Miculek and the Stoner 63
If you are not familiar with the Stoner 63, it was a modular weapon system that could convert from assault rifle to light machine gun by changing a few parts around. As you might guess, Eugene Stoner was the man behind the development of this rifle.
Many people are not familiar with the Stoner 63. However, these guns were used in combat by US Navy SEALs and were considered by the USMC.
Jerry Miculek had a chance to shoot one at the Institute of Military Technology (IMT). C. Reed Knight, Jr. is the founder of IMT and talks about the gun with Miculek in this video. Knight may be better known to some readers as the President and owner of Knight’s Armament Co.
An advocate of gun proliferation zones, Richard is a long time shooter, former cop and internet entrepreneur. Among the many places he calls home is http://www.gunsholstersandgear.com/.
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When I was in SVN (1970-71) I was a crewman aboard and Assault Support Patrol Boat (ASPB) in River Assault Division 153. We were co-located with a Platoon of SEALs from, I would assume, SEAL Team 1. We were often tasked to insert/extract 4 man ambush or recon teams and it was common to see their Operators carrying a Stoner configured as a LMG or in the assault rifle configuration, as seen above. Usually, the other two men would be armed with a cut down M60 variant and the other with an M16 or CAR with an early variant 40mm GL mounted underneath the forward handguards.
Somewhere I have an old gun magazine, late 1960's vintage (can't remember which one, but it might have been GUNS) there is an article all about the semi-automatic sporting version of the Stoner 63. Came with 5 round magazine. Had black and white picks of guys hunting with Stoner 63 out in the woods. Anyone have one of these 60's 'sporting' versions? Were they ever really put into production back then?