26 July 2022 M14 Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

The M14 in Vietnam: One Veteran's Experience

Interestingly, one of the platoon's M14s was a non-standard carbine version. It had its barrel shortened to just in front of the gas system, the barrel rethreaded and the front sight/flash suppressor assembly remounted. This special M14 was "off the books" and was highly coveted by platoon members who handed it on as its various carriers rotated out of the unit.

The story behind this interesting rifle began when the platoon was on R&R in a rear area. Several platoon members noticed the gun in the back of an MP's jeep and decided they needed it more than some MP REMF. While several platoon members distracted the MP, another lifted the M14 carbine from the back of his jeep. It became part of that platoon's armament thereafter.

How the rifle got into that short-barreled configuration we will never know. I do know that H&R had made some experimental prototype M14 carbines, but I do not know if it was one of those or an in-country conversion. That M14 carbine was handy, powerful and most definitely loud!

On another operation, my patrol was called up for an emergency extraction because we were needed badly somewhere else. When we arrived at the only potential landing zone within many miles of thick jungle, we found a tropical hardwood tree located in such a way that a helicopter could not land. After barely chipping the bark off the tree with a machete, it was obvious that something else would have to be done to get rid of it. As I considered using several of our precious claymore mines to take the tree out, one of my more experienced troops came up with his M14 and offered to shoot the tree down.

After making sure we had no troops downrange, with a good bit of skepticism, I gave him the go ahead. He walked over to the tree, held his rifle fairly level to the ground and began shooting through the tree left to right with shots spaced about an inch or two apart. Before he got through his second magazine the tree fell over as nice as you could please. I later worked with 1st Cavalry Division snipers using XM21s to take out the enemy by shooting them through the trees they were behind. During small-unit engagements, one sniper named Staff Sergeant Crow liked to use a technique called "precision traversing fire."

After identifying the likely location of an enemy soldier behind a tree, he would aim maybe a foot or two off the ground at the edge of the tree and, in a cadence not unlike rapid fire in a match, move each subsequent shot across the tree a few inches apart. Often before he traversed to the opposite side of the tree, an enemy soldier would fall away from the tree, hit by a combination of bullets and wood fragments. In one particular engagement, he accounted for nine of the enemy using that technique.

More here The M14 in Vietnam: One Veterans Experience | An Official Journal Of The NRA

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