Greetings all. After months of on again/off again work on a Springfield Armor M1A Standard I picked up last year, I think my "build" is finally finished. (well, until I realize I need to make more changes)



After talking to too many Vietnam Vets that come through the Gun Library, I got the crazy idea in my head to add an M1A to the gun rack last year, with the idea of eventually using it for hunting and living history events. I've owned both a PTR-91 and DSA FAL for several years, and the M14 was the only Cold War battle rifle not being represented in my collection. After a long time of hemming and hawing on the subject, I finally picked one up late last year.

Since my goal was to use this for living history events as well as have it as a shooter, I knew I'd need to make some changes over time to help it stand in for a historically accurate M14. The first change was swapping out the factory flash hider for one with a bayonet lug. After all, I can't have a Cold War M14 without the ability to fix bayonets!



Next change was largely functional, swapping the factory bolt roller for one that had the groove cut in it. Didn't want it falling off again! This was followed by swapping out the factory rear sight drum with one marked "M". Shortly after that, I stumbled across what appears to be a surplus ventilated handguard at a gun show. I liked the look of the ventilated handguards, especially since one of the most iconic pictures of the M14 during the Berlin Wall crisis showed them, so I grabbed it up. Probably a good thing too, since the plastic handguard that was on the rifle was already showing signs of melting. Whoops!





Inspiration:



Of course, the new (old) handguard didn't really match the factory stock, so a new stock was in order. I had always planned on getting a USGI stock, since the cleaning kit slot on my factory stock was disappointing at best. The two compartments were too close together, and the wood separating them was breaking, and the compartments were too small for the cleaning kit I barely managed to shove in there. After a couple of fruitless searches at local gunshows, I scored one in good condition for a fair price off Ebay. Took a bit of work to get the hardware installed, but it went on great, and showed no signs of being too loose. If anything, it's a tighter fit than the factory stock I had.

And there the rifle sat for a while, almost "done" but not quite. That was the case until just a couple of weeks ago, when I got invited to take part in a living history event at a local museum. They were looking for reenactors to take part in a customer appreciation day. Since I had been working on my Cold War/Vietnam era kit and display, I decided that this would be a great time to put it all to use. I just needed to complete the last item, a dummy selector. Thankfully, Forceman was able to get me a lock out selector just in the nick of time, and I got the selector installed the day before the museum event.




And then it was off to the races for the event!




















The M16 may have been the winner with the kids (it was easier for them to hold, and they recognize it from video games) but more than a couple adults were more interested in getting their hands on the M1A/M14.



I'm sure I'll find more changes and "upgrades" my M1A needs, but for the moment it is done, and hopefully ready for more shooting, hunting, and living history events. Now if I can just finish my M16A1 build, I will have both standard issue US service rifles of the War, and not have to borrow an upper!