I believe there are a few exceptions on some real M14's that were sold through the DCM before BATF got wind of it. They were sold to clubs or high power shooters, and had the auto hardware mounting lug machined off
No, you are confusing a couple different things into a new rumor.
Back when the M-14 was still being manufactured the DCM did make specs up for a "National Match" M-14 with the intent of these being sold to civvie shooters for competition. There were, IIRC, all of *two* rifles made up by the manufacturers in this configuration. The lub was not "ground off," it was actually manufactured without the lug. There is a difference. For various reasons, the project was abandoned.
One of these rifles wound up in private hands and the ATF confiscated it as being a MG. The owner appealed and the final court decision was that since *that specific rifle* was manufactured WITHOUT the ability to accept the full-auto parts, it was not a MG.
The DCM never sold M-14's to clubs or civilians. The DCM and later the CMP did *loan* out to M-14's to clubs, who then could issue them to individual competitors. Those rifles were still US Gov property though and were only on loan to the club. They were not the property of the club or of the individual shooters. A few years back the CMP recalled all of the loaner M-14's as they were once again needed by the military.
None of those ex-DCM loaner guns are legal for civilians to own. I've heard of at least one instance where the shooter who possessed one of the loaner M-14's died and his family sold the gun, along with his other guns, and the M-14 wound up on the market. If you run across a M-14 like that, it's still not legal to own, as it's essentially stolen Gov property.
Now, there are a small number of USGI M-14's that are legal for civilians to own. The DoD released a small amount of M-14's to one of the other Federal agencies years ago (the DoE or Forest Service, IIRC). Those rifles were registered in the NFA before 1986 and later that Fed agency did sell them off to raise funds. They really weren't supposed to, but they did, and apperently it was legal. Those rifles are legal to own and are registered MG's in the NFA database. They are very expensive though and don't come up for sale very often. The people who own them know what they have and you have to be a deep pockets collector to get one.
There are also some registered MG's that started life as M-1A semi-auto's or even factory built M-1A MG's, but those are technically different from a USGI M-14.
