Originally Posted by
Larry Gibson
"The Brits couldn't get any FAL's. They even had the audacity to ask their soldiers if they would field the old LEE Enfield in 303. You know what they told them. So they had nowhere to turn but to the AR10."
Guess that's a lick on the Brits, eh.
As to the rest I can't see what problems Stoner encountered some years later has anything to do with the "rigged" tests to approve the M14 over the FN/FAL.
And what does this "“Report on Tests for Ad Hoc Committee on Accuracy and Testing of 7.62mm Ammunition and M14 Rifles.” have to do with that process. All rifles/weapons systems have production problems that are solved. The FN/FALs had problems, The M1 had problems, the M1903 had problems.....and the M16 certainly had problems. Are you award of the initial burst barrels during the test at Fort Benning from water in them? How about Ordnance suggesting a 6.35 cartridge to eliminate the problem. So how does initial production accuracy problems with the M14 differ, especially since the problems were solved. Notice every single one of those "deficiencies" was a production problem. Not a single one was a design problem and the M14 did not fail a single design problem. How many "design problems" did the M16 have after production began......far too many to count here. But you know what, they fixed them all just as they did with the M1873, the M1892, the M1903, the M1 and the M14.......funny how that works.......
Are claiming now that the M14/M1A is an inaccurate rifle, have you never been to any matches since the early '60s? Obviously you've no field or combat experience with either the M14 or the M16. The M16 gets "broke" a whole lot. M16 and their variants are constantly TI'd, repaired and /or replaced.
"There are reasons the M14 was in front line service for only 7 years"
Sorry, but wrong again. Lacking personal experience you should do a better internet search. The M14 is still in service as the M14, the M21, M25, the Mk.14, the M39 with the Army, the Marines, the SEALs and Special Forces. Why? Because the M16, especially the M4, doesn't have the range (that means distance and terminal ballistics at long range) to be effective. The 7.62 NATO cartridge does and we still have the best platform for it.....the M14.
BTW; what do I think of the G3......well I'd just as soon have an FN/FAL............