M14 Forum

riq21

Got no hits on the fiberglass question, let me try this one... Trying to determine the mfg. of several walnut and birch stocks I have on hand. What are the telltales that would indicate what major contractor these stocks were made for? If there is a sticky for this, I have missed it.
TIA-RickDOORGNRWNG

bd111

You can't always tell. If you remove the buttplates and see some markings in the wood, send 'em up or shoot a photo.

riq21

I have one that is a walnut with a 1/2 inch DOD and a seriph P in a circle. Would I assume this came out of the Springfield Armory?

Lerenis

I have a walnut stock and the only mark on it is the circle "P." I've taken the butt plate off and there are no markings here either. Who knows who made the stock but I like the looks of it.

Lerenis

I looked into the trigger recess on my rifle and there is a small circle with a star you can barely see. My guess is it's a Winchester stock.

bd111

Methinks that'd be right.

Trung Si

Winchester Birch!

Trung Si

Not a Dumb Question at all, The "P" on the on the Grip indicates that the Stock was Proof Fired on a Weapon, AFAIR some Arsenals used a Circle, others a Square,but I don't remember which used what!

nf1e@snet.net

Thank you sir.
I just looked over a couple of dozen stocks in my playroom and only one had the box.
Last 3 kits I received were all Winchester. Last year I picked up 2 from Orion and they were all Springfield. Do love the platform and the knowledge available here.
Art
USMC 66-72 RVN 67-68

Chilly

Telltale areas to help distinguish:
1. Front stock ferrule: pinned, light crimp, heavy crimp
2. Wood behind trigger guard: Win have something in a small circle
3. Markings under buttplate.
4. Style of the proof P

Different

USGI M14 fiberglass stocks were made by General Tire & Rubber Co. Here are some tips to identifying who made your USGI wood M14 stock.

Manufacturer Identification

The manufacturer identification, if present, is located on the butt end under the butt plate.

H - Harrington & Richardson Arms Co.
O - S . E. Overton & Co. (made stocks for TRW)
SA or S.A. - Springfield Armory (Springfield, MA)
S under a half-diamond - Sykes Manufacturing (subcontractor to Springfield Armory)
W-W - Winchester-Western

Wood Type

M14 rifles were assembled with wood stocks from the first half of 1961 until July 1963. All four government entities used wood stocks during this two year period for factory assembly of complete rifles.

Black Walnut - Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., S. E. Overton & Co., Springfield Armory, Sykes Manufacturing, and Winchester-Western

Yellow Birch - Harrington & Richarson Arms Co., S. E. Overton & Co., Sykes Manufacturing & Winchester-Western

Some walnut and birch stocks were stamped on the butt with numerals, e.g., 1 or 3. Springfield Armory and at least one other stock maker did so. Sykes Manufacturing stocks were made as replacement parts, both standard rack grade and National Match stocks. Some Sykes M14 NM stocks have the part number 7791174 stamped into the wood under the butt plate. Sykes Manufacturing and Winchester-Western "big red" birch stocks were often stamped with the part number 11010263 under the butt plate.

Stock Ferrules

Stock ferrules were staked to the front end of the wood stock using either a pin punch (ice pick / dimple appearance) or a half-moon crimp (gorilla thumbnail appearance). The pin punch method of staking was used throughout government production of the M14 and M14 NM rifles. I have a Springfield Armory M14 NM walnut stock with a pin punch staked ferrule. IMO, it's not accurate to say the pin punch ferrules were only used early in the M14 project. The half-moon crimped stock ferrules do seem to be more common.

Pin punch staked ferrules - Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., S. E. Overton Co., Springfield Armory, Sykes Manufacturing, and Winchester-Western

Half-moon crimped ferrules - Springfield Armory, Sykes Manufacturing, Winchester-Western

Proof P and DAS Markings

Proof P markings on M14 stocks have been observed in two styles, serif font and Arial style.

DOD cartouche on side of the buttstock or on the trigger guard recess - Winchester-Western

DOD cartouche and proof P markings both visible on the stock - indicates a stock used to assemble a M14 rifle at the factory: Harrington & Richardson Arms Co., Springfield Armory, TRW and Winchester-Western (Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp.) M14 NM rifles built by Springfield Armory and TRW were also given both markings on the stock.

Most replacement stocks lack the proof P and DOD cartouches. If Springfield Armory shipped a replacement stock (made by Sykes Manufacturing), it left with a DOD cartouche.

bigblock

Can someone tell me the difference between serif and arial font circle P marks?

Different

The serif font "P" looks similar to this, P." The arial font "P" looks like this letter "P."

Chilly

And there are two kinds of ariel P. One looks like "P" and the other looks like a "P" that is stretched wide so the aspect ratio is kind of wide. My memory is these may be TRW or HRA. I don't know anything first-hand, it's just stuff I gleaned from other's contributions to the interweb.

ismith

How about a normal non-serf P, pin punch staked ferrule, a S stamped under the buttplate and a H burned/stamped under the buttplate? Would that make it a HRA stock made by Sykes?

Edit: Looks like its actually an 8.