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Vintage black Navy M14 Physical Security Sniper Rifle stock (pics)

4K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Random Guy 
#1 · (Edited)
Back in February 2019 I got my replica Navy Physical Security Sniper Rifle (PSSR) back from the builder. I used a newish McMillan stock that had been inletted for a rear lugged receiver. The builder expertly bedded the action in MarineTex.

I never thought I would find an original Navy PSSR (aka M14 ‘Port Security') take-off stock - but ironically this past summer a buddy of mine found two of them from a retired USMC armorer. It was obviously too late to bed my replica into this vintage stock, but I thought others might find it interesting, as it has a few unqiue characteristics.

Its a little bit rough, but here's the vintage Navy stock under my PSSR replica:



I have seen only two other original Navy PSSR stocks, and they all had the last 4 digits of the original M14 rifle inscribed into this area on the stock:



Here's the original double-lug set-up:



Other than the double-lug set-up, the other interesting characteristic of this stock is a threaded bushing about 7" inches behind the front sling swivel.

Of the 3 original black Navy PSSR stocks that I have seen, one had an ad hoc bipod stud in front of sling swivel, one had no stud, and mine had a stud far behind the front swivel...so it was an ad hoc feature.



Original stock on top (with the bipod stud removed from my built rifle, and installed on the vintage stock):



The only bipod that really works (and doesn't hit the front sling swivel) is the short "BR" or benchrest height Harris bipod. Here's what it looks like installed:



I have a gelcoat repair kit from McMillan, and I plan on doing a very light touch-up on a few dings on this stock.

One day when my rifle needs to be re-bedded, I might use the vintage stock. Anyhow, just some pics of a old McMillan/Navy M14 sniper stock for anyone interested.
 
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#4 · (Edited)
is the double lug part of the PSSR design, or had the stock simply been re-purposed later for a different rifle setup?
It's a good question. My understanding is that the black stocks were ordered around 1989-1990 and dedicated for M14 sniper rifle builds. They were originally built with double-lugs, but due to cracked front lugs, they switched to just rear lugged receivers. See initial post on this thread for more info:

Navy M14 Physical Security Sniper rifle/Port Security...

The three original Navy stocks that I have seen were all set up for double-lugged receivers, and thus were presumably early stocks. It is possible that when rifles were re-barreled and re-bedded with just rear lugged receivers in the 1990s, that the threaded front lug was simply left in the stock, but I don't know for sure.

I should note that Navy match M14s of the era typically used solid light gray stocks (ie battleship gray) or a unique 'urban camo' pattern that used a blue/black/gray camo pattern. My understanding is that black stocks were used on the combat/sniper rifle M14s.
 
#5 ·
Random Guy,

I loved your rifle before, it's a shame you couldn't incorporate this stock into the build. Consider it an accessory to the rifle you have, keep them together.

By the way, your pic of this rifle, your M25, and M21 rifles is my desktop background. Excellent rifles, I am collecting parts for an M21 build, the scope (A.R.T. II being the next stage)

Jeff
 
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#8 · (Edited)
I could not help but notice that the bottom stock has the drain hole added, I wonder if the original rifle had the M25's vent mod added too its gas cylinder as well?
To clarify that pic - it was/is not a drain hole. As I tried to note in that pic ("with the bipod stud removed from my built rifle, and installed on the vintage stock)", I simply removed the bipod stud from the built rifle stock - and installed it into the vintage Navy M14 sniper stock. Here's what my stock looked like before I removed the bipod stud to see if it fit the old Navy stock, which it did. I have never seen a drain hole in a military M1A stock - that said, it's possible that an armorer could add one, but I have never seen one.



To the best of my knowledge, the Navy did not add a drain hole to McMillan stocks, and they did not drill the small vent hole in the gas cylinder - but I have only two original Navy M14 gas cylinders that I have inspected. Here's a pic of another original Navy M14 sniper stock (not mine), and this bipod stud appears to have been a somewhat ad hoc install (again, no drain hole is present):



Here's one of the few pics of this type of rifle in action (circa Feb 1991), as recently posted by Roller Bolt:
(It obviously had a bipod stud installed)
 
#9 ·
Random: do any of the original stocks you have viewed, besides mine, have the stud on the inside of the barrel channel from the bipod stud, with a barrel contour machined into it? I am planning on hiring M1Army to freshen up my stock and park the stud in place like he does with riveted front sling swivel. The stud on my stock is lightly rusted. Harry
 
#10 ·
Oh, I likey!!!!

I love black wood.... that didnt come out right, you know what I'm sayin!!!

It's a cool find for sure. I tinkered with Shou Sugi Ban, because I wanted a black wood stock, came out pretty cool. Dunno why I never thought about just painting it, lol. Looks good like this.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Random: do any of the original stocks you have viewed, besides mine, have the stud on the inside of the barrel channel from the bipod stud, with a barrel contour machined into it?
Harry, your stock is the only one I have seen with the bipod stud in front of the sling swivel. The other vintage Navy stock that I found for CrazyNoto did not have any bipod stud at all. Mine has an insert threaded and bedded, but was missing the bipod stud. The builder of my Navy replica ground/grinded the end of my stud for clearance purposes, which is sort of shown in this picture.



So each of the 3 stocks that I have seen were a little different re the bipod stud topic.
 
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