The rifles are more faithful to the original M40 than the first Remington reproduction, right down to the clip-loading slots in the top of the action. “The clips were useless, of course, because of the scope and mount,” Mawhinney explained, “but the slots were there on the original rifle.”

Almost everything else is also exactly the same, from the alloy buttplate to the heavy 24-inch barrel with a 1:12-inch right-hand twist. In fact, the entire rifle weighs 9 3/4 pounds, precisely the same as Mawhinney’s. There’s even a green webbing sling, very close to the sling issued with the original rifle.

One last little problem was ammunition. The load used in Vietnam was 173-grain Lake City match, and a very close approximation was supplied by Black Hills Ammunition, the South Dakota company that makes exceptional ammunition for everything from Cowboy Action Shooting to law enforcement. Jeff Hoffman, owner of Black Hills, supplied its 175-grain boattail hollow-point match load, which Chuck Mawhinney uses to personally break-in and sight-in every rifle.

“First I scrub each bore with JB Compound to do a little polishing, then shoot eight rounds, cleaning the bore between each with Bore-Tech Eliminator. By the time I’m done, every barrel is really smooth. All the rifles group half an inch or less at 100 yards, and some will do a quarter-inch.” He keeps a log book of the date and number of rounds fired through each rifle.

The rifle I tested was number 029. It was fired at the 100-yard range with the Black Hills ammunition. The single five-shot group fired at paper to confirm the sight-in measured 0.48 inches from center to center, with the three shots in the middle of the group making a single, much smaller hole. Aiding this performance, the smooth trigger pull averaged just a hair more than 3 pounds.

Chuck Mawhinney still loves to shoot. His original M40 was eventually rediscovered at the Weapons Training Battalion at Marine Base Quantico, and in 1996 was retrofitted to the same configuration as when he used it in Vietnam. It is now on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va., and except for wear and the lack of the autograph on the floorplate looks just like the new Mawhinney rifle.

The new rifle’s price is $5,000. It ships in a black Plano case, already sighted-in with the Black Hills ammunition, and includes the shooting log book.