Nightcrawler
New member
What's your favorite US Military Rifle? I've only listed them so far back...I am unsure about US military rifles before the Civil War.
Favorite US Military Rifle?
- Thread starter Nightcrawler
- Start date
Scarborough
New member
I do not understand. What do you mean by M1 carbine; M1 rifle; M14 and M16? What happened to the 03 Springfield? Why would we change the finest service rifle in the world? Surely there must be some mistake here. Next thing will be some joker telling me we are going to replace the .30-06 cartridge.
Nightcrawler
New member
The M1A is based on the M14.
yankytrash
New member
M-14.
Served well since WWII, and still in service as a sniper weapon (M25, I believe?).
Served well since WWII, and still in service as a sniper weapon (M25, I believe?).
Jeff White
New member
Yankytrash,
The sniper version of the M14 was known as the M21. As far as I know none are still in service in that role. The M21 was pretty maintenance intensive and it took a trained armorer to keep it working and accurate. Current sniper rifle is the M24 which is based on the Remington 700 action.
Don't despair the M14 is still in service with the US Navy. You'll find it in the arms lockers of most ships.
Jeff
The sniper version of the M14 was known as the M21. As far as I know none are still in service in that role. The M21 was pretty maintenance intensive and it took a trained armorer to keep it working and accurate. Current sniper rifle is the M24 which is based on the Remington 700 action.
Don't despair the M14 is still in service with the US Navy. You'll find it in the arms lockers of most ships.
Jeff
oberkommando
New member
Jeff is right there still in use by the Navy, Seals that is. Not as a sniper weapon but as a primary one, just flick on discovery channel and listen to Sgt Laskey talk up the M14 and enough said. IIRC "This aint no puny M16 but a full sized battle rifle etc etc.... They were shown in Finnland IIRC and desert ops where there is a lot of cover to shoot thru [trees] and long distance in desert. If the M16 or M1 were as good or better for these rolls im sure they could get there hands on them but choose not to for these tasks. It got my vote.
Not as a sniper weapon but as a primary one, just flick on discovery channel and listen to Sgt Laskey talk up the M14 and enough said. IIRC "This aint no puny M16 but a full sized battle rifle etc etc.... They were shown in Finnland IIRC and desert ops where there is a lot of cover to shoot thru [trees] and long distance in desert. If the M16 or M1 were as good or better for these rolls im sure they could get there hands on them but choose not to for these tasks. It got my vote.Nodakmarine
New member
I say the M-14. It is reliable, accurate, rugged and powerful. Granted it's been replaced by the matell toy for most uses but it still is in service with the Navy onboards ships and with SEAL units, in the Marines as the DMR rifle and the Army uses an updated version of the M-21 known as the M-25. I do love the Garand but the M-14 with it's better gas system, bolt roller, flash suppressor and detachable magazine IMHO makes it the better weapon.
Their job is to put accurate fire on the target. To do that, they and their ammo have to be transported into the fire zone. Guess who gets that job?
Basic training was with the M14. Before heading for Vietnam, the M16 came into my life. It was love at first firing. It loved me too. Light, fast, effective, accurate. To know it is to love it. To not know and care for it is to hate it, and that leads to trouble....
Basic training was with the M14. Before heading for Vietnam, the M16 came into my life. It was love at first firing. It loved me too. Light, fast, effective, accurate. To know it is to love it. To not know and care for it is to hate it, and that leads to trouble....
Arg....I was in the Armory here waiting for the ROTC guys to finish up (rifle and pistol team practice is right after ROTC drilling), and one of them walked by me with a Garand. I asked if it was functional (it'd be really cool if the ROTC used real guns), and she told me that no, it was deactivated. 
And then she said that it wasn't a big deal, cuz Garands were pretty crummy guns. 
Gah! The blasphemer! She obviously didn't know what she had in her hands there. ROTC needs some more history classes...
And then she said that it wasn't a big deal, cuz Garands were pretty crummy guns. Gah! The blasphemer! She obviously didn't know what she had in her hands there. ROTC needs some more history classes...Jeff White
New member
I hate to rain on the M14 love fest but......
The M14 was never that successful of a weapon. It was plagued with production problems from the start. We never did produce enough to equip the Army. It was a major scandal during the Berlin crisis (not the airlift, but in about 1960 when the Soviets once again closed the highways) that our forward deployed units, those at the tip of the spear were still armed with the M1 even though the M14 had been the "standard" for about 4 years.
