See The Night

The US Army only had the M14 as its standard infantry rifle for a decade from 1957 to 1968. However, it won immense popularity with civilian shooters and, despite being given away by the US Goverment in military aid packages and being cut up by the hundred thousand under Clinton, it went on to regain popularity in Iraq and Afghanistan. All the services now have M14s in service in substantial numbers in variants such as the M21, M39 and EBR. For almost four decades a variety of companies kept the Civilian market supplied with M14 clones, utilizing a varying percentage of the diminishing stock of Ex GI parts. Even a Chinese company, Polytech, managed to secure a market share until imports from that country were banned.

There is no shortage of accessories available for these popular rifles. There are components available that enable you to turn the 1950s M14 into the equal of any 7.62 battle rifle manufactured today. You can improve the ergonomics of the M14, reduce or eliminate its muzzle climb and mount the optics to take advantage of its long range accuracy.

Mounting current generation optics has always been problematic on the M14, but various solutions are available that work. If you don’t mind forward mounting, or using a rear rail attached to the clip guide, you can get away with a mounting rail that takes the place of the handguard. The Amega Ranges Mini Scout is one such rail system. This M14 rail is machined from aerospace grade aluminium and clamps to the barrel, stiffening it and increasing its accuracy. As well as providing a length of MIL STD 1913 Picatinny rail, you can bolt on additional sections of Picatinny or Weaver rail to accept flashlights and lasers. The Mini Scout will not prevent the use of USGI iron sights or interfere with reciver mounted scope bases. Care has to be taken that you have a standard USGI profile barrel as this unit will not fit any Chinese manufactured, heavy or stainless barrel as used on ‘Loaded’ M1As.

A replacement M14 stock can be the basis of an entire conversion. Arguably the most impressive stock on the market is the Troy M14stock or Modular Chassis System. The immensely strong MCS is milled from a solid billet of T-6 aluminium. The system can be fitted in 20 minutes with regular hand tools and provides a rock solid bedding system with adjuster screws that obviates having your fiberglass bedded rifle rebedded every 1000 rounds or so. There are four rails at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions, the top one of which is on the same level for the complete length of the system. This is exactly what is needed for easy co-witnessing. The stock line is slightly above the centre of the bore, practically eliminating muzzle climb. Once you factor in the weight of the side mount that you might othewise have used, the Troy M14 stock is equal to the weight of a wood stocked M14.

This chassis system will accept any stock or pistol grip manufactured for the AR15. For example the Magpul CTR stock. Troy battle sights are engineered to a high standard and make an ideal back up in the event of main optic failure. You can also mount a fore-grip like the Troy modular combat grip under the front of the weapon to aid controllability. The Troy M14 stock is quite expensive, but nothing of this quality is cheap and it is an investment in enhanced performance. It also has the subtle advantage that it resembles an AR series weapon and thus does not mark its user as a DM or sniper, prioritizing you as a target.