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MII or M11?
About 40 years ago, I was introduced to a rifle my cousin called the "M-eleven." He owned two of them, each a 20 round magazine-fed M1 chambered for 7.62mm NATO. I remember shooting one along with his H&K G-3 and was impressed with the firepower of both. Returning to school (and later work), I didn't think about that "M11" until my interest in U.S. service rifles caught fire about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, he no longer has them and I can find no references to such a rifle other than one made on p.199 of Poyer's 3rd edition. He writes "...7.62 mm NATO MII (i's, not 1's)" without mention of a box magazine. Is anyone familiar with this rifle? Thanks, BK
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There were a lot of these conversions. If you ever care to watch the old movie A RUMOR OF WAR, from Phillip Caputo's book; which was made without U.S. Gov't assistance, they used a weird assortment of M1s hoked up to look like M-14s. As far as a real M-1 conversion 7.62 NATO with 20 rd. box mag that was in "issue" status, that would have to be the Beretta BM-59 that equipped the Italian Army. BTW the BM-59 uses its own magazine, not the U.S. M-14 one. I suspect someone could have stamped an extra "1" onto the M-1 nomenclature, added the parts, and, "viola!" called their version the "M-11."
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Thanks Griff! I didn't know enough in 1970 the to look for "Beretta" stampings. In fact, I had never handled a real M1. I just remember that it shot very well and that box mag was a real plus. Now that I have my share of M1s, I wish I had that G-3!
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Nope, Goo, those are completely different animals, but really cool ones nevertheless. The ones I saw were standard appearing 7.62mm M1s with 20 round box magazines. Back then I didn't know enough to look at manufacturer stamps for names and numbers. BK
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I saw these for sale at Northridge International in San Fernando CA several years ago. They were clever conversions to M14 magazines on M1 receivers with .30-06 chambered barrels bushed to 7.62mm. I was told they came from Columbia but who knows?
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My cousin lived in Pasadena, not too far from San Fernando, so the pieces of this story are falling into place. Thanks.
