Well, this Is the last time ..Yes, you may contact Sturm and Ruger. I'm not certain, but I BELIEVE their address is, or was, at Lacey Place. (Probably located in Conn.) Anyway, if you will call them, you will certainly find that they were in the running hot and heavy for the contract offered by the U.S. Goverment. I am positive that they will tell you far more about it than I can. Anyway, when Ruger lost the contract, he continued producing the Mini-14's, and started selling and equipping police departments and various governmental agencies all around the world SO LONG as they were friendly with the U.S.....I did not say that I had seen anyone deliberately shot in the leg at 1/2 mile with the M-14. But, yes sir (or Ma'am) I have seen people who were hit (about 2 individuals, not all at the same time but on the same morning) with the M-14 at a good 1/2 mile. The NVA were carrying them and it was us (Iwas one of the 'us') they were shooting at. They were extremely lucky in hitting anyone, but I wasn't talking about deliberate shots; I was speaking of the round's power.
The reason we know they were carrying M-14's is because we always kept guns in the back, ready to fire for us. We called in Lima Company's guns, (Leaping Lima's Thundering Guns of Death) and gave our G.C.'s , got one spotter round, and then 6 rounds on fire for effect. (177's) Then we hiked our little recon asses over there and tried for a body count, and to see what else we might could find. One of the M-14 rounds had struck 'Billy Boy' in the chest. (regular ball ammo, I guess) We found out later that the round had broken his breast bone, completely blew away one lung, collasped the other lund, took out about a coffee cup full of his liver,(which is lower, which is why I'vd always wondered about the ball ammo part. It sure as hell wasn't armor piercing, or a tracer.) and WHEN IT PASSED COMPLETELY THROUGH HIM it took about three inches of his backbone with it. The other Marine was hit in the left leg, just a hair below his knee, and when the corpsman (we had one with us because we knew we were being inserted into a 'hot' area) got to him, there was just a bit of meat and some skin holding his leg on. (just in case you're interested, Moderator, both of them died) Goodbye to you, sir...One more thing I will tell you, sir. Being in recon, we could carry whatever weapon we chose, but we were still issued the M-16. (A1 at that time) Sometimes one of us (never me) would carry an M-60 on a shoulder strap, and another one of us (sometimes me) would carry an extra belt or to. Occasionally one of us would carry a shotgun. I tried it one time, and while recon is supposed to 'snoop and poop' and stay hidden, sometimes it didn't work out that way. That one time I carried the shotgun I almost got killed because I got excited and pulled the trigger 3 or 4 times after my first shot. I forgot I had to pump it. I always carried an M-14 that had been assigned to me, and a .38 special with a 6 inch barrel that my sister sent over there to me, and she always made sure I had a good supply of .38 Special hollow point. WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY? OH, my GODDDD! You mean I wasn't supposed to fire hollow point because of the Geneva Convention?... Oh, well. tough s***...Oh!, Moderator, here's something else for ya'll to try and pick apart. DID YOU KNOW, SIRRR, that the .38 special, firing hollow points through a 6 inch barrel will give you greater (as in better) accuracy and more stopping power than the M1911A1 firing the regular issue military ammo? Well, it damned sure will. As opposed to it's son, the much ballyhooed .357 Magnum, the .38 special is an extremely accurate round, bested only by the .44 Special...Anyway, the point of all of this, is that a buddy of mine (over there) carried a Mini-14. He had his magazines taped bottom to bottom, so he had 40 rounds at his instant command, using only a quick flip of his wrist so to speak. At 'fire in the hole' (checking weapons before a patrol) or in the bush, there was NEVER a problem with his mini. The M-16's were jamming constantly...goodbye...