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Obsolete weapons such as the 1911A1 pistol and the M14 require extensive modification to make them extremely accurate. Take a really close look at the issued “mil-spec” weapon in both cases vs. the “tuned” competition version. The AR-10 and later M16 as designed by Eugene Stoner did not have the design flaws that got troops killed in Vietnam. In DCM rifle competition, the changes required to Mr. Stoner’s platform are nothing compared to what must be done to Mr. Garand’s platform to shoot tight groups. An AR only requires a barrel tube to take the sling tension off of the barrel and finer sights. The mods to the M1/M1A/M14 are far, far more extensive.

In the late 1990's, I was in a CA NG unit (2/159 MECH INF) and we had some of the last 1911's in military inventory. We had over 350 M9's also in inventory, but told Sac we would keep them on our property book, but would be turning them in unfired, so that the gaining unit could have them new.

I was the Med Plt Sergeant and the medics usually ran the pistol course. It was a great swan song firing these the last couple years for qualification. Many were stamped Singer, Colt, Ithica, and Remington(Rand).

We also had three oddball M-3's still in inventory, but only two worked. From their maintenance records, we found they had been in the armory for so long that the only reason we had them was because nobody in the state could figure out how to get them off our property book.....A quintessential Army story, eh? Anyhow, they sure come in handy at the end to fire off the surplus.

But we were talking 1911 .45's.

I almost always managed to fire expert, even with these sloppy old weapons. Almost everyone missed two on the first table, but once warmed up, they made Mr. Browning proud. Being so loosey-goosey, they did quite well when kicked in the dirt. We should look again at that whole M9 thing and other decisions made about sidearms the last 25 years.....Like a 1911 firing +P+ .40 with a staggered magazine.

BS. You are talking to an expert here. I know how to accurize rifles and the M14 doesn’t need that much work to accurize it. On top of that it is already in existence. To get this M110 they had to develop a whole new rifle. How much work do you think that took? The M14 is a lot lighter than 16 lbs.