I used to watch combat. As I kid I thought the M-14 was the greatest looking weapon. Then one day I'm walking though a gun show and there one was. I couldn't wait to pick it up. I asked permission and picked this sucker up. I nearly fell over. It was a very heavy weapon. I had held comparable weapons. By comparision it was by far the heaviest. All of a sudden those years of thinking I wanted to own one left me instantly. Combat, the TV series, is set in WW2. They did not have M14s in WW2. They had M1 Garands (wt empty 9.5lbs), M1 Carbine (wt empty 5.5lbs), M1A1 ("Tommy Gun") (wt 30rd magazine 12.5lbs), BAR (wt 15.5lbs).
A loaded M14 weighs less than an empty M1 Garand, but does not sacrifice much in the way of energy delivered downrange.
M16/AR15s are a different type of beast.
Thank you.