Some units never did see the M14 and went right from the M1 to M16A1. When the NATO countries were looking for a new standard cartridge and rifle in the early 1950s, everyone but the US wanted a small caliber. The US wouldn't budge off of .30 caliber so the Brits dropped the Enfield Bullpup (looked surprisingly like the early SA-80s) and the FN-FAL was upscaled to take the 7.62x51 round. The FN-FAL went head to head with Springfield's M14 to see which would be the new US service rifle. The M14 won in what many considered a rigged test. Basically the rest of the free world adopted some version of the FN-FAL and we adopted the M14. By about 1973 the M14 was pretty much gone from Army inventory and everyone was carrying the M16A1. The US had the small cartridge that it had so opposed in the 50s. NATO had the 7.62x51 cartridge the US Ordnance Dept. forced on them and it soldiered on until the mid-80s with the rest of NATO.
Nodakmarine,
I think the M25 is a commercial designation by Springfield Armory for an M1A variant. To my knowledge the only place in the Army (besides maybe some SOF arms rooms) you'll find the M14 is in the Old Guard, the ceremonial unit that serves DC. The Army is still discussing the designated marksman concept and from what I've read in the professional journals, takes a totally different view of the concept then the Marines.
I voted for the M16 which has served me well for 27 years. Next would have to be the M1, then the 1903 Springfield. I have an M1A and really enjoy it, but as far as history goes, I think the M14 is just a bump between the M1 and the M16.
Jeff
The M14 was never that successful of a weapon. It was plagued with production problems from the start. We never did produce enough to equip the Army. It was a major scandal during the Berlin crisis (not the airlift, but in about 1960 when the Soviets once again closed the highways) that our forward deployed units, those at the tip of the spear were still armed with the M1 even though the M14 had been the "standard" for about 4 years.
Some units never did see the M14 and went right from the M1 to M16A1. When the NATO countries were looking for a new standard cartridge and rifle in the early 1950s, everyone but the US wanted a small caliber. The US wouldn't budge off of .30 caliber so the Brits dropped the Enfield Bullpup (looked surprisingly like the early SA-80s) and the FN-FAL was upscaled to take the 7.62x51 round. The FN-FAL went head to head with Springfield's M14 to see which would be the new US service rifle. The M14 won in what many considered a rigged test. Basically the rest of the free world adopted some version of the FN-FAL and we adopted the M14. By about 1973 the M14 was pretty much gone from Army inventory and everyone was carrying the M16A1. The US had the small cartridge that it had so opposed in the 50s. NATO had the 7.62x51 cartridge the US Ordnance Dept. forced on them and it soldiered on until the mid-80s with the rest of NATO.
Nodakmarine,
I think the M25 is a commercial designation by Springfield Armory for an M1A variant. To my knowledge the only place in the Army (besides maybe some SOF arms rooms) you'll find the M14 is in the Old Guard, the ceremonial unit that serves DC. The Army is still discussing the designated marksman concept and from what I've read in the professional journals, takes a totally different view of the concept then the Marines.
I voted for the M16 which has served me well for 27 years. Next would have to be the M1, then the 1903 Springfield. I have an M1A and really enjoy it, but as far as history goes, I think the M14 is just a bump between the M1 and the M16.
Jeff
Abominable No-Man
New member
Even tho the M14/M1A was my first love, I have to agree in this
case with Corsair. IMO, BigG is wrong- the M14 was NOT a bump
in the road. It had it's problems, but then again so did the M16
and the Garand. The same way that the kinks were worked out
of the M16, so were the problems with the M14.
ANM
case with Corsair. IMO, BigG is wrong- the M14 was NOT a bump
in the road. It had it's problems, but then again so did the M16
and the Garand. The same way that the kinks were worked out
of the M16, so were the problems with the M14.
ANM
What I meant by bump in the road was that the M14 was adopted (1957) but never really fielded and served in no wars. By the time Vietnam heated up (1965), the M16 was the new kid on the block. So, in reality, as somebody else said, the Army went from the Garand to the M16 with the M14 (improved Garand) serving as a minor bump in between.
Not to say that it is not a fine weapon, just that it didn't really get used much. Oh yeah, ask the Marines about rifle marksmanship. The M14 rules. What do they deploy with? The M16.
Not to say that it is not a fine weapon, just that it didn't really get used much. Oh yeah, ask the Marines about rifle marksmanship. The M14 rules. What do they deploy with? The M16.