've got the opportunity to shoot both the m-1 garand and the m-14 and those things are beasts, i guess the only problem with them would be the weight but other then that, they are great guns, i'd hate to be on the receiving end.

I know that remaining m-14s were trialed and the best production examples were accurized and thus the M-21sniper rifle was born.

I think the Seals still use M-21s but I could be wrong

http://www.vietnam-war.info/weapons/m14_rifle.php

I don't know much, but I can tell you the Sniper spotters in my unit over in Korea in 1995 were using them as part of the Sniper teams. The ones I got to see were camo so I don't know if they still had a wood stock or if they were composite (I never got a real close look --Rangers are real particular about you touching their stuff). They did have a quite a scope on them.
The theory being they had a similar effective range of the sniper rifle is what I was told.
I was actually quite suprised to see one at the time, of course we did have refurbished grease guns in the 3ACR in 1992 when I was with them, so I guess the Army likes to hold to weapons if there is a practical use for them.

I trained on the M-14 in Basic and AIT in 1966. I was issued the M-14A1 in 1967 in Vietnam. I loved the weapon. I carried it for my entire tour of duty there. We were giving the option of turning them in and be issued the M-16. Most of my unit declined to do so. Those that did get them begged to get their M-14's back, but were not able to. They had been issued to another unit. The M-=14 I used in Basic had a fiber stock as was the weapon that I had in AIT. My A1 version in Nam had the wood stock with pistol grip and folding bi-pod. I was issued double magazines with the double clip to fix two 20 round mags together. This worked out fairly good when standing or behind some type of barrier. But it sucked in the prone position. I had a couple of the clip mags set up and laying on the passenger seat which made it handy for firing out the driver side window when driving in convoys.