Israeli M1A1

[Rotor]

Guts

I have picked up some of these IDF Sniper items over the years I thought I would put them all together for some pictures for them that like to see all the variations. I may as well add them to your thread.

Preface; This rifle not one of the 600 or so Springfield Armory Inc. produced M1A's made with Israeli Defense Force rifle parts ( those were marked with a star of David on the heel).


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Israel was given a large number of M14's by the US back in the 70's. After mods at IMI some became the M14 SWS ( Sniper Weapon System) in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and were eventually replaced in the 1990's by whatever the heck they are using now.

I just wanted to look at some of the proprietary things they did to and made for to the M14.

The stock, scope, monter case and Night vis mount are the pieces that I have. You have the one point scope mount with integral 26mm rings that was made. I have seen them from time to time but have never picked one up because I prefer the 3 point split ARMS mount that I am using now.

The original IDF mount.


The night vision mount is also a single point mount. Laid out here so you can see how it would line up.
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Lets look at the stock.


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The black krinkle coat on this one was added by Springfield Armory Inc when they marketed their version of the SWS back in the 90's. It is a std. USGI fiberglass stock that has been heavily modified with a fixed raised cheekpiece . This makes it a dedicated sniper as you can not get down to see the irons. The cheekpiece is reminiscent of the one used on the IDF 98K Mauser Sniper to permanently raise the comb. Commercial butt pad material has been fashioned into a sort of a two piece butt pad that extends up to encompass the cheekpiece too. Plenty of room here to spread out recoil. Some extra sling attachment points have beep added. This sucker is very butt heavy. There is also a Harris stud attached for bipod use.

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The practically bombproof case is made with a heavy vinyl exterior ( rudely painted in my example) with foam molded compartments for the scoped rifle, two mags, Night vision mount and some other small accessory. It has a steel reinforcing bar exposed at the bottom. The whole shebang weights at least 12 pounds with no rifle in it. It is very heavy duty and keeps a rifle well protected.
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I have seen similar molded cases for the Galil sniper in photographs.

The scope here is the Khales ZF fixed 6X. The later Nimrods can also be seen on these set ups but those appear to be std for Galil snipers and only incidental on the M14 SWS. The Khales scope is great and in regular use by me.
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I have not fired my rifle with the Modified Israeli stock as a little fitting is required in the trigger area and I will do that when I strip the krinkle coat off to return it to it's original color.

I have seen the SAI Israeli style rifles infrequently. I personally would not attach much value to what SAI did to them. It's not like they have any provenance as actual snipers, being reassembled back here on krinkled stocks with the parts all mixed up.

While the IDF snipers are not exactly legendary they did make and modify some interesting things for the M14 rifle. While I suspect the single point scope mounts would not match up the what we enjoy today, they do represent a little backwater of M14 parts and kit collecting.


JR