M14: The Old Rifle the U.S. Navy SEALs Still Love
Story by Christian Orr • Yesterday 7:43 PM
"I don't want no teenage queen/ I just want my M14 … " Military film buffs will instantly recognize those two lines as part of a running cadence from the boot camp sequence of Stanley Kubrick's 1987 Vietnam War film classic Full Metal Jacket. The cadence is led by the hardcore U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, in turn, portrayed by the late great real-life GySgt R. Lee Ermey.
Though R. Lee was actually medically retired as a Staff Sergeant in 1972 but received an honorary promotion to Gunny in 2002. Ironically, by the time the film's protagonist, J.T. "Joker" Davis (portrayed by Matthew Modine), and his fellow surviving recruits arrive in Vietnam just in time for the 1968 Tet Offensive, their M14 battle rifles have been supplanted by the oh-so-controversial M16. In real life, though the U.S. Army and Marine alike indeed replaced the M14 with the M16 as the standard issue infantry rifle during the course of the Vietnam War, at least one elite U.S. military unit has retained the more powerful M14: the Navy SEALs.
Birth of a Battle Rifle
The M14 battle rifle needs no introduction for hardcore military history buffs and firearms enthusiasts, but for those who are new to the subject, at least a brief rundown is in order. The weapon is a magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic 7.62x51mm NATO (.308 caliber) rifle, capable of both semiautomatic and full-auto fire, with a cyclic rate of fire of 700 - 750 rounds in the latter mode. Muzzle velocity is 2,800 feet per second, while the rifle has a maximum effective range of 500 yards and a maximum overall range of 3,275 yards. The overall length of the rifle is 44.14 inches with a barrel length of 22 inches. The weapon weighs 9.2 pounds empty and 10.7 lb with a fully loaded magazine.
U.S. Army Sgt. Andrew Barnett scans the area using the optic lens on his M14 enhanced battle rifle outside an Afghan border police observation point in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Jan. 28, 2013. Barnett is assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jon Heinrich
Image: Creative Commons.
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