M1A Stacking swivel

[Coronach]

So, I get this sudden thought- you know, the sort of bright idea that, if given voice, makes your wife wonder why she married you (or if its a really good one, if you are of the same species as the rest of H. Sapiens). Anyway, I was thinking hey...I own a M1...I also own a M1903...and now I have an M1A. Hey, 3 service rifles, I can finally make one of those stack-arms teepee things. So I dig all three out of the safe and get cracking...only to discover that my M1A doesn't have a stacking swivel.

Darnitall.

Questions:

1. Why doesn't it have one? I thought the M14 was so equipped.

2. Where can I get one, and would it be possible to install it on a M1A?

OK, so it was a dumb idea, but someone has to get out on the floor and dance and get this forum hopping!

TIA,
Mike

 

[Al Thompson]

Hmmm - maybe you can stack arms the way we did with M16s. Take yor M1A and loosen the sling so that you have a 4 to 6 inch loop at the front swivel. Insert the muzzle of the other two rifles in there and stack arms.

HTH!

(I'm waiting for the .270/.280/.308/.30-06 comparison thread myself- )

 

[Coronach]

A dead horse in any other forum still smells like a dead horse.

Mike

PS The answer is 7.62 NATO

 

[Schmit]

Never heard of a Stacking Swivel. We use to do it the way Al discribed.

Coronach if you get 9 more rifles you could set up a table in your living room where each leg is a rifle stack.

 

[Coronach]

I'll run that past my wife, and se what she says.

Mike

 

[C.R.Sam]

M1A is a sorta clone replica of a battle rifle. Hence no stacking swivel.

Red Green would use duct tape.

Sam

 

[Coronach]

Sam,

Can you get a stacking swivel someplace, like Numrich? And where would it go on the M1A?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Gophfer]

I'm trying to remember my M-14 (from basic 33 years ago) It did have a swivel! I'm thinking (scarey) it was located on the gas cyl. on the other (lower) end from the bayonet lug. if the gas cyl from the m14 is interchangable then you are ok. Otherwise you would have to find a way to attach it.

Now my memory may not be accurate. Just blame it on age.

 

[Steve Smith]

15 (give or take a half dozen) mods/admins and one member on one thread...LOL!!!

 

[4v50 Gary]

The gas cylinder on the M-14 featured the front sling swivel. It could be modified for a stacking swivel, but the era of stacking arms is obsolete. John George (Shots Fired in Anger) said that the Garand could be lightened and it just took us forever to come out with the M-14. The Italians did it overnight with the BM-59.

 

[Coronach]

Well, its obsolescence isn't really an issue for me. I'm unlikely to ever stack-arms for any sort of reason beyond my own amusement.

What would have to be done to modify the M1A gas cylinder for a stacking swivel?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[4v50 Gary]

Saw & file if you use existing sling swivel. If you believe in loop sling, I wouldn't recommend it as it could tend to accelerate the wear on the sling.

 

[Gewehr98]

I'm sitting here looking at my M14NM...

(Which is NOT an M1A, btw) and I'll be durned as to where the stacking swivel was supposed to go. I'm assuming somewhere between the gas cylinder plug and the stock ferrule, maybe under the spindle valve? My gas system is pure USGI H&R, dunno what year. 4v50 Gary, maybe it was really early model M14's?

I'm of the opinion that the utility of stacking rifles three at a time decreased after WWII, to the point that the follow-on rifles to the M1 Garand, namely the M14 and M16, weren't designed with that function in mind. Any takers on that theory?

My wife said Red Green's credo describes our marriage:

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"

 

[chieftain]

FIREMEDIC,

Mel Hi 66, and had just spent 8 years there 92-00. before I returned to Arizona. Hell I went to Palm Bay High when it was first built and they had to pave Babcock to get us to 'SOUTHWEST Jr High', which is what it started life as.

My mother still lives in the house I grew up in on Melbourne Ave.

Worked for BCSO and Florida DOC.

For the record, the M14 or the M1A never had a stacking swivel.

The last US rifle with one was the M1 Garand, which I carried in ITR.

Used a M14 at Parris Island and Viet Nam from 67 until the spring of 69 when a Brigadier ordered me to turn it in! He had an aide get my name and unit. Anyway, I then got real intimate with a M16-E1 KIA weapon which I modified with an A1 buffer and spring.

Worked pretty good for a Mattey Mattel. But no stacking swivel.

Good luck

Fred

 

[Dan Morris]

The way I remember the M14...from another life....was to place barrel in a loop of the middle rifle sling.....then place butt forward at about 45 deg.
Dan

 

[Gophfer]

I only had the M-14 in basic. M-79 and M-16 after that. I rember stacking arms but was porbably ROTC with an M-1.

Oh Bother!

 

[Coronach]

OK, so the M14 never had one.

Dang. Now I gotta go get another M1, or 1903.

Mike

PS Or a Krag....hmmmm....

 

[Frohickey]

Stacking swivel?

Back in Basic, all we did was put the muzzles of two other rifles through the loop on the front swivel and put all three rifles down, 120 degrees from each other... then the rest of the rifles went against the other 3.

 

[Johnny Guest]

One solution to the "Problem" - - -

Hook the stacking swivels ofthe M1 and '03 together normally. Spread the butts apart about 18"--2'. Lean the M1A barrel into the "V" (or upper part of the "X") formed by the barrels of the other two rifles. This should look kinda like a proper three rifle stack.

This won't be as sturdy as a stack made by three M1s or three '03s. I recall M/Sgt Widner, a high school ROTC insstructor, demonstrating that this arrangement, when properly done on a grass parade field, was stong enough that a soldier could stand (one legged) on the stack.

Best,
Johnny

 

[Ledbetter]

Stacking?

Before you get all excited about this, be aware that some collectors call them "scratching" swivels.