[frankf]

I recently acquired an item ,from a friend ,that I'd seen in one of the M14 govt. manuals. It's called a "breech shield " ( or shell deflector ) . It mounts in the cartridge clip charger guide at the rear of the receiver. My friend said it deflects the spent shell, during the ejection cycle, @ the 4:00 position, rather than 2:00, without the deflector attached. My M1A does deflect , 95 % of the time, at 2:00. I tried an unloaded empty in the rifle and pulled back on the op rod and it did eject @ 4:00 and with far less velocity and distance.This doesn't duplicate the force of a "real" ejection cycle but it still ejected at 4:00. when it gets warmer around here, I'll try it out with live ammo. I'd like to hear anyone else's opinions, experiences and knowledge on this subject. I'll use this deflector in the future as I reload ( NM brass )and @ 2:00 it puts them in the grass and I don't want lose NM brass ! Thanks in advance.

 

[DeltaPdesign]

That is the M3 Breech shield. It is an accessory originally for firing rifle grenade (or so I read). I have seen some people tout it for deflecting the excess gas from the shooters face when using some suppressors.

If you have a scope and want to save brass, an old t-shirt or a similar weight cloth tied around the scope that hangs down the right side works for me to save brass.

Best of luck.

 

[frankf]

M14 shell defector

Thanks for your reply. I was , from my friend's experiences with the deflector,under the impression, that it was used independent of the grenade launcher and/or the blank firing device. Why would one need a shell deflector with a grenade launcher or a blank firind device ? Not having been in the military ,during the M14's heyday, there are many things I don't know about this great rifle.

 

[drx]

I thought it was used to deflect the gas blowback coming out of the breech when using the BFA.