The M14-Type Rifle, A Shooter's & Collector's Guide, 3rd Edition

High Power Match Shooting is attracting thousands of new shooters every year. Interest in the sport is at its highest since the 1920s, reinvigorating a large and expanding segment of the shooting sports market. And one of the most popular rifles to use in this venue is the M14.

The 1968 Gun Control Act made it impossible for shooters and collectors to possess a military surplus M14 rifle, except in limited circumstances. Because the national Matches are shot with issue military rifles, this originally placed civilian shooters at a great disadvantage with military participants. But the firearms industry responded with M14-type rifles that are semiautomatic in function only and the Director of Civilian Marksmanship and the National Rifle Association amended their rules to allow the civilian, semiautomatic-only rifles to be used.

Today, several companies manufacture complete M14-type match rifles and several more manufacture semiautomatic-only receivers and other parts that allow custom gunsmiths around the nation to build semiautomatic M14-type match rifles, most of which are capable of poducing less than one-minute of angle accuracy.

Noting that there were very few books available that described the M 14-type rifle, and none that approached the rifle both as competition and collector's firearms, North Cape Publications has produced the The M14-Type Rifles, A Shooter's and Collector's Guide.

Published in large fomat and profusely illustrated with photographs and line drawings, The M14-Type Rifles, A Shooter's and Collector's Guide describes the lengthy development of the M14 rifle as a military rifle, its transformation into a National Match rifle by US Amy and Marine Corps gunsmiths and finally its development as a civilian match rifle of unparalleled accuracy.

The book surveys the M14-type rifles produced by the major manufacturers, the semiautomatic receivers available from several companies and provides heretofore unknown details of the M14-type rifles produced by the People's Republic of China which were sold in the United States in the mid-1990s.

The book also discusses the attributes of the various semiautomatic receivers currently being manufactured. Two M14-type rifles were built in the process of preparing this book, one a service-grade rifle and the other a competition rifle and the procedures are described in detail. Using this chapter as a springboard, the author then provides a detailed explanation of what the reader needs to know before commissioning a match M14-type rifle from a custom gunsmith, or acquiring one of the completed rifles available commercially - including the Chinese rifles. And for the do-it-younselfer, one section even provides step-by-step instructions on fiberglass-bedding the M14-type rifle stock for increased accuracy.

The book also includes a complete step-by-step assembly/disassembly sequence accompanied by photographs, instructions on how to maintain, clean and repair a match-quality M14-type rifle - and detailed instructions on shooting the rifle well.

This new 2nd Edition pevises and updates information on new manufacturers, parts and accessories.