300,000 M-14s Destined for Trash Pile

[Super Dave]

13821.....Every Marine should have one..

[airframesguru]

dad always talked aboput them before he went on to the flight line in the sky. I would love to give one a good home.

[ivalis]

a 6" bull at 500 meters???????????

[gigagrunt]

#13,862

[gigagrunt]

IVALIS - A SIX INCH BULLSEYE FROM 500 METERS

[ivalis]

as i recall, 12" bull at 200 meters, a 20" bull at 300 & 500 w/ a 3" v ring

[badbob]

Keep in mind that I am referring to the M-14 and M-1 qualification requirement, not the M-16 qualification requirements, which are two different beasts.


When I say 6" Bull, I mean 6" Bull which is the center mark.

In the 60's before the M-16, we actually used a 6" bull at 200 Meters and a 22" Silhouette target at the 300 meter position, because of the multiple firinging position requirement at 300 meters.

The target at 500 meters was definitely a 6" center. To fire expert you needed most of your hits in the center mark, not in one of the Rings on the outside.

The outside rings were not a concern if you wanted to qualify Expert, especially High Expert!!!!!!

The M-16 in the hands of the average marksman was very effective at 300 meters but was very dificult to control at 500 mteres therefore you had a much larger target.

As a result of my High Expert qualification I became a Range Instructor my last summer in the Corps. I had an opportunity to use the M-1, M-14 and the M-16 at 700 Meters and 1000 meters, firing at a 22” silliest target.

At these distances I actually prefer the M-1. The longer barrel gave it an edge over the M-14 and M-16 was about as effective as Rock.


Semper Fi,
Bob

[montana]

oh

[ivalis]

no way will i believe that the bullseye was 6" at 500 meters, the "V" ring may have been, not the bull.

was looking at a flic in the boot year book, didn't give the dimensions, it definitely was more than 6"

[CPLRapoza]

# 14702

This weapon saved my dads life on many occassions, and also the lives of many American services men in Veitnam. It is stupid that they are willing to destroy them.

[Sniperone]

#14130........

As a Master class Service Rifle competitor and "Presidents Hundred" recipient in 2000 I would really like to see this happen. even though most shooters are now using the "Black Gun" in competition, the M-14 is a valuble piece of our military history and should be treated as such.

[badbob]

Ok I’ve been doing some extensive research on the 500 yard target issue

It would appear that I owe an apology to a couple of you who questioned the 6” bull

!! I was wrong - You were correct

My only reference was the NRA LR-7 target which is a take off of the Military B-3 Target. The LR-7 is the 30.06 and 7.62 500 yard Match Target and it does have a 6” Bull or Black Aiming area.

However the Military B-3 target has a much larger Bull that was modified twice since it was adopted in 1913.

Prior to the introduction of the M-14, the Military B-3 Target was 6’x 6’ with a 20" Bull and 2 outside rings totaling 37” of qualification area.

After it’s modification the Bull was modified to include a 12” V Ring however I don't remember the V Ring.

And I was also wrong about the 200 Yard target as well, It is classified Military A-3 Target and it has an 8” Black center.

These targets were replaced in 1967 with the decimal targets still in use today.

It appears that the only thing I had right was the 22” silhouette Target used on the 300 Yard line which is classified the Military D Target

Well it’s only been 38 years and I have bad days too!

Semper Fi,
Bob

[2091351]

Shucks Bob, I cannot remember half of that stuff. All I know is that the M-14 was a heck of a bullet launcher. I doubt if we will ever see them in the same type of program as the M-1. Too damn bad, for everyone. It is/was/and will be a very nice weapon system. Folks in Iraq can tell even more stories about them.

Take care-shoot straight-Steve

[badbob]

The photo below best displays the visual differences between the M-14 and M-16

However it does not describe the feeling us old grunts had when the M-14 was replaced by the M-16, it was almost worse than losing your best friend.

The M-14 with fully loaded, 20 round Mag, weighed in at 11.5 lbs, a fully loaded magazine weighed 1.5 lbs. and we carried a minimum of 5 extra mags each.

The M-14 had a maximum effective range of 766 Yards in semi auto and 500 yards on full auto. On full auto it fired at a rate of 700 rounds per minute.

The M-16 has a maximum effective range of 400 meters, weighs just over 6 lbs fully loaded and it had the capacity to fire 950 rounds per minute on full auto and 700 rounds per minute on semi auto.

The M-14 Was used throughout the Vietnam war, first as the primary assault rifle and later as a secondary sniper rifle or long range assault rifle and light machine gun.

The Marine Corps was the last to switch over to the M-16 because of its inherent jamming problem which was caused by two facts.

(1) The initial 5.56 ammo used corrosive stick powder which burned slower than Ball powder and left un burnt residue in the chamber that would build up and cause jamming.

(2) The receiver was not chromed as was the M-1 and M-14 and therefore very susceptible to corrosion and pitting.

Once they changed over to the Ball powder and chromed the receiver, the weapon became a very stable platform.

I would love to own one of these M-14’s for nostalgia, but today with my reduced vision, long range targeting has become very difficult.

I think if I were going off to do battle today, I would take the M-16 and ware lots of camouflage.

Semper Fi,
Bob

[MarineAO]

Done when do I get mine?