This is an on going project and information is subject to change as further research is conducted.

USGI M14

Scope Mount

The Aimpoint

The Paint Job

The Sling

The Tribute

I’m sure this topic has been beat to death by Black Hawk Down fan boysand others paying their respects to the Medal of Honor recipient…. ButI’d like to bring it up again.I had a chance to speak with Johnny Strong, the man who played SFCRandy Shughart in the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down. He shared a fewdetails that he learned about Randy and also a picture from the set(shown below). I didn’t see the picture anywhere else on the forumhere, so I figured it would be nice to share for anyone who wants tobuild a replica of the M14 used in theI watched the film myself when it first came out. I was only 9 yearsold, but the story had an impact on my life. A few years later I readthrough the book. It opened my eyes to what service members endureand live for, and although it would be another decade before Ienlisted, it planted the desire in me to serve. I was particularlydrawn to the story of Randy and his team leader, MSG Gary Gordon. Idon’t care who you are, watching two men volunteer to risktheir lives to save others will move you. Randy’s rifle, the M14,stuck with me for years and was my dream rifle. After returning frommy last deployment, I decided to buy an M1A and outfit it similar tohis. I knew nothing about them and chose the SOCOM 16 because of theshort barrel (I’m a short guy and never liked hauling around longbarreled weapons). Using this picture as reference, I tried toreplicate the movie’s M14:That was the best photo I could find at the time. Due to my limitedknowledge, all I gathered from that photo was USGI stock, stripedcamo, and Aimpoint optic. I ended up with this:I thought it was close enough to the movie prop, but as I learned moreI realized how much I missed. The scope mount is an ARMS 18 splitrail instead of a full rail, the barrel should have been a full length22”, and I had never paid any attention to the M1907 leather sling.Now, most people wouldn’t care about the small details. If you takeany M14 and add a red dot, it instantly becomes cool and prettyaccurate. Not much more to be done after that. But for me, this wasthefor aI wanted to honor him, and I wanted to do it by recreating the riflehe used on his final mission.The first task was collecting USGI parts. Randy used a governmentissued rifle, and if I was to recreate it then I needed to use thecorrect parts. I chose Winchester because it is a famous name inAmerican firearm history. I could have stuck to using only markedWinchester parts, but I felt that was cutting corners on a projectthat meant a lot to me. Instead, I found almost ALL Winchester partsnew in wrapper, new from wrapper, or lightly used. A total of 30Winchester specific parts were used to build this M14.The scope mount was a tough one. The movie Black Hawk Down and thedisplays at the Special Forces museum in North Carolina showed theARMS 18 split rail mount. Shortly after purchasing one, I discoveredsome information that opposed those two sources. I learned there wasa brief spat between ARMS and Brookfield Precision Tool. Army SpecialForces preferred the BPT scope mount due to issues with the ARMS 18.In the end, Army SF wanted BPT mounts and that is what they got. Ifound a BPT scope mount, sold the ARMS 18, and never looked back.I thought the scope mount was going to be the hardest part. Littledid I know, the optic would take that title. For starters, Randyuse a traditional scope that day. His mission was toprovide, and using a red dot opticmade that mission a lot easier. Also, the Aimpoints used in the movieBlack Hawk Downin 1993. I narrowed theoptics used down to the Aimpoint 3000 and 5000. After finding both optics new in box and comparing them to photos of Delta from Mogadishu, I came to my conclusion that theAimpoint 5000 was the most likely optic used by Randy.Believe it or not, the Army frowned upon soldiers painting theirweapons in the 90s, even Special Forces. Snipers, however, were anexception. You will not find pictures of Delta with painted rifles inMogadishu. However, it is believed that Randy and Gordy (DeltaSnipers) had their weapon systems painted. I wanted to make an M14completely unique from what we typically see when viewing Black HawkDown clones, so I asked the owner of Blown Deadline, a cerakotebusiness, to view images of Mogadishu and custom paint a desertcamouflage to match. To further dedicate this rifle to Randy, I alsorequested that he place the Delta Airborne patch on the stock.The sling was simple to identify, but hard to find! Randy used agovernment issued M1907 leather sling on his M14.Here is the final result. I am still waiting on my display case and another plaque to arrive. Will update with those pictures when they do. The second plaque is dedicated to the task force and gives credit where it is due.