M14: America’s Worst Service Rifle - What Went Wrong?

When firing the M14 in full auto, the first hits an enemy personnel, the second hits the enemy on the tree, the third shot misses, and the 4th hits an enemy aircraft. Edit: Can't believe how many people missed the joke

For those who may not know, when Ian starts talking about Springfield Armory around the 3 minute mark, he's talking about the US Armory and Arsenal at Springfield Mass, which was shut down in 1968. It was one of the major small arms development sites for the US military from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam. This Springfield Armory is not the same as the Illinois based Springfield Armory company that is still in business today.

I'm a Marine sergeant. I love the M14. It's very accurate out to 500 yards and beyond. When you're holding it it feels like it's part of you. Sergeant Steve Dow USMC 1966 - 1970 Vietnam Vet

I remember my grandfather telling me about being in basic training when the M14 was just introduced, and he accidentally fired it on auto whilst in prone. The sergeant was not happy until he noticed 7 of the rounds hit the target in the kill zone. My grandfather told me the sergeant said, "Since you hit so many on Target, I won't punish you as badly, and I also suggest pursuing the marksmanship ribbons."

I started Basic Training in November of 1969 at Ft. Benning (A-10-1 Sand Hill) & we were some of the last troops to train with the M-14 as the new issue M16's were going straight to Viet Nam. We had one Platoon Leader who was not particularly well-liked & he was present when we were at the range using full-auto fire. The RO's had loaded too many magazines for that day & told the Officers they were welcome to fire off the excess. If you have experience firing sustained AW fire, you'll remember the barrel becomes insanely hot with very pretty blue-black iridescent lines dancing along the barrel. Lt. R. was anxious to take up their offer but had no rifle. I had just finished firing my last magazine when he appeared & yelled "Gimme that rifle" & proceeded to yank it from my hands by the barrel. His reaction was pretty much instantaneous with a very loud scream. I've no idea how long it took his hand to heal but it was definitely one of my most rewarding days of Basic.🤣

I wasn't in Vietnam, but two of my buddies who were there had M-14s for at least some of their time in country. They both loved it. They felt that it was more reliable than the M-16 (till the Army got the ammo sorted out). They also liked the heavier bullet. One guy said that if a VC was hiding behind some logs or something, you could just start chipping away at the cover, and pretty soon it was gone, and so was Charlie. The other guy just said, "When you hit somebody with it, they die." God bless them both. --Old Guy

My brother swore by the M14. He was a flight engineer during his 2 tours in Vietnam and used it in a few firefights. One plus never mentioned is it used the same ammo as the M60, and any flight crew had boxes of 7.62 ammo.

Spending New Years Day, 1971, at Marine boot camp at San Diego, we were issued the M14. At the rifle range, I gained appreciation for the rifle. I found it reliable and accurate. Much more so than I found the M16 I was issued later. What it boils down to, many find the M14 to be a fantastic rifle, while others don't. But because of my experience with the M14, the day I retired, I celebrated by buying myself a Springfield M1A and have never regretted it.

Ah......The shoulder thing that goes up. Truly a weapon of war.

The bottom line is they were never going to turn a 8+ pound service rifle into a BAR simply by adding a 20 round magazine and selective fire.

When I was in the navy, the M-14 was still our standard issue rifle, the other branches having long ago moved on to the M-16 platform. I personally loved the old girl. It was easy to disassemble, easy to clean, easy to shoot, easy to make accurate hits with, decently powerful, and 100% reliable with tens of thousands rounds total fired through various rifles. I just don't get all the hate, except about it being a bit heavy, but to me that forged receiver was confidence-inspiring. I even mag dumped one in full auto, and although impractical once I hit the fourth round fired in that mode, it was still pleasant to shoot even then.

My father was USMC in ‘nam 66-68, used an M14 his first tour and never had a problem with it. Was issued an M16 for his second tour. Kept it clean, but it jammed the first contact he got into with it. He bought an M3 after that and HATED the M16 until his dying day.

Remember guys; while the US MoD rejected the AR10 or the FAL under the promise or building M14 from old M1 Garand and turned out not to be abble to do so... a peruvian guy named Erquiaga just did it on his own appartment creating the EM62.

My dad was an Army Ranger. He enlisted in the 60s and served for many years. He loved the M14. He told me it was superior to any other weapon he used.

Marine sergeant ‘65-‘69. Qualified every year for 4 years. 3 out of 4 years Expert. Third year it was raining and blowing down range heavily enough to blow/bend the targets over and I qualified Sharpshooter. At recruit qualification on day one the DI told me I would probably break the range record if I continued firing the same way. I didn’t, but this illustrates my capacity to fire the M-14 well. When I got to Vietnam I took my M-16 to a test range and fired in 3-6 round bursts. At round number 234 the projectile jammed in the barrel. That basically soured me on that weapon so I carried an M-14 and a 45 my entire 14 months in country. I’ve told anyone who will listen from then until now, give me 3 rounds at 500 yards and the third round will hit the bull every time. That was a weapon I trusted my life to. I’m pretty sure all the M-14’s I ever had were H&R. In retrospect, I would have preferred to be a sniper, because that’s something I was pretty good at. Either that or an armory tech, because I’m good at repairing mechanicals. That said, counterintelligence was my choice at the time and I don’t regret that. 😉👍

Great video…lots I did not know. The M14 was the rifle I was issued in ROTC special forces in the early 1970s, and I loved it…still do. During the fighting in Iraq, when I was the head of Maritime Weapons Systems support, the Seal Teams had us bring back the M14 because the 5.56 rounds wouldn’t penetrate cinder block walls. We changed the stocks to Kevlar, and the teams were pretty happy with them.

I'm a manufacturing engineer and you did a really good job of describing how difficult it actually is to manufacture something complicated like a rifle.

They were aware that Sturmgewehr, AK, FAL and AR10 exist but still chose THIS

I was in Vietnam, Army ‘69-70. We were issued M-16A1A as our weapon. By choice many of us secured extra M-14s as a backup when at our LZ. We kept both locked and loaded. I preferred the M-14 for at camp defense. It rarely misfired and was extremely accurate, once dialed in. When on patrol, we preferred the M-16 due to its light weight. We had to be very careful not to get them too dirty. They jammed easily and without proper lubrication tended to jam. The humidity was brutal and the oils did not last near as long as stateside.

Basic at Fort Ord in 1962, we all used M1's. I barely qualified with it. A year later, as an instructor in the Signal School at Fort Monmouth, I had to qualify with an M14. I had never fired anything but that M1 in Basic. I qualified Expert with the M14 at Fort Dix. A year after that, I again qualified Expert with the M14. The only two times I had ever fired the M14, I qualified Expert and I could barely hit the target with an M1. Excellent video. I have no interest in guns to be honest, but I'm a mechanical engineer and appreciate mechanisms and well-presented videos. This video satisfied both. I thoroughly enjoyed it.