How does the M14 hold up in adverse conditions?

[Esh325]

I've read and seen some stuff that shows the M14 doesn't do too well in adverse conditions. I remember a guns and ammo TV show they had a fat guy crawling around in mud and the M14 failed pretty bad. And then I've read some reports that said the M16 outperformed the M14 in sand. To quote "Comparsison tests of the M16 and M14 before Desert Storm confirmed the superiority of the Stoner system in sand and dust tests" Armalite document of course provide no such reference to the document they mention. And being they sell AR15 rifles, it's fishy to accept it as a valid source. I think it's all bs and slander though.
http://www.armalite.com/images/Tech%...,%20020815.pdf

[Rydiak]

In that video you are referring to, if I recall correctly the host dragged the M14 through mud with the bolt open, and then only wiped his finger across the bolt face to "clean it". The gun fired normally, but would not extract due to the cases getting stuck in the chamber.

Comparatively, another M14 video (I believe from the same show) had an M14 dragged on a rope behind a jeep with the bolt closed. The gun fired and cycled perfectly despite being dragged through mud, across rocks, etc. I know Larry Vickers did a similar video with an M4 and the gun also performed flawlessly.

Basically, there is no such thing as a completely mud-immune gun. Especially when the chamber starts to get dirty like it did in the one video, things can go wrong.

[Vitor]

Isn't the M14 insides very similar to the Garand? The Garand has always been considered a reliable rifle.

[steve--oh]

Both'll do you right. I've never done any extreme torture tests but a real M14 with real M14 magazines will run well.

[bondmid003]

I'm pretty sure the M14's the Marine Corps and Army have been using in Iraq and Afghanistan have been holding up just fine

[Failure2Stop]

I'm pretty sure the M14's the Marine Corps and Army have been using in Iraq and Afghanistan have been holding up just fine

You would be incorrect.
There has been a large push to get these stopgap weapons replaced with something more suitable to mission.

[DMR]

The Army has some preety strict policies about cycling thier M-14 EBR's through Rock Island to be maintained.

We realy need to move on and follow elements of SOCOM, the British, Italians, French, Germans, Kiwi's, Aussies, and others in fielding a modern capablity. Be it a 5.56 M-12 like capablity built on an exsisting MIL TDP or a M-110K the US military has two differant modern capablities availible to meet this requirement which would take 4-6 pounds off the soldiers back, vs the damned M-14 EBR.

[Dano5326]

A while ago... NSW winter warfare teams used 18" m14's w/ choate folding stocks. As compared to the m4, the more violent action enabled use in over the beach operations in freezing wx. Larger bore wouldn't retain water. Ballistic advantage of larger caliber.

For the time an ok solution. Compared to modern offerings, the m14 isn't so ergonomic, and is more maintainance intensive... at a higher level of repair facility.

Battle rifle OK.. As a sniper/marksman rifle, it is a pain to get or keep accurate. The 7.62 AR offerings, Larue, LMT, KAC are much better in all regards.

[Esh325]

You would be incorrect.
There has been a large push to get these stopgap weapons replaced with something more suitable to mission.

I don't know a lot about how the US procures equipment, but it seems odd that they would buy EBR chasis that cost nearly as much as an AR10 type weapon. Why wouldn't they have bought AR10's instead if there was something wrong with the M14?

[The_War_Wagon]

The troops LOVED them in Vietnam. Those seemed to be nominally 'adverse' conditions...