Entreprise Arms

     The M14 replaced the M1 Garand only slowly in the first two years. In fact, the M1 Garand was still in service with many National Guard units when the M14 was withdrawn in 1966 and replaced by the M16.
     The M14 was manufactured at four factories: 1) The Springfield National Armory, 2) Harrington & Richardson Arms, 3) Winchester (New Haven) and 4) by Thompson Ramo Woodridge (TRW). Each manufacturer has its partisans but after each company's teething troubles were solved, there was very little differences, other than the four receiver markings. in terms of reliability' and safety.
     To the end of its days, the Ml Garand had experienced mild problems. The M14's design seemed to have cured most of these. The basic action — expanded gas tapped from the barrel and bled through a port to strike a piston/operating rod which caused it to move backward, drawing the bolt with it remained the same. But the Ml's bulky gas cylinder hanging on the end of the barrel was reduced in size and moved back eight inches from the muzzle. The adjustable gas valve allowed the Ml 4 to provide better accuracy as the motion of the shorter operating rod and bolt was not so abrupt.
     The John C. Garand also modified the way the gas was used to operate the aioctn. In the M14, when a cartridge was fired, some of the hot expanding gases that drove the bullet up the barrel were bled away through a port in the barrel, as in the Ml. But in the M14, the gases expanded into a hollow gas piston rather than impacting against the front of a solid piston. When the piston was filled, it began to move to the rear, pulling the gas vent out of alignment with the gas port and shutting of the further flow of gas. The piston traveled 1.5 inches to the rear where it uncovered another vent which released the gases trapped in the hollow piston. The milder action all but eliminated most parts breakage problems.
     As in the Ml, the gas flow could be shut off in the M14 for launching grenades. The adjustable gas valve was turned to the off position and a special cartridge was inserted in the breech. If the soldier did not intend to launch more grenades, they turned the gas valve on and the rifle resumed its semiautomatic or automatic function.
     In the M14, the Ml's eight-round en block clip gave way to a twenty-round magazine. This mean that the soldier could "top up his magazine" at any time whereas he could not do so with the en block clip. And when the ammunition was exhausted, there was no clip to bounce out of the breech with a distinctive pinging noise that alerted the enemy to the fact that your weapon was empty.
     The M14 was a selective fire weapon; that is, it could be fired in the semiautomatic mode one round per trigger squeeze — or on full automatic — multiple rounds per trigger squeeze. However, it was quickly discovered under field conditions that the full automatic mode in the M14 was next to useless for anything but burning up ammunition. The 7.62 x 51 mm NATO cartridge produced more recoil than most soldiers could handle and still fire accurately. Accordingly, the full automatic mode on most Ml4s was disabled.
    But the M14 in full automatic still had a role to play. In every rifle squad, at least two Ml4s were usually equipped with a bipod and retained their full auto capability. These rifles served as squad automatics, fulfilling the role once played by the M1919 Browning Automatic Rifle and soon to be superseded by the M60 7.62 x 51 mm NATO machine gun.

The M1A is the civilian, semiautomatic counterpart of the selective fire M14 military rifle. One commercial company named Springfield Armory manufacturers the M1A. It should not be confused with the Springfield "National" Armory. Commercial receivers show the designation "M1A" and the trademark symbol.

Even though the M14 was standardized in early 1957, not a single production rifle was produced until July 1959. Congress had dictated that commercial firearms manufacturers were to be involved in the production of the M14, as they had been, so successfully in the production of the Ml Garand.
The problems encountered in first getting Congress to appropriate sufficient funds and then bringing three additional manufacturers on line successfully were not completely solved until 1959.

     The M14 received its baptism of fire in Vietnam as early as 1961. U.S. Army advisers to the Republic of Vietnam Forces used the M14 extensively in combat with units of the Viet Cong. The rifle was too large and heavy for the slightly built Vietnamese soldiers to use effectively and so its distribution was largely limited to Americans. But combat showed up new problems. In spite of changes in the gas system to reduce impacts, parts breakage hovered around the unacceptable point.
     At the same time, questions arose regarding the rifle's inherent accuracy. All sorts of rumors began to float about, some dealing with the various manufacturer's ability to build accurate rifles, others with the ammunition. As it turned out, a combination of factors were involved with all rifles, all solved fairly easily.
     During this period, the Army was also investigating the development of the AR15 rifle developed by Eugene Stoner. But the Byzantine power politics of the Army were stalling its development. Proponents of the M14, having taken years to get the rifle accepted, were now so firmly entrenched that they were actually preventing further development of the AR15 concept.
     Then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara finally demanded a full investigation not only of the M14 versus the Ml6 tests but of the rifle's performance in combat. The Army's Inspector General did indeed find that several test had been rigged to show the AR15 in a poor light. In fact, the AR15 — soon to be the M16 — had outperformed the M14 in almost every category. That and the problems of parts breakage made up collective minds at the Pentagon.
     Secretary McNamara announced on January 23, 1963 that when that year's production contracts for the M14 were filled, all further procurement of the rifle would be terminated. At the same time, he announced what was expected to be a one-time buy of 85,000 AR15 rifles for the Army and 19,000 for the Air Force.
     A total of 1,380,346 M14s had been manufactured in something over four years. Harrington & Richardson had built 537,582; Springfield 167,100, Winchester 356,501 and TRW 319,163. The M14 would remain the "Standard A" rifle until January 1, 1968, but the M16 now approved and accepted was fast displacing the M14 in Southeast Asia. When the M14 procurement was canceled, the Fleet Marine Force had only been equipped with the M14 for three months but the Army had not even been completely reequipped

The military-style bipod mounts on the rifle's gas cylinder assembly where it will not affect the barrel's zero.

