M14 Wood Handguards

[shottist]

The first production M14s were equipped with Wood, (Walnut)? Hand Guards. A switch was then made to vented Fibre Glass Hand guards and finally to un-vented Glass Hand Guards. I know why the change in the Glass Hand Guards but why the switch away from the Wooden Guard?

Information

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[Calif-Steve]

When shooting on full-auto the wood would smoke. Actually, firing them semi-auto could do the same. The wooden handguards didn't last very long.

[jmoore]

They look really good though! The early rifles also did not have the fancy buttplate assembly. Instead, it was a regular M1 rifle buttplate.

[RCS]

T44 stock on an M1A with M1 rifle buttplate, an aluminum buttplate was often
used. Barrel is dated Jan 1960, sling is MRT DEC 1953

[jmoore]

T44 stock on an M1A with M1 rifle buttplate, an aluminum buttplate was often
used. Barrel is dated Jan 1960, sling is MRT DEC 1953

Any more pics? That one just doesn't do the package justice.

Never saw a "plain" no flip-up thingy aluminum buttplate. Does it interchange w/ the regular M1 style?

[RCS]

It is a regular M1 buttplate made out of aluminum, Bill Ricca had one for sale on his excellent website. The very early wood and plasitc T44 stocks often had this buttplate

[userids]

T44 stock on an M1A with M1 rifle buttplate, an aluminum buttplate was often
used. Barrel is dated Jan 1960, sling is MRT DEC 1953

thats a beauty!

[RCS]

I could use a T44 safety too

[Bill Ricca]

Let's clear up a few items.

The T44 and the T44E4 were two different rifles. The early M14 production was T44E4.

The aluminum butt plates I have are still unknown as to application. The thinking is it was one of the T series rifles, but none have been found on a rifle yet. It was most likely for the T44E6, a light weight version of the M14.

There was another very scarce butt plate during the early days of production. I call it the inward dimples butt plate. I interviewed an SA employee back in the 1980's who worked on the M14. He was pictured in a report while testing receivers for hardness.

SA had adopted the new folder butt plate and was able to produce stocks a lot faster than the butt plates. SA had a financial problem using Garand butt plates from storage for support of M1's, so it ran a small contract (unknown maker) for temporary use with the spacers provided by Rock Island.





Inward Dimples circa 1960, very limited production:



Those butt plates are not to be confused with the very similar pattern, but with raised dimples. These were produced in large quantity in 1968 as spare parts, by a Connecticut contractor.

Raised Dimples, 1968:



Both butt plates have very different patterns than the standard ones from years earlier. That makes me think the drawing was revised.

[Bob Seijas]

I have told this story before, but I love it. When SA made the switch, they threw all the wooden guards on the scrap heap, a mountain of them. A handyman loaded them in his pickup and took them home to use as kindling in his stove. He had burned most of them when Cholly Steen heard about it and bought the remainder for 50 cents each. Sarco put them up for sale at $20. I bought three. When he got down to about 25, he raised the price to $50. They eventually sold. I put one on my M1A, cut one down to make a no-nick guard for a GT restoration, and still have one, brand new with the clip