07/05/2026
Happy 250th America! God bless this country and everyone have a fun and safe July 4th.
For this gun of the week, we're showing off the Springfield M1A or M14, an American classic service weapon. In 1957, the M14 attempted to replace not just the M1 Garand, but the M1 Carbine, M3 submachine gun, and the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), but the M1A was too light for the LMG role, leading to too much recoil for sustained fire while being much too heavy and cumbersome for an SMG role.
By 1967, it was replaced by the real jack of all trades, the M16. The M14 still sees limited uses in ceremonial type applications and even some combat as a specialized designated marksman weapon for America.
I was going to write about what movies and video games it was in, but it's in everything and because of my own personal Terms of Service, I'm not allowed to talk about that one scene from Full Metal Jacket.
