Genuine M14 rifles (Springfield Armory, Winchester, Harrington & Richardson, and Thopson, Ramo, Woodridge [TRW]) in civilian hands are rare because the rifle was designed for selective fire.  In the United States, this makes it a 'machine gun' and means ownership is controlled by the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934.

 

However, there are alternatives for those who want to have a look-alike rifle.  Springfield, Inc. [not the government Springfield Armory] makes the M1A (an M14-type rifle) and is the largest continuous producer of the rifle.  Other manufacturers have made M14-type receivers for the build-up of complete rifles from M14 parts such as: Federal Ordnance, Armscorp of America, Entreprise Arms, and Smith Enterprises among others.  All approximate the looks and function of the original except for the fact they cannot accept the full-automatic parts of the originals.  This leads to a problem in asthetics: what to do about the hole in the side of the G.I. stock where the selector or selector lock should go?  Until now there were only two options: (1) live with the hole or (2) fill the whole with a wooden or fiberglass plug to close the hole and improve the appearance.  Now there's a third option: buy a kit from Sparrow Hawk (www.sparrowhawkm14.com) and fill up the hole with original but non-functional parts.

 

Sparrow Hawk's kits come in three versions: (1) the ECO-Kit (selector lock only) to fill the hole in the stock at $28.50, (2) the FDS-Kit (connector assembly, selector lock, selector shaft, sear release) to fill the hole in the stock and the inlets for the other parts at $60.00, and FDS-S-Kit (connector, selector, selector shaft, sear release) at $80.00.  The latter kit replicates the M14A1 automatic rifle configuration, while the other two replicate the M14 semi-automatic only configuration.  The actual kit parts are mounted on a bracket that attaches on the inside of the stock.  The parts have no function other than cosmetic and do not attach to the receiver as the on the original rifle.  See the illustrations for the location and appearance of the parts.