ZEROING THE M14

To zero the M14 or M1A, fo11ow these six steps:
1) Raise aperture from lowest position to eight clicks elevation.
2) Align windage center index line on sight base with center index line on receiver.
3) Fire three warm-up rounds. Then fire four additional rounds, adjusting sights after each round to move point of impact to center of target. Then fire five consecutive rounds semi automatically. The impact of the 5-round shot group should be within a 6.1-inch diameter circle.
4) Adjust sights to bring point of impact of round to center of target by correcting with one click of elevation or windage for each 28 millimeters (approx. 1-1/8 in.) of movement required.
5) Maximum adjustments permitted are: six clicks elevation or depression and/or three clicks windage in either direction.
6) After the rifle has been zeroed, loosen the locking screw on the pinion assembly which secures the elevation knob. Turn the elevation knob until the 100-meter mark (between 2 and 12) is aligned with mark on the side of receiver. Tighten screw to lock knob

The ART IV telescopic sight has a range finder built in. The shooter adjusts range markers to the size of his target which automatically adjusts the reticule for the proper distance.

     Interestingly enough, the M14 was characterized as an inherently inaccurate rifle by virtually every unbiased review board which had tested it. It was pointed out by experienced military armorers that it was impossible to develop an accurate rifle unless: 1) the receiver was solidly bedded in the stock, 2) the barrel was free-floated — did not touch any other part of the rifle at any time, 3) the barrel was specifically tuned for accurate shooting.
     The U.S. service rifle is used in the National Matches which are Department of Defense-sponsored shooting contests that blend military and civilian participants. Historically, the matches, which have been held since the first decade of the 20th Century, have contributed a great deal to the development not only of expert marksmen for military service, but also excellent weapons as well.
     The program to develop a National Match M14 rifle began in 1959 and the first rifles were produced in 1962. In the first two years, National Match rifles were manufactured at Springfield — 7,200 of them. For the 1964 matches 4,874 were made by TRW and the final 2,094 for the 1965 matches were rebuilt from service rifles at Springfield as production had ceased.
     National match rifles differed from the standard issue service rifle in the following particulars:

The accompanying illustrations provide a complete description of the National Match Rifle. It is fair to say that the M14 National Match rifle provided shooters with a magnitude of improvement similar to that which the Ml Garand National Match rifle provided over the M1903 National Match Rifle, and it provided over the first National Match rifle, the Model 1892 Krag.

     During both World Wars and the Korean War, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps had fielded snipers to harass enemy troops. For the most part, their training was sketchy — they were selected for their shooting skills as identified by match competition and were given only rudimentary training in woodcraft. Likewise, their weapons were only marginal performers. During World War One, the Model 1903 rifle was fitted with a cumbersome telescopic sight made by the Warner-Swazey Company and used in France. The sight was delicate and its high mount was hard to sight through.
    Between the World Wars, both the Army and the Marines experimented with various commercial telescopic sights but not until World War Two broke out was a sniper rifle standardized. This was the Model 1903A4 rifle manufactured by Remington. It used a slightly militarized version of the commercial Weaver 330 telescopic sight designated the M73B1. At the very end of the war, the M1 Garand fitted with mounts manufactured by Griffin & Howe and the militarized Lyman Alaskan commercial sight (the M81 and M82) were standardized as the M1C, but neither saw action before Japan surrendered in August 1945.
     During the Korean War, the M1C served both the Army and Marines as the main sniper rifle, backed up by the Model 1903A4. At the end of the Korean War, an improved M1C was developed, the M1D with a better version of the Alaskan sight, designated M84, but it saw little or no action in Korea. In 1954, the Marines also standardized the sniper rifle M52, which was the M1C fitted with a new telescopic sight manufactured by Stith Kolmorgan.
     Before the War in Vietnam, snipers received little if any training. Usually. the best marksman in a platoon were designated as sniper, providing equipment was available. All that changed during the War in Vietnam. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese regulars, using Russian-made Mosin Nagant and Dragunov SVD sniper rifles, proved how effective well- trained snipers could be. Both the Army and the Marines Corps established sniper training schools and worked hard to develop suitable rifles. The Winchester Model 70 with a variety of telescopic sights was fitted as were Remington Model 700 BDLs. But the Army discovered that the National Match Ml4 fitted with a range-finding telescopic sight served admirably as a sniper weapon. After long experimentation and field testing it was finally standardized as the M21.

     The M14 was designed and built as a selective fire weapon. Under federal law, any receiver so designed remains a "machine gun" forever. So the M14 was never made available to the shooting public except through Director of Civilian Marksmanship shooting programs and then only to DCM-affiliated shooting clubs under severe restrictions. This put much of the shooting public at a great disadvantage when it came to competing in the National Matches.
     In the early 1970s. Smith Enterprises developed a semiautomatic version of the M14 receiver and using surplus parts built a large number of "look alike" M14s which were accepted for competition use under the designation, M1A. The rights were later sold to Springfield Armory, a private company which has manufactured the M1A for nearly twenty years.
     In the early 1990s, the Chinese combine of companies known as Polytech, began to market their semiautomatic version of the M14. These rifles were wholly made in China and there have been conflicting reports regarding their suitability for shooting. The Challenge staff suggests that if you are intending to buy a Polytech-made M14 and are worried about its suitability for shooting, you should have it examined by a certified gunsmith. One note of caution: if the gunsmith looks at the rifle and immediately proclaims that it is no good, take it to another gunsmith, preferably one who knows his business.
     Over the years, the commercial versions of the M14 have served the shooting public well. For the most part, they are no more prone to problems than the military versions were. And most manufacturer's of the look-alike M14s will immediately repair or replace any part — or even entire rifles — that are not providing the service you expect.