Vietnam Vet's M14 sends him to the pokey

[RETREAD123456]

Had. not heard of the DOE M14s. Were some. NM rifles issued to some military schools, besides the service acadamies ??

[Sunray]

"...the Department of Energy did..." Those select fire? Just curious. I'd guess they were not.
However, the ATF's 'Once an MG' nonsense matters too. The unelected civil servants at the ATF made a law by regulation and were running around confiscating surplus M-14 receivers that were used to build match rifles several years back.
Anyway, it's guys like this guy who make legitimate collectors a target of the unelected civil servants at the ATF and the media.

[Cosine26]

The events described here took place more than 55 years ago so I suppose that all of the participants are long gone. The SSGT who told me the story was later KIA in NAM. I thought that you might find this interesting. Another member of one of the teams was formerly an armorer at Ft. Campbell KY and he indicated that on every night (drop parachute troops) they lost two or three rifles .
Missing M14
In the 1960;s I was living in west Texas , near two army camps. I was a high power rifle competitor so I knew well several members of the both post rifle teams and one a SSGT was a very good friend. Here is the story.
The US Army had converted to the M14 in both issue and NM versions. On a night maneuver, an M 14 turned up missing. This resulted in a very careful and diligent searched for by several government agencies. The rifle was nowhere to be found. Needless to say the Commanding General was very unhappy and had every one on alert. Eventually he convened a Board of Survey and the rifle was declared lost. It did not look good on the CG's fitness report. About six months later , the rifle turned up. The CG was not happy. He said "That rifle is gone- never to return! . Make it disappear "- in no uncertain terms, and it did.
There were persistent reports of a clandestine M14 for sale in the local rifle community. Neither I nor any of my associates would touch it with a ten foot pole. I moved away and never heard anymore about it.
Thought you might find this interesting.
FWIW

[Allen]

I saw one show up on ebay years ago. Guns and frames have always been illegal on ebay and this was before they became so anti-gun on parts but somehow it slipped through. Perhaps it was listed as a 7.62 or something. All I remember is I found it and put it on my watch list. It was a Winchester M14. It may have had a welded receiver---I don't know. The seller claimed it shot real well. It sold for $1500. This was about 25 years ago. I could have had it at this price (buy it now) but didn't want to touch it with a 10' pole because I suspected a trap. You never know who's on the other end.

While I'll always see this as a missed opportunity, I'll always know it may have been an opportunity to go to jail too. I bought a couple of M1 carbine receivers on ebay from a seller in Greece. He had them listed as paperweights. After making a couple of sales he trusted me and offered me M14 receivers for around $400ea. Again, I passed even knowing the seller was safe, the receivers would never be legal, plus the packages could have been inspected by customs on either end. You used to be able to find some interesting items on ebay. Now days, even though they still know nothing about guns, there is always someone who does that will report such listings and get them deleted and the seller eliminated.

[Johnny P]

Had. not heard of the DOE M14s. Were some. NM rifles issued to some military schools, besides the service acadamies ??

From M14 Rifle History and Development, Fifth Edition:

"U. S. Department of Energy - The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) purchased twenty-five Springfield Armory, Inc. M21 models in the late 1990s for its Special Response Force. The commercial M21 rifles performed well. The DOE subsequently purchased USGI M14 rifles from Anniston Army Depot. At one point, the DOE inventory of M14 rifles was about 300. The M14 rifles were stored in three different locations. Scoped DOE M14 rifles were fitted with Smith Enterprise, Inc. Weaver style rail XM-21 scope mounts.

As of 2007, most of the M14 rifles at DOE have been transferred to other government agencies and the few remaining are not issue equipment. All remaining M14 rifles held by DOE were to be eventually transferred to other government agencies. DOE disposal procedures only allow transfer to another government agency or destruction. Those are the only allowable means of reducing weapons inventory for DOE. It remains a mystery as to how but a small number of the USGI M14 rifles formerly held by the DOE were released for sale in the late 1990s to the public. This small lot of USGI M14 rifles was obtained and subsequently sold into the commercial market by Class 3 SOT/FFL businessman F. Charles Logan (Warrendale, PA).

The number of former DOE M14 rifles released for sale has been reported as fifteen by a very credible source. Many of these DOE M14 rifles have the symbol # and a number etched on the left side of the receiver above the stock line. These are DOE weapons chit numbers. The numbers were engraved on the receivers at the direction of the DOE Senior Firearms Advisor at the time, Dave Shannon. A second very credible source has observed one DOE M14 rifle etched with # 29. Another seven of these DOE M14 rifles are etched with the following: # 8, # 10, # 12, # 19, # 21 (H & R serial number 1564367), # 22 (H & R serial number 1566863) and # 34 (Winchester serial number 1117145)."

[lyman]

he had a history of running his mouth and threatening folks , including med care folks, including health care folks at a local hospital where his wife was being treated
his wife had just passed recently from cancer
the rifle had an altered or missing serial number
he also supposedly had molested his daughter,
and they found Cocaine and Maryjane at his house

all this is old news now on several forums,

guy was apparently a bit unstable, maybe from grief , maybe just messed up, and I would guess the weapons charges were the safe bet as far as making any charges stick and getting it done quick


as far as paperwork, any gov MG , if papered, would be on a form 10 (gov only)

there are some out in the registry,

I sold a H&R M14 (bought from the guy we sold it to 20+yrs ago) a couple years go,

form 4 says manufacturer is H&R, and betting there are more that are not built up or made before 1986 guns