"Peter Kemp" wrote in message
...
On 19 Jun 2004 06:04:01 GMT, (Regnirps) wrote:

(Dav1936531) wrote:

Which doesn't explain the pics of Army snipers toting the M-14 variants
I
mentioned coming across the Associated Press wire feed on Iraq that is
available here on AOL. There was one of a guy covering a field after a
convoy
ambush just recently with just such a rifle.

It's a favorite for some all right. Too bad Clinton gave away to Bosnia
and
sold to Taiwan for $56 each, 125,000 M14s. After all, he cut the size of
the
military so drastically, who would need them?

Well no, they were already surplus after Bush 41's cuts (which were
larger than Clinton's), and most were darn near worn out after 30
years use - check out how much the Phillipinos had to pay to get
theirs up to scratch.

Can you show what major use of the M-14 went on for thirty years in the US
military? The vast majority of M-14's have spent the greatest part of their
lives in long-term storage, and the weapon had a very short service life as
the primary weapon for troops. Some were rebuilt as M-21's, some have been
used by various SOF elements, and IIRC the USN has used some in the
shipboard defense role. But most have languished in cosmoline (other than
the relative few issued to support military schools, such as West Point,
VMI, the Citadel, etc.; and based upon personal experience with a few of
those, I can vouch for the fact that those examples are *very* well
maintained--doing a week's barracks confinement for "RoR" (rust-on-rifle)
was never *my* idea of a fun time during that period of my life... :-)

Brooks


Peter Kemp