I finally had the time to pick up my new addition. It appears to be unfired. If anyone can translate Hebrew, please tell me what is written on the case.

So purdy.

Nice.

I wonder how many 'terrorist' that rifle has dispatched?

Just thinking the same thing.

WANT,,,

So what is the histroy of these rifles? Didn't the US .gov give them real USGI M-14? Why did the go to SAI?

They did'nt. The IDF rifles were built on Israeli parts kits returned to the U.S and built up with SAI Receivers. The rifle in the OP does have some commercial SAI parts on it. The few IDF rifles i have seen were built with all G.I. parts.

Sweet!


 

At the begining of the Yom-Kippur War in 1973 the Israelies were still being impacted by the French led arms embargo that started after the Six Day War in 1967 so the US sent 35,000 M14's to Israel. The IDF took what they considered the best 10,000 and turned them into sniper rifles, the rest of the rifles were used for parts. I think it was the early nineties when Israel switched sniper rifles and surplused the m14's. Springfield bought back around 600 and put new M1A recievers and a NM barrel. I am not very familiar with the parts lot numbers of the M1A or their significance, so I could not tell you if the commercial Springfield parts were installed in the rifle when it was reasemmbled. I do like it a lot and am planning to use it in our next high power match. The two mags that came with it are maked BRW over S-1.There is supposed to be a certificate from Springfield(I have the certificate but it is blank), a Harris bipod and a night vision scope mount that are missing from this one. It seems as there are a number of these that have had parts go missing over the years. If any of my information is incorrect I appologize.

Where did that come from?

From an auction in Topeka Kansas.

How many of those made it to the USA?

That would be a nice addition to the collection.

Springfield bought back around 600 but I have seen no exact figure of how many were purchased by the public. The highest numbered one I have seen on the internet is IDF227.

WOW, you learn something new everyday!

Very Nice !

Far and away one of the coolest guns I've ever seen.  Never knew these existed.  Don't even want to know what they're worth!

Here's one I found today: http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=9590205.0

Are there similar parts available here? I would love a clone

I've seen a few of the scopes for sale and they bring $700 to $800. I have also seen a few of the mounts for sale. There was a thread where a fellow found most of the parts and did build a clone, it looked real good. There is some of the history of these rifles on this link(page 92),
http://www.imageseek.com/m1a/M14%20RHAD%20Online%20Edition%20070603%20nb.pdf

Guts

I have picked up some of these IDF Sniper items over the years I thought I would put them all together for some pictures for them that like to see all the variations. I may as well add them to your thread.

Preface; This rifle not one of the 600 or so Springfield Armory Inc. produced M1A's made with Israeli Defense Force rifle parts ( those were marked with a star of David on the heel).


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Israel was given a large number of M14's by the US back in the 70's. After mods at IMI some became the M14 SWS ( Sniper Weapon System) in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and were eventually replaced in the 1990's by whatever the heck they are using now.

I just wanted to look at some of the proprietary things they did to and made for to the M14.

The stock, scope, monter case and Night vis mount are the pieces that I have. You have the one point scope mount with integral 26mm rings that was made. I have seen them from time to time but have never picked one up because I prefer the 3 point split ARMS mount that I am using now.

The original IDF mount.


The night vision mount is also a single point mount. Laid out here so you can see how it would line up.
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Lets look at the stock.


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The black krinkle coat on this one was added by Springfield Armory Inc when they marketed their version of the SWS back in the 90's. It is a std. USGI fiberglass stock that has been heavily modified with a fixed raised cheekpiece . This makes it a dedicated sniper as you can not get down to see the irons. The cheekpiece is reminiscent of the one used on the IDF 98K Mauser Sniper to permanently raise the comb. Commercial butt pad material has been fashioned into a sort of a two piece butt pad that extends up to encompass the cheekpiece too. Plenty of room here to spread out recoil. Some extra sling attachment points have beep added. This sucker is very butt heavy. There is also a Harris stud attached for bipod use.

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The practically bombproof case is made with a heavy vinyl exterior ( rudely painted in my example) with foam molded compartments for the scoped rifle, two mags, Night vision mount and some other small accessory. It has a steel reinforcing bar exposed at the bottom. The whole shebang weights at least 12 pounds with no rifle in it. It is very heavy duty and keeps a rifle well protected.
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I have seen similar molded cases for the Galil sniper in photographs.

The scope here is the Khales ZF fixed 6X. The later Nimrods can also be seen on these set ups but those appear to be std for Galil snipers and only incidental on the M14 SWS. The Khales scope is great and in regular use by me.
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I have not fired my rifle with the Modified Israeli stock as a little fitting is required in the trigger area and I will do that when I strip the krinkle coat off to return it to it's original color.

I have seen the SAI Israeli style rifles infrequently. I personally would not attach much value to what SAI did to them. It's not like they have any provenance as actual snipers, being reassembled back here on krinkled stocks with the parts all mixed up.

While the IDF snipers are not exactly legendary they did make and modify some interesting things for the M14 rifle. While I suspect the single point scope mounts would not match up the what we enjoy today, they do represent a little backwater of M14 parts and kit collecting.


JR

racecar.......That range is Bristol correct?

Bad ass.

Totally.

The heel mark is awesome.

Nice addition to the collection for sure.

Very cool

Nice.  No telling how many dirkadirka's that rifle has dropped.

I like your rifle, I think you did a very nice job of rounding up parts, I know that sometimes it is quite a challenge. Whether or not we can attatch any provinance to these rifles, they are fairly rare and when you come across one they are not cheap. I personally think the case is the coolest part. I am also expecting it to shoot quite well. It will is a nice addition to my other .308 platforms.

That is kick butt, not only am I impressed with your new rifle but the case is also very cool. Grats Mate!

Very nice.

I don't get it, why would Springfield put a crinkle coat over an original finish IDF stock?  Collectors would much rather have the original finish.

And all of these had new NM barrels installed by Springfield?  Again I don't get it unless the parts kits bought by Springfield didn't include a barrel.  Collectors would much rather have the original barrel even if not pristine.

Can someone name which parts on these rifles are original unmessed with Israeli and which parts are Springfield Inc.?  Just the receiver, barrel and flash hider and crinkle coat as a general rule?  Is the stock entirely IDF with the exception of the crinkle coat?  The hacked together buttpad is IDF?

They were not made for collectors but for US shooters. The IDF sniper program of that period did not have a prestigious reputation. The accounts I have read from the time frame gave me the impression they were not what our dedicated snipers are today. Consequently the stuff might not have been well maintained.

SA Inc Krinkel'd them up to make them uniform and sale able. I took the krinkle off mine a couple of weeks ago and the modified GI stock has all sorts of stuff scratched into it. It would not have looked like much. The krinkle hid every scratch.


The parts that came back were probably not in uniformly good condition. Certainly the barrels would have had various stages of wear and putting commercial NM barrels on was all that could be done. The intact receivers were destroyed. None of us here can know how much, if any effort was made to "keep parts together". In it's US form it is just a painted example of what the Israeli's were using.

AS to whats IDF and whats not.

Case; IDF
Mounts; IDF
Scopes; Koor Trading Co or Khales/Swarovski, IDF
Cheek riser and butt pad mods; IDF
Stock swivel mods, Front and rear; IDF

I don't have any info about the level of accuracy modifications made to the M14's as they would have been set up by Israel. They may have just been given a stock and a scope and that was enough for them.

JR