The M14 was the standard service rifle of the US military for a couple years. They were produced from July 1959 to June 1964. Records show that some 1,380,358 M14 rifles were made. The M16 was ordered as a replacement for the brand new M14 by direction of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara starting in 1966. By 1970 the barley used weapon had been largely replaced in active duty. The National Guard discontinued using the weapon by 1980. No less than 479,367 M14 rifles were destroyed in 1993-94 and an unknown number were de-milled (cut with a blowtorch and welded shut) then transferred to JROTC units as drill weapons. Over 321,905 surplus arms were exported to foreign militaries under the Excess Defense Articles program and others. These were largely transferred abroad to Greece, Israel, the Philippines, South Vietnam, Taiwan, Turkey, Venezuela, Columbia, Iceland (which doesn’t have a military), and Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s and the new Baltic countries of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in the 1990’s.
Today the US military has less than 10% of the original M14 production left in its depots. The navy has replaced most of the 2000 M14s in their inventory with M16s just this year but plans to keep a couple M-14 rifles on board each ship to shoot lines (ropes). The Air Force has 3,500 M-14s listed in their arsenals. Most of these are for base honor guards but a few do see service with deployed EOD units to blow up things from a distance.
The US Army still has 22,660 of the rifles in use and another 87,462 of all grades in storage. The Rock Island Arsenal converted 1,435 M14 National Match variant rifles to M21 sniper rifles with ART scopes in 1969. The M21 was the Army’s dedicated sniper rifle until 1988 when it was replaced by the M24 bolt action rifle (based on the Remington 700). The M14 was dusted off again during the Global War on Terrorism to serve again in a sniper role. A number of the weapons in active issue are the designated marksmen rifles (DMR). These rifles are given to platoon-level marksmen who have taken a two week course in battlefield long range fire. This concept has been used by the Warsaw Pact since the end of World War Two but is new to the US Army. This is different from the two man scout sniper teams (aka ‘real snipers’) popularized since Vietnam. The DMR rifle has been equipped with either a Leupold or Unertl ten power scope. The Marines also issue no less than 381 of these DMRs.
Besides the Corps of Cadets at West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) keepers of Arlington National Cemetery is the sole remaining regular United States Army combat field unit where the M14 is still issued as the standard rifle.
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