"Hawk" (aka Tony Diaz) served in the U.S. Marine Corps from Oct 1971 through Jul 1973 after enlisting during high school. During Boot Camp at Parris Island, he trained with the M14 Rifle and qualified as Sharpshooter with a score of 219 missing expert by one point. After Boot Camp, while attending ITR at Camp Geiger, he carried the M14 and Rem 870 trench gun while on Guard Duty, as well as the "infamous" M16 during infantry training. It was here at Camp Geiger that Hawk was given his nickname after a night of compass marches through the North Carolina swamps. After ITR and MOS school at Montford Point, NC, Hawk was stationed overseas at Okinawa, Japan, in direct support of the 3rd Marine Division which was deployed in Vietnam, where he remained until his rotation back to the states and early release from active duty as the Military was downsizing at the end of our involvement in Vietnam.

 

Some years later while surfing on the net with his first computer, Hawk realized that he could purchase one of those M14s even though it was a civilian version. He visited Orion7 and purchased a nice tiger walnut stock that needed refinishing. After refinishing it he brought it back to show  the owner, and was solicited to refinish stocks for them. Shortly thereafter Hawk purchased several hundred stocks that he has refinished through the years and offered for sale on this website. After Building his first rifle from a Armscorp receiver which was barreled at Orion7, it had the unsightly hole where the selector went on the real M14s, he came up with the idea for the Dummy kit. After several modifications and changes the kits have evolved into what is currently seen on this site. With the sale of dummy kits taking off, Hawk no longer had the time to do anymore stock refinishing so had to forgo it.

 

During the time when Hawk was refinishing stocks, he also did some cammie painting as well. The first to make and market the M14 synthetic stock with an AR pistol grip and collapsible stock, it was decided to spend the time working on dummy kits after similar modifications started being done by other stock workers,  rather than keep up with the times on the M14 stock modifications and competition that came with that type of work.

 

Awhile back, realizing a need for a good M14 forum after the old Gun and Knife forum went down in flames, Hawk started the original M-14 forum which progressed into what it is today......The M-14 Firing Line Forum, a community of like minded members who enjoy talking and learning about our M-14.

 

Hawk recently retired from his regular job, and looks forward to spending more time producing his kits as well as starting back up on his cammie painting and stock refinishing.