Interesting thread here....... Got my first "Garands younger brother", AKA an M-14, from my Uncle Sam in Sept. 1969 along with the basic marksmanship training that has served me well over the years. It was the first .308 I'd ever fired. Fast forward to 1989 when I picked up a civilian version built on a Smith Enterprises receiver that actually says "M-14" on it even though it has no provision for a selector switch. Rest of it is built with GI parts. Shot NRA High Power with it for most of the 1990's. Then it went into "semi-retirement" until I fully retired in the spring of 2016. Still gets out once or twice a year, for perhaps 20 rounds or so. Still using up handloads from the latter 1990's. Also have a lot of brass, bullets, powder, & CCI #34 primers, (mil-spec) so ammo's no problem. Always enjoyed shooting the M-14 and its older brother the M-1, ( got one of those from CMP in 1996). Thinning out the gun collection in retirement but those two aren't going away for some time yet. Or else my son may inherit them. View attachment 893878
No need to draw to that pair! Nice.
In 1961, our unit was still armed with the elder brother and I have to admit to some reservations as to the switch. Turns out my biggest concern that the reduced diameter of the bolt lug to accommodate the roller was not a problem. (That concern was based on my personal experience with a broken bolt lug jamming my M1 Carbine a number of years prior.)
Any rate, I was on the post AMU at the time and they brought out 8-10 M14's for us to shoot and make any comments. Only problem was they only had enough ammo for each team member to fire 3 rounds.....our choice, either full or semi auto. Needless to say, did not hear a single burst that afternoon; we all wanted to see how accurate they were.
Regards,
hps