POTD: M14 EBR in Afghanistan
Dwavinchi sent us this photo of the M14 EBR (Enhanced Battle Rifle) he was issued Afghanistan.
The US Army M14 EBR is one of many variants of the US Navy Mk. 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle created in the early 2000s at the request of the Navy Seals who needed a compact M14 battle rifle. By 2008, four years after the Seals began using it, all four armed services had adopted it, each creating their own customized variant.
The M14 EBR, in my opinion, is one of those guns that would never have existed if not for the DoD’s firearm procurement policies, interdepartmental politics and Congressional interfered. For any one service to upgrade their weapons, or procure a brand new weapons platform, it is relatively straightforward, even if the only part left from the original gun is the receiver. To replace an existing platform is a complex can of worms.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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It's really funny to see a bunch of AR guys criticize another platform for needing maintenance and having reliability issues if not kept clean.
My standard issue M14 was a fine piece of machinery that was my constant companion 1964-67.
I treated it lovingly and it never failed to function when needed.
That was before the M16 with all the whiz-Bang doodads and battery powered thingamajigs attached to it. Plain old basic sights using good rifleman techniques settled the problem EVERYTIME.