I bought this like 25 years ago with a plan to put Starlight on my M-14 but then Canadian government wouldn’t allow me to take it out of the house so just cleaning and found it. Now not sure I remember correctly.
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What is this? Is it Vietnam era Starlight mount or base?
- Thread starter RichardSukhoi
- Start date
The machining is slightly different in a couple of areas, but yes, it's an old PVS-2 or PVS-3 night vision mount.
^^^ Chuck Mahwinney Special right there???
Isn't the setup he used at the river?
Sirhr
Isn't the setup he used at the river?
Sirhr
No... It started me questioning my own memory.
This is the Action: https://special-ops.org/charles-mawhinney-killed-16-viet-cong-soldiers-in-30-seconds-at-night/
I remember reading an interview with him that if he had taken his bolt gun that night he would have died. But decided to take an M14 with PVS on it. Caught VC crossing a river on a sunken bridge or a shallow weir. And sent a lot of bodies down river.
Pretty crude NV back then. But minute of "Blob" was good enough and he whacked most of two squads in about 30 seconds.
Sirhr
The one time in Canadian reserves I got to do a night watch for an hour with a vintage NV scope the constant twinkling of the image completely exhausted me. It’s like movement. I suppose with practice you would get used to it.
I just found in my ancient accumulation, very carefully wrapped object. I also think I saved it for a sniper project but can’t remember. Do you recognize it? It’s made of steel.
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No, I have no idea what that part may be. It's definitely not part of an M14 or anything similar.
My brain is dinged (vaccine injury), but sometimes memories come back to me after a while. But based on how and what with I stored it , it has something to do with sniping. I was keen on building a Parker Hale C3 at one point. If I solve the mystery I’ll post it here. Thank you for looking at it.
Richard
Richard
A new book just came out re Chuck Mawhinney, 'The Sniper' by Jim Lindsay.
Here's the M14 with AN/PVS-2 that Chuck used during that night mission.
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Imagine being the enemy, having heard only rumours of night vision, and you are far from cover and can hear the bullets cracking and striking the men near you. Not a good evening.
Well, since you mentioned Parker Hale, I looked in one of my books and spotted an old NV rail for an M82. Your rail is different, but has some similarities re overall design, so perhaps it was for a different Parker Hale rifle back in the day? Good luck, as that's all I know...
Pretty cool seeing his M14 with the night vision scope! I assume that's an XM21, but I have no idea if the Marines were putting the PVS-1's on regular M14's that had the stock cutout.
I have a setup that's pretty much exactly like the one MaWhinney used. My clone even has an extremely rare original XM21 stock that has been properly modified for the PVS-1 night vision mount!
The XM21 is built from all original takeoff parts. The stock is 100% original XM21, but probably isn't epoxy impregnated. If anyone has an epoxy impregnated XM21, hit me up, I'd love to have one for the collection! The barrel is a late 1960's original. The receiver is a Devine and the rest of the parts are all correct GI. The PVS-1 is 100% functional as well and I also have the M16 mount for it, so I can switch it around if I feel like a different setup.
The M70 and two M40's are all original USMC rifles. They aren't parts guns or clones, they're actual military sniper rifles, including the receivers. The M70 has been messed with a little bit but there's a story behind it and I'm 100% certain it's an original USMC rifle. I'll save that one for another day. The M16 has a clone lower, but the upper is completely original. The scope on it is an early Colt scope with a white box, white should be about period correct. The scope has an engraved Colt logo, not a printed in logo, and it's new in the original box.
Pretty good Vietnam War era collection so far, still a lot more to add to it though!
Here's some photos of the XM21 stock, I wanted to show the unique cutouts and how the PVS-1 attached to the stock.
This first photo shows the back sides of the Art Tel scope mount (top) and the PVS-1 night vision mount (bottom). Notice how they're pretty close in design and they both have the vertical and horizontal ridges that keep the mounts oriented correctly on the left side of the M14 receiver.
This photo shows the back side of the PVS-1 mount on top of the left side of the M14 receiver. This is to show the ridges on the mount and where they will fit into the grooves in the receiver, which prevents the mount from moving or rotating (especially since there's only 1 screw holding the mount to the receiver).
This is a photo of the PVS-1 mount attached to the left side of the M14 receiver. I forgot to take a straight on photo showing just the cutouts in the wood stock, but this is pretty close since the mount doesn't obscure too much of it.
Here's a top view of the PVS-1 rail attached to the receiver, you can see the vertical ridge on the back side of the mount in place in the groove in the receiver. This also shows the clearance for the bolt release.
The PVS-1 with it's mount is above the mount that's attached to the M14 receiver. The PVS-1 is flipped around so that you can see the back side of it's mount, this is the part that will slide over the receiver mount. The post at the far left side of the mount stops the PVS-1 night vision scope from sliding further forward (under recoil everything on the rifle slides forward if it isn't locked in place). You can see the semicircular cutout on the right side of the PVS-1 mount, this is because the night vision scope is flipped around to show the back side. When mounting the PVS-1 to the receiver mount, the semicircular cutout will engage with the post in the receiver mount. The 2 cuts in the bottom of the receiver mount are for the PVS-1's locking levers.
Pretty basic photo, the PVS-1 is now flipped around to the correct side and I've begun to slide it onto the receiver mount from the right side.
This photo shows the PVS-1 mount pushed to the front of the receiver mount. The semicircular cutout in the night vision mount is contacting the post in the receiver mount. The locking levers are in their unlocked position to the left.
This is pretty much the exact same photo as the one before it, but shows the locking levers in their locked position to the right. The cutouts in the stock are below the locking levers in order to give them clearance to operate correctly of they need to be tightened further.
This shows the underside of the mount and gives a pretty good image of the stock cutouts and everything in relation to them. These stock cutouts are very deliberate in dimensions and placement.
My last photo shows the semicircular cutout on the PVS-1 mount and how it contacts the post that's on the receiver mount. The locking levers do a good job holding the night vision scope in place, but it's still critical that something is in front of the scope mount to prevent any forward movement when firing the rifle. I've seen posts like these used on other mounts as well (such as the M16 receiver mount for this PVS-1 night vision scope and the Iver Johnson .50 BMG with Weaver scope in a specially made scope mount).
I hope I was able to adequately explain everything and hopefully the photos are useful. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see more photos (tell me specifically what to take a photo of on this XM21/PVS-1 and I'll post it in this thread).
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