M1A or M14 – Tomaeto Tomoto
- Thread starter BadAsMo
- Start date
That's the point, right... The person correcting you that it is actually "Scotch tape" when it's actually "OfficeMax" brand tape. The person doing the correcting is wrong too.
If people are going to nit pick the point, at the very least they should be correct about the correction.
Hey, great point though... I call it scotch tape regardless of who makes it, and I like my M14.
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Well...not to be a troll myself...but...
Let's compare it's replacement rifle, the M-16. For decades, to most people "M-16" meant the military select fire issue rifle of the US Military and countless others, while AR-15 meant the civilian friendly semi-auto only rifle. That, for a very long time, was where it was at. Yet that's actually technically WRONG : AR-15 is the original design, the commercial product name for the rifle in BOTH semi and select fire. The first few batches of them bought by the US military, for instance the USAF and 1st SF Green Berets, had bought select fire rifles that were stamped AR-15! It was only later on, when the Pentagon decided to buy large quantities, that they type classified the rifle as being called "M-16" in service.
Similarly, the early carbine variants were called CAR-15's, regardless if they were semi or select fire. The newer carbines seem to all be called M-4 Carbines, regardless today if they are semi or select fire.
That many manufacturers seem to be listing the semi only rifles as M-14 or M-14s, makes this an easy one to call. The books we buy on how to built/assemble/repair these usually feature the terms M-14 and M1A and often include the M1 Garand too. LRB's semi only rifles are listed as M-14's...only Springfield and one or two other manufacturers seem to use the M1A designation.
More to the point, the ONLY reason for the creation of the "M1A" designation at all, is because of the anti-gun people in the USA: Springfield and other companies in the 1970's and 80's had a hard time selling the idea that these were not select fire military models, when they were submitting their rifles for legal approval to sell to civilians...so to further distinguish from the military issue rifles, they'd created their own new designations. The KG-99 became the Tec-9 (along with a change from open bolt to closed bolt), the civilian AR-15 remained AR-15 so as to not associate itself too much with the then issue M-16.
Ultimately though, for the purposes of forum discussions on American boards I'd call mine an M1A even though it's a Norc because they are most familiar with the Springfield in civilian ownership, and on Canadian boards, since most of these rifles sold here were either real-deal ex-military M-14 or Chinese copies stamped with M-14s, I'm gonna call it an M-14.
Just remember: most rifles that have a select fire and civilian semi-only variants have the SAME NAME...and changes usually only occur after the host country buys a bunch and gives one a service designation, say like C7, or M-16. The FN FAL for instance, was always a FAL or SLR whether they were semi-auto only or select fire...the FAL being metric parts and blueprints, the SLR being Imperial parts and blueprints...and magazines were oddly not compatible between the two sides!
okay all...I got a nice M14 rifle for sale for $2000 only!!!. First I will take it rules apply. let me know.
