Bought a M1A

Well you will not regret the 1000 to 900 bucks more you had to spend on it, It's a great rifle. 44mag.com sells some CMI magazine's at a good price they are the best new production magazines you can buy. I just happened to be looking at their site and they state that when shipping to California Any magazine over 10 round capacity will be shipped as a repair kit. I'm so happy Texas has yet to get those kinds of Laws.

M.C. Good luck with your new M1A rifle and hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine. Just a small word of caution, invest in just a few high quality magazines instead of many cheap ones. I have found those 14.95 specials sold by those "discount dealers" are nothing but crap and will jam every other round. The ones made by Springfield are expensive but they function properly.

Congrats M.C. on your new M1A, it's always been one of my dream rifles.
That being said,after that weasely runaround, I would've driven damn near a hunnerd miles just to give the buisness to someone else ( in fact, I have, in a vaguely similar situation).
And, as loadedround said, don't skimp on your mags.

I doubt if you will ever regret buying the M1A. And yes, stay away from those cheap magazines. They can be a very big pain.

Match usually has the "grade" barrel (may be heavier) and other features like bipods, cheekpieces, tighter chamber specs and tolerances due to finer fit.

The basic is more no-frills.

Here is a short (very short) down and dirty on the M1A from Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1A_rifle

"Quick question...
What is the difference between the match m1a and a basic m1a"

Standard is more like GI issue with no frills.

Match has mid weight heavy barrel & a trigger with work done to it to smooth it out & is 2 staged.

Supermatch has a heavy barrel, national match sights, worked trigger (2 stage), oversize op-rod, oversize stock wether wood or plastic, and is set up from the factory to shoot tight groups for long distances.

The barrel length is the same, but the National Match barrel is thicker and heavier, and fiberglass bedded.

The terms "National Match" have changed over the years. Prior to the availability of rear lugged receivers on the "Super Match", the National Match was the competition rifle used in Highpower rifle. A National Match had the heavy Douglas barrel, a unitizied gas cylinder, tuned trigger, reamed flash suppessor, a heavy stock, NM sights, and was glass bedded.

I have glass bedded Garands, the M1a is similiar, it is labor intensive and a pain. It is also necessary for the best accuracy. I recommend Devcon Stainless Steel filled putty or Bisonite as bedding materials.

When the Super Match came around, about 1993, a rear lug was added to the receiver.

I talked to Glen Nelson in Georgia, he used to build the Springfield Armory National Match and Super Match rifles. He claimed his stocks were the "heavy" stocks on these rifles, but when I ordered one of the heavy stocks from him, it was slightly different in the pistol grip region from the SA stocks.

As for a heavy operating rod, never seen one. All my National Match and Super Match rifles use standard GI operating rods. They do have a heavy operating rod spring guide. Maybe that is what the poster was thinking.