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**TYPES OF SPRINGFIELD ARMORY WEAPONS**

Beginning with the 1795 flintlock musket, which was essentially a copy
of the French \"Charleville\" flintlock musket, Springfield Armory
engaged in a never-ending struggle to match advances in weaponry by
foreign and private manufacturers and to keep up with changing
battlefield needs.

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**Springfield, Rifle, 7.62 mm, M14**

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| ![](media/image4.                 | **Starting in 1777 during the     |
| jpeg){width="3.040277777777778in" | Revolutionary War, the            |
| height="7.1in"}                   | Continental Arsenal on this site  |
|                                   | stored and repaired firearms. In  |
|                                   | 1794, the Springfield Armory was  |
|                                   | established at the Arsenal to     |
|                                   | manufacture American-made copies  |
|                                   | of French muskets. These muskets  |
|                                   | served the US Army, Navy, and     |
|                                   | Marines until replaced shortly    |
|                                   | after the War of 1812 by an       |
|                                   | improved flintlock musket known   |
|                                   | today as the US Model 1816.       |
|                                   | Production of the US Model 1842   |
|                                   | marked the replacement of the     |
|                                   | flintlock with more dependable    |
|                                   | percussion ignition weapons.      |
|                                   | Rifle muskets, introduced with    |
|                                   | the US Model 1855, gave the       |
|                                   | nation powerful and accurate      |
|                                   | muzzle-loading arms during the    |
|                                   | Civil War (1861-65).**            |
|                                   |                                   |
|                                   | **Springfield breech-loading      |
|                                   | metallic cartridge rifles,        |
|                                   | nicknamed "Trapdoor," armed US    |
|                                   | soldiers during the Western       |
|                                   | Plains Wars and the Spanish       |
|                                   | American War in 1898. Modern      |
|                                   | smokeless powder weapons were     |
|                                   | adopted in the 1890's. The        |
|                                   | Springfield Model 1903 rifle      |
|                                   | performed magnificently in the    |
|                                   | fields of France during the First |
|                                   | World War.**                      |
|                                   |                                   |
|                                   | **The Springfield semi-automatic  |
|                                   | M1 rifle gave US forces a         |
|                                   | powerful and durable weapon that  |
|                                   | served wherever Americans fought  |
|                                   | in the Second World War and in    |
|                                   | the Korean War. The               |
|                                   | selective-fire US M14 rifle was   |
|                                   | the last shoulder arms made at    |
|                                   | Springfield Armory before the     |
|                                   | 1968 closure. The M14 served in   |
|                                   | the Vietnam War and continues to  |
|                                   | be issued today to American       |
|                                   | soldiers and marines in both Iraq |
|                                   | and Afghanistan.**                |
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**A US Army soldier in Iraq armed with the Springfield M14 Rifle**