Would You Actually Trade Your M14 For An FAL?

TacticalTeacher said:
Sorry dudes... I'm so over the FN C1A1. I never learned to shoot well until I left the Battalion. All I remember was the hamburger face effect I always receive after shooting these babies!

I carried one overseas, and I never felt outgunned. For a range shooter, it's the M14 for me, then again, it's a moot point because the government does not trust us responsible gun owners. :(

One more memory...




And here I am as a 16 year old with a C2:



Thanks for the walk down amnesia lane...

Cheers ,

Barney
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You sure look happy... JP.
 
I carried an FN C1 for a summer in 1989 and hated it. Never cared much for the FN, either in the bush, or at the range.

I've got a lot of love for the M14, however.
 
I like them both, so I'd have to say possibly. Never got to shoot a FAL but i still like them. If I could get one in NR with a railed top and the folding stock I just might trade.
 
Great pics Barney. Looks like you've been spending a bit of time in the mess hall since the days carrying that heavy SOB of a rifle LMAO!



TacticalTeacher said:
Sorry dudes... I'm so over the FN C1A1. I never learned to shoot well until I left the Battalion. All I remember was the hamburger face effect I always receive after shooting these babies!

I carried one overseas, and I never felt outgunned. For a range shooter, it's the M14 for me, then again, it's a moot point because the government does not trust us responsible gun owners. :(

One more memory...




And here I am as a 16 year old with a C2:



Thanks for the walk down amnesia lane...

Cheers ,

Barney
Click to expand...
 
I own a Can Arsenal C1. (actually, it is a C2, but I put C1 wood on it, so it is now it looks like a heavy barrel C1). I used to compete with an issue C1, so am familiar with it.

I also own a M14 (a TRW) and used to compete with it, too.

I prefer shooting the M14. For me, it has much better sights and a better trigger.

I am disappointed that Canada did not get its act together when the C1 was introduced. The barrel was made at the big end of the bore diameter tolerance, whereas the IVI ammo was made small. A poor fit.
 
Ganderite said:
I own a Can Arsenal C1. (actually, it is a C2, but I put C1 wood on it, so it is now it looks like a heavy barrel C1). I used to compete with an issue C1, so am familiar with it.

I also own a M14 (a TRW) and used to compete with it, too.

I prefer shooting the M14. For me, it has much better sights and a better trigger.

I am disappointed that Canada did not get its act together when the C1 was introduced. The barrel was made at the big end of the bore diameter tolerance, whereas the IVI ammo was made small. A poor fit.
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Excellent points on the superior M14 sights and trigger. They were basically the same as those on the well proven Garand. I would add that the longer rear/front sight dimension on the M14 was a better feature for accuracy as well.

People tend to plump for what they were trained on and carried in the field, and for a lot of the "over the hill gang" hereabouts it was the FN. It was never a MOA shooter, but accurate enough as a combat weapon. I thought that it's rapid field stripping into fewer parts and the adjustable gas regulator were excellent features to keep it in operation in the field. The M14 went thru a lot of field trials and endurance testing as well, so it would no doubt have shown similar reliability.

I only shot the M14 as a range piece and was blessed with a highly accurate H&R with a barrel that gauged as new. I tried to tweak it a bit with a Brookfield op rod spring guide and a couple of other things and found that groups actually opened up in relation to the stock parts. I enjoyed working up precision handloads which really brought out the best in it, something I never had the opportunity to do with the FN. It would have been great to have done some bench testing with quality handloads in the FN in slow time. The M14 "feels" good on the range, whereas the old FN was always somewhat of an ungainly beast. After my experiences with the H&R M14 and the elimination of ATTs I decided not to get into the M305 and to do my 7.62 shooting with a couple of Breda Garands that I built up into the Italian Tipo 2 conversions using the shortened Italian surplus barrels, op rods and stocks. These make a fine shooting rifle.

I shot the FN on unit rifle teams in the late '60s and into the early '70s and there really wasn't too much that you could do as far as tweaking it for accuracy. There was always a demand for the late production 8L series rifles as it was believed that they had the least amount of use/wear and might just do a tad better on the range. These were demanded on the supply system and then checked over by the armourers for tightness and wear. Ammo quality had a lot to do with it and I think that the older DA ammo was better than the IVI that followed. It always shot well in the DCRA 7.62 Lee Enfield that I was shooting at the time. When we first started getting IVI stamped ammo in the early '70s the 9mm ball was particularly bad. We experienced a number of squibs, as well as rounds with the case mouth at an angle, not something to promote confidence when used in the SMG. DA 9mm ball was always excellent in comparison. The IVI 7.62 ball always went "bang", but it wasn't up to the DA ammo in my estimation. Something was lost in the transition from DA to IVI. IVI management was populated by a lot of retired Vandoo generals at this time and we felt that they were probably spending too many leisurely lunch hours in the beautiful Valcartier Officers Mess, rather than bird dogging QC issues down on the production line. At a later point I got hold of a quantity of Brit Radway Green 7.62 ball of mid '80s production out of the system. This was pulled down MG ammo, but it still shot better than IVI which told me that IVI may have been having some production problems at this time. This carried over into the C7/5.56 era where some initial IVI production lots were rejected by DND.

I still have some DA ball on hand in the old plastic bandoliers with the ammo put up in 5 rd stripper clips. By comparison the IVI ball came in 20 rd cardboard boxes like sporting ammo. That in itself told you something about the priority that was placed on producing basic rifle ammo for the troops in the field. I also have some of the RG and IVI ball on hand so it might be fun to pull them down and check the bullets for weight and diameter against the DA ball. I might even get motivated to do a shoot off with all of them in my heavy barrel Rem 700 just to see the differences.
 
Nope, I wouldn't trade any of my M14's or M1a for an FAL. I love my M14's way too much, just for what they are.

But if the rules changed and I could have an FAL as well, I damn sure would! :cool:
 
The Baron said:
Nope, I wouldn't trade any of my M14's or M1a for an FAL. I love my M14's way too much, just for what they are.

But if the rules changed and I could have an FAL as well, I damn sure would! :cool:
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I agree,
Although I have 2 M14 clones so I might trade one for a FAL.... I doubt very much that the M14 will ever be missing from my "collection"
Rodney
 
I have a FAL and I never liked it. Comparing a FAL to an M-14 is like comparing a lame donkey to Secretariat
 
After owning a Norc m305 (to try the platform) and now a SA SCOM16 I don't think I would trade a real M14 for a FAiL (JK)…actually I would probably own both if I could.
 
Rab C Nesbitt said:
an interesting blog post about the m14: http://looserounds.com/2015/01/30/the-m14-not-much-for-fighting-a-case-against-the-m14-legend/
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I'm new to the M14 platform and after my first detailed strip I couldn't figure out how it would be as reliable as people on forums claim it to be. There are so many open aera where sand and dirt could go in and jam the action. Last week I found a torture test that proved my tought. They were blowing sand into the firearm and it jammed at every first round. Accuracy is average too. However I find the sights to be perfect as well as the weight balance (on usgi stock at least). The trigger feels good and it is easy to field strip it and clean it without disassembling everything. I like my norc but I won't spend thousands of dollars on this platform.
 
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