Okay, you want to talk M14. That's not a problem.
First a little history, in 1953 the countries of the NATO alliance decided to standardize ammunition and it was a matter of urgency that inspired them to develop weapons like the FN-FAL, the G3, and the M14.Most European nations went with the FN-FAL(Which I happen to prefer over the G3), but the US opted for a homegrown design. This was the M14 which is really no more than a product improved M1 Garand.
There are many differences however, but the parentage is quite obvious. The M14 is capable of selective fire and was the first American rifle to offer that option other than the early BAR. The 20 round mag was a huge improvement over the M1's 8 shot stripper, and there is a light bipod available for use in the SAW mode.
Even though it was capable of selective fire, this feature was usually(80% of the time) found with the selector plugged and locked to keep it in semi-auto mode only. The main reasons were that it was a little light for sustained fire leading to severely reduced accuracy and the barrel tended to overheat quite quickly. There was an M14A1 version which had some improvements to make it a better LMG, but this project was cancelled due to money problems.
There really are no battle rifles or true GPMGs in the Roadmap at this time. I'd put my request in for the FN-FAL and the MG3, but they wouldn't see the light of day until fall at the earliest.
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SEZ
Jon
--...now where did this extra spring come from?-
--Real quote said to self after stripping, cleaning and reassembling 16 MP5Ks--
[This message has been edited by Repairman_Jack (edited 02-01-2000).]