Harrington & Richardson was one of the main contractors for the M14 rifle program, and they also had been a major producer of the M1 Garand rifle. In particular, H&R had produced a .22 rimfire training rifle to mimic the handling of the M1 Garand, which was adopted by the US military as the MC-58. When H&R got into the M14 game, they figured they could easily adapt the MC-58 into a training rifle for the new M14.
In May 1958, H&R proposed the “Simulator, M14, .22 Caliber, Mark I” to the US military. It was tested that summer, and in December 1958 a report issued on the trials. The Simulator was not ultimately adopted, and only a few prototypes were made of which this is serial number 1.
I agree with the USMC general. Getting used to and not flinching due to blast and recoil is an important part of marksmanship training that a 22LR doesn’t provide. As for use by reservists, they’ve all been trained at boot or basic, and their armory or reserve center has the weapons, so scheduling a weekend at the nearest active or reserve range shouldn’t be a problem for refresher training. As far as a selector switch 1) this rifle is supposed to be an introduction to basic marksmanship and I don’t see automatic fire being part of that 2) With virtually no recoil compared the service weapon, automatic fire training on 22LR is worthless as it doesn’t train the rifleman how to control the rifle in automatic fire. So, it’s neat toy, but I’m glad somebody saved the taxpayer some money.
Apparently NVA had different views and used selective-fire .22 rim-fire weapons in form of Kleinkaliber-Maschinenpistole modell 69 https://modernfirearms.net/en/submachine-guns/kk-mpi-69-2/
In my humble opinion a fully automatic small caliber training rifle can do the same for machinegunning marksmanship as a semi or single shot .22LR rifle can do for single shot shooting. It can teach to keep the rifle on target and how it is to shoot so many bullets quickly. Then like with single shot the trainee can move on to the bigger caliber(s). And the .22 ammuniiton is cheaper than the general issue service cartridges. The DDR was always on a tight budget.
“(…)DDR was always on a tight budget.(…)”
Ah yes, I did overlook that U.S.A. in 1950s were not. As they were buying B-58 bombers, worth more than their mass in gold and were totally okay with fact that it crashed a lot http://www.johnweeks.com/b58/
“…so scheduling a weekend at the nearest active or reserve range shouldn’t be a problem for refresher training.”
Army? Marksmanship training? Lol, that’s so Cold War. The Army only ever qualifies. If you don’t qualify, you go shoot the qualification course again and again until you do qualify. Now you’re good for a year, go finish your sexual harassment and gender identity CBT.
I disagree with Col. Beasabre,
Because he focusses too narrow on the US Army Reserves.
Re-consider the Canadian Army Reserve, who are mostly part-time (evenings and weekends) soldiers who join during their last year of high school. The receive basic military training in a brick armory downtown in a major city. The nearest outdoor rifle range may be an hour or two way by rented bus. Far better to teach them the basics of shooting by using sub-caliber (e.g. .22) cadet rifles at an indoor range in the basement of the armory. They will eventually need to qualify on full-bore (e.g. 5.56 mm or 7.62 mm) rifles, but they can more easily learn the basics in the basement.
Also consider that Canadian Army Cadets are all teenagers, some of whom are not yet big enough to shoot full-bore rifles.
Although I think a .22 rim fire is a good introductory cartridge for those who have not handled firearms before, I don’t think 5.56 is too much for students in their last year of high school.
There are thousands of teenage hunters who hunt deer in youth size .243 rifles, which have significantly more recoil.
“(…)H&R proposed the “Simulator, M14, .22 Caliber, Mark I” to the US military(…)”
https://modernfirearms.net/en/assault-rifles/u-s-a-assault-rifles/m14-eng/ imply that M14 rifle was supposed to replace sub-machine guns, M1 carbines, M1 rifles, whilst M15 automatic rifle was supposed to replace Browning M1918A2.
Were H&R entertaining idea of simulator for latter weapon?
The M14 rifle also had a fun-switch, so I guess it was intended for simulating both M14 and M15. The two rifles are very similar anyways.
I have posted this before but the french Gevarm open bolt.22 rifle was made as a semi and full auto military trainer
Maybe this should have been adopted instead of the M14 boondoggle.
What a fun gun!! So it’s a .22 LR but weighs almost as much as the service piece of iron? Terrific! No full-auto allowed? Who needs it? Simplify, simplify! (Okay, maybe install a dummy selector, allsame the dummy gas block. Authentic doesn’t have to mean functional.) Offer a replica bipod for those who can’t keep their wallets closed. If the bayonet lug isn’t slotted (i.e., it’s also a dummy), I won’t complain. Perhaps we could adapt the mag well to take bananas or other higher-cap feed.
I think it would be fun in small-bore position shooting, even if it couldn’t quite compete for accuracy. Maybe combine it with a combat run?
Why couldn’t it be built again? The echo answers, “Why?”
The Bundeswehr used the .22 conversion kits for the G3 for training purposes for many years along with suppressors for many years. They are great fun in that platform.