My Favorite Rifle

Seacowboys · Feb 12, 2018

I picked this up in Jacksonville, Fl. in 1990. Nobody, including Springfield, Bobby Reese, or Elmer Balance have any record of it being made but it has a Winchester barrel with the complete Winchester logo, that's pretty unusual. The rest of the parts are all TRW except for the unitized gas cylinder that Mike Sadlak made for it, the titanium mount that was the second one that Mike Sadlak manufactured and the Leupold MKIV. I had a Boyds fat stock on it but decided that I just liked the feel of this one a little better. It's the sweetest NM M1A that I have ever fired and I'm sort of a M14 fan, having learned to shoot high-power with my Dad's NM M14 the National Guard rifle team signed to him. Lee Emerson has had a picture of it on his site for several years and once claimed to have gotten information from Springfield Armory about it being one of six that were special ordered for a mysterious political figure that wanted to remain anonymous. I don't know if that's BS or not, Lee did write a pretty good book called "The History and Development of the M14 Rifle". Anyway, I like sharing pictures of her because it always raises a lively conversation about the possibilities of her provenance. Enjoy.

Medic! · Feb 12, 2018

It is nice.
I'm surprised you did not leave it in it's original configuration?

Seacowboys · Feb 12, 2018

I still have the original gas cylinder still and the fiberglass stock that came on it and the stripper clip guide but it's my rifle and I want it to fit me. It was built from hand-picked parts no doubt but Mike is a friend and I wanted one of his mounts and he wanted the military mount that I had some issues with so I gave it to him and he sent me one of his gas cylinders and operating rods to try out. He also sent one of their extended mag releases but I put that on another rifle. Since I can't verify a provenance, I don't worry too much about what ifs. It is a really sweet shooting rifle.