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Hi Spktyr - No, I didn't have an M14E2 - and I guess you could have called it an M-14A1 (sort of) because mine was a TRW M-14 Ser No 188366 that I had put my own selector kit on, then lightened the trigger, thinned the wrist of my stock to fit my hand better, installed an M16 "clothespin" bipod, an extended sling that went from the rear of the stock to the gas cylinder to allow the weapon to be carried horizontally, then as a last step, wrapped a VC poncho around the rear of the stock to used as concealment when I read my map at night (I was a forward observer).

The horizontal carriage allowed us to fire immediately from the waist if we ran into an ambush and it also allowed fast entry into the prone.

Your videos are cool but very civilian: there's never any reason to fire full-auto from the offhand (standing) position in combat. Full auto is almost always fired from the prone, which is what you'd better be if the first rounds the enemy fired haven't already got you. I have no idea why our YouTube cowboys think that that is way we employed them - but of course, they would be difficult to control.

I was as a 21 year old Lance Corporal that had a relatively free hand in picking a weapon to keep me alive and I was very happy with my '14. It was accurate - I successfully engaged an enemy sniper at 600m - and it was controllable and exceptionally dependable in an environment that was always hot, wet, and filthy. I could reliably keep a 3-4 round burst with the size of a human body at 150m+. Don't need to ask me how I know that.

As I said earlier, when I was wounded in May '67, there was a fast grab for my M-14. It was the best weapon for many miles around.