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Posted: 5/26/2007 9:53:29 AM EDT
| why did they put a hinged butt plate on the M14? |
| Wrong,the hinged plate is to protect the trap door that houses cleaning kit tools etc.When used as a ram the door is damaged rendering tool inaccessable.Firing with hinged plate up is painful to say the least in FA.This came about when the few shortcomings the Garand had were corrected when the M-14 was introduced in 1957. |
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From the 05/24/07 version of the Third Edition of M14 Rifle History and Development by Lee Emerson copyright 2007: "March 16, 1959 to March 23, 1959 - Two T44E4 bipod designs were tested at Fort Benning, GA for the M14 rifle. Borrowing from John C. Garand’s patented M1 rifle bipod, both bipods attached to the bayonet lug. One version did not have any height adjustment. The second bipod model had three height adjustments, weighed 1.28 pounds and could be folded against the stock. Eventually, neither design was adopted. As part of the same test, the M14 rifles were fitted with aluminum butt plates and steel butt plate flappers. Additionally, three types of fiberglass hand guards were tested: Type A - solid, Type B - hand guard with thirty-eight round holes and Type C - hand guard with fourteen slotted holes. April 10, 1959 - The U. S. Army Infantry Board published the Project Number 2839 report that recommended the adoption of the Type C hand guard and the hinged butt plate for the M14 rifle. The Army Infantry Board report also recommended the M14 rifle with the Type III bipod (referred to as the Type II bipod in other references) as a substitute for the M15 rifle." and "The M14E2 design differed significantly from the M14 (Modified) in three ways: 1) attachment of a muzzle stabilizer over the flash suppressor 2) a straight-line stock with a rubber butt pad and 3) dual hand grips. The muzzle stabilizer was found to reduce lateral bullet dispersion. It also reduced recoil by 25 %. Unfortunately, the muzzle stabilizer did not suppress the flash signature. The prototype M14E2 stock was made by Master Sergeant Raymond Behnay at the U. S. Army MTU. The prototype straight-line stock included a pistol grip, butt pad and butt plate flapper. The production M14E2 straight-line stock with rubber butt pad reduced muzzle rise and further reduced recoil. The fore and rear hand grips, in tandem with the M14E2 sling, increased the downward force acting on the M2 bipod legs from 7 pounds with the M14 (Modified) to 31 pounds." The butt plate flapper (hinged butt plate) was adopted by the U. S. Army to help control the M14 and M14E2 in automatic fire. I prefer to fire my full auto M1A in automatic with the hinged butt plate up on my shoulder. |
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