Since the program started, we've only encountered one shot-out barrel on an overhauled receiver." "They are very good, MIL-SPEC components. "We disassemble and use all but five parts," said Carlstrom. The only major subassembly that remained was the barreled action. The Rock Island team unpacked the rifles from their cardboard shipping boxes, then removed a wooden or nylon stock, plastic handguard, op rod guide block and barrelband. And I can't see how we'll ever run out of rifles." "Since we started building EBRs, we like the Winchester actions, but we use them all - H&R, Springfield Armory, Winchester and TRW.
"The M14s arrive in Code A, which means they are in good or better-than-new condition," says Carlstrom. After being replaced by the M16, the M14 was mothballed for an expected storage of 26 years.
Between 19, these vintage M14s were brought up to A code and given a new barrel. M14s arrived at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois from storage at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. During trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, Doug Carlstrom of TACOM observed soldiers trying to adapt rack-grade M14s and M21s with commercial mounts, rings and optics. When he returned to CONUS, he set out to resolve this problem. After seeing soldiers trying to adapt the M14 to a modern battlefield, Carlstrom concluded that this situation was unacceptable. Carlstrom observed soldiers trying to attach commercial mounts, rings and optics to these M14s with little consistency or repeatable accuracy. They were equipped with only one magazine and had no provisions for optics. Those M14s were still wearing wooden or nylon stocks and a brown nylon handguard. The first M14 rifles were fielded to units as they came out of Anniston Army Depot. At that time, units were pulling M14s out of storage and issuing them to marksmen within a squad for more accuracy, range and effectiveness." "I opened Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, and started learning how soldiers were using their rifles. "I was deployed to Iraq in 2004 and to Afghanistan in 2006 to open a small arms support center," Carlstrom says. In 2011 Carlstrom and his five-man team were continuing their service as civilian contractors to TACOM, leading the development, testing and issue of the M14 EBR-RI. Army veteran with experience brought back from the Vietnam War, Carlstrom has witnessed the military trials of nearly all modern infantry small arms spanning the adoption of the M9 and M11 pistols to more recent variants of the M16. It's subtly located in a corner of the 946-acre island within the historic gates of Rock Island Arsenal.
We met Doug Carlstrom inside a simple reinforced structure reminiscent of the Cold War.