"...orginal Banett, 4 clips,...."
Wonder if he meant original bayonet, 4 magazines - given those errors, ya it' could be an M1A. And that's giving him the benefit of the doubt. More than likely it could be an M1.
Last edited by Dan Shapiro; 04-23-2012 at 06:48.
"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe, while Congress is in session." Mark Twain
There were some early receivers built by different companies that were stamped M14. He might have one of those and he's confused.
Who were the companies that stamped there commercial receivers "M14" ? Thanks
Armscorp, early Smith (before smith enterprises), and Fulton Armory all did I believe.
I think even some polytechs were marked M14. And I think some of the new receiver comapanies are marking their's M14 as well.
There also was some TRW's national matches that were made as semi auto only that made it out into the public as well. But they are very, very hard to find.
One of them was actually confiscated by the ATF years ago, but the owner fought fought for it and won. He actually got his rifle back as the ATF had to admit it was manufactured as a semi only to begin with. And it had never been a machine gun, so the once a machine gun, always a machine gun law didn't apply. It was a case in Ohio and as far as I know he still owns it.
There are also some real M14's that were rewelds by HAHN and Pearl, who rewelded them back in the day and sold them legallly. They are legal to own today. Then there are ones who were rewelded by MKS that were all confiscated by the ATF, but some were never found.
And then there are just real M14's that leaked out from state organizations over the years.
It really could be a lot of options.
Last edited by cplnorton; 04-24-2012 at 06:55.
Fulton still marks them M14.
"In God We Trust"
To answer the OP....NO!, it isn't "real"! "M1-A" is a registered trademark of Springfield Inc also known as The Fratelli-Reese Gang and is only correctly and legally applied to rifles of their manufacture. Everything else is an M14-S or M14-SA and is marked accordingly.
Lee Emerson recently informed me that SAinc. never got the term "M1A" trademarked, though they tiried for years to do it, but were turned down in the 90's. So the term may be legally applied to any semi auto M14 type rifle.
The price answers the question.