Gunny's favorite rifle. No wait. Andrew_ASC is wrong...
This is his favorite rifle in the article here, the M-1 Garand his first issued rifle.
https://www.odcmp.org/0910/default.asp?page=RLEEERMEY
Anyways seeing him with a M-14 makes me smile that he enjoyed it.
[video=youtube;Q-7i-svGLK8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-7i-svGLK8[/video]
"Both rifles perform superbly, but being the sentimental old softy I am I still prefer the M14."
The M-14 iron sights were right off the Garand, no wonder he liked it, arguably the best iron sights ever created, and the extra range is always a nice feature. What I'd give the M16 is after all the bug tinkering, correct ammo, training, and cleaning kits was it gradually improved. It removed the gunsmith and machinery from gunsmith labor. I've heard the M14 was slower to reload than a Garand. I've shot a Garand and they were nice.
He would be proud knowing the M16A1 lowers with upgraded triggers and MK12Mod0 and Mk12mod H PRI uppers are practically sniper rifles and that the M-14 came back into limited service when the military wanted more range out of DMR rifles with upgraded optics. Hate to get too far off topic, but the gas piston operating system contributes to reliability which was enjoyed by troops while the direct impingement is more theoretical accurate although it took decades for bullet design to improve on M-16. The m14 and garand got a bad rep for if you ever got mud in the right end forward stock opening it would jam that action too. The m14 wasn't known as accurate long term by disassembling and reassembling it that degraded its accuracy when optics were mounted but basically I'm nit picking them all. (Re-zero the scopes and the weapon mounts every time cleaned, the scopes themselves helped accuracy until cleaning required taking it all apart long term.) The Soviet AK47 uses gas operation for reliability. POF and HK went to AR shaped gas operated 5.56 and 7.62 NATO weapons. Some new designs made it where optics didn't need re zero for cleaning. Caliber and cartridges would influence tactics at ranges. They are all superb when used appropriately and Gunny understood the limits.
A weird oddball action would be a HK G-3 roller delay blowback but the bolt design only likes certain bullet weights but it has no gas system at all and has rollers as cams which I find fascinating. That star bolt pattern on the M16 was hated as being hard to clean without CLP dunk tanks or a jewelers bit. All guns got design flaws. Supposedly dropping a G-3 and denting the receiver caused it to be not fixable in field by its stamped nature, the m14 was forged steel.
There is something nostalgic about a wooden stock firearm despite it being heavier. It's smoother on the cheek in my opinion than polymers,but it swells in wet climates.