Just a little rock and roll with a select-fire M14 battle rifle (VIDEO)

Though only the official service rifle of the Army for about a decade, the big, beautiful M14 still serves in a limited capacity and can bring the pain.

Larry Vickers shows off an immaculate Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge M14, one of the 1.3 million made by TRW, H&R, Springfield, and Winchester between 1959 and 1964.

This hard-hitting 7.62x51mm caliber select-fire rifle spent more than a decade in development but its time in the sun was limited as, almost as soon as it had replaced the venerable M1 Garand, the M14 itself was put out to pasture by the M16 family which was thought a better fit for the jungle warfare of Southeast Asia by the McNamara-era Pentagon.

While officially a “limited issue” weapon, the M14 has continued to live on in EOD units, as a marksman rifle, and with ceremonial units for which it is still much appreciated.

And did we mention that intact model can get cyclic at as much as 700 rounds per minute for as long as the magazine holds out? Oh yeah.

 

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