M1A

more information than you probably care to read at www.m14forum.com and www.m1arifles.com

I have a standard. Just ordered a sadlak and a burris fullfield ii. No rings yet.
Two issues I've had with this rifle

-Either slam fire, or an accidental bumpfires. Will occasionally fire a 2 round burst. This could very easily be on my part.
-2nd issue is with a 20 rd mag. When I try to use my 20 rd mag, the bolt hits the top of the shell causing the tip of the bullet to point down and get caught up without chambering. No problems though with the 10 rd mag... may just be a mag issue.

Other than that, I love it. Awesome rifle

The doubling comes from milking the trigger, that is squeezing the trigger as slowly as possible.

Try some 20 round mags from Checkmate

I have had great results with the Sadlak mount plus a few other Sadlak upgrades. The SA extractors have been know to fail, the fix is a pair of usgi extractors in the spares box.

Keep the bolt roller greased along with the op-rod and op-rod guide. Both of my SA's have been completely trouble free. I did have a bolt recall on one of them, SA paid shipping both ways and did a NM trigger job while they had it for $25.



M14firingline is the best sourse on info on-line.

Here's a new design mount, looks very well done.
http://www.m14.ca/M14_M1A_CASM_Scope_Mount.html

Here is m SA Scout, I removed the optics mount and handgaurd and replaced with a GI vented version. I also Ditched the muzzle brake for a GI FH.
I have 1000+ rounds down range and have a worn/bent oprod and bent Oprod guide.....

is that a 25 rd mag?

Actually its a 30..... more of a novelty though.

I love M1As, my latest if a standard loaded, walnut stock with the California legal muzzle brake (which I like). next one will be walnut stocked scout squad. finally gonna scope one, dont know which one yet. M1As are like Ruger number 1s, very habit forming.

Since buying an AR-15 recently I decided to scope my scout as well, just not with the forward mount, probably an arms #18.....

Who all makes the M1A/M14 variant? The only ones I know of are Springfield and Fulton Armory, anyone else? Who is the best bang for the buck?

LRB Arms and Smith Enterprises Inc. are also currently making M14's. I have an LRB and like it much better than my old M1A (much more reliable).

Here is my current setup. It is an old Springfield M1A with all GI parts. The stock is one of SAI's new plastic stocks, which is very light weight... the rifle only weighs 8.5 lbs with the scope removed. The mount is an ARMS #18. The scope is a Leatherwood/Hi-Lux CMR 1-4x24. The rings are Leupold QRW Medium (the scope just barely clears my rear sight when it is set on it's 250m battle sight zero). The sling is one I designed myself, which is a quick adjustable 2-point tactical sling that has a built-in arm loop, which is super quick to get in and out of for sling-supported shooting when you need some extra stability in the field. The other nice thing about that plastic stock is that I was not afraid to drill on it for side mount sling studs, like I would be on a GI fiberglass or wood.

The Leatherwood is not a great scope... in fact, just this morning I noticed that the ocular lens was loose!!! This will be a good excuse to return it and trade up for something better. I think I will go with the new Vortex Viper PST 1-4x24 FFP. I like 1-4x scopes for a battle rifle, but there are a lot of things I don't like about the Leatherwood, and I would probably be looking to replace it even if it didn't just break on me. It breaking just expedited the process.

I am usually a guy who tries to remember the rule about getting what you pay for, but occasionally I will think I have found the elusive exception... only to have reality kick me square in the testes. You'd think I'd have learned by now! I thought this scope might be OK since that company used to make scopes for the good old M21, which were high quality and worked well... but apparently now the son took over the business and decided to start making their stuff in China.

W/ Removable basset scope mount and 10x fixed super sniper.

Henchman, why do you have your sling mounted on the side like that, if you don't mind me asking?

Jason

LoneStarWings said:

LRB Arms and Smith Enterprises Inc. are also currently making M14's. I have an LRB and like it much better than my old M1A (much more reliable).

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What kind of reliability problems did you have with your M1A?

My M1A scout had intermittent failures to feed. It probably happened once every 75-100 rounds. I sent it back to Springfield twice but they weren't willing to invest the time needed to really figure out what was wrong. They'd replace an extractor or something and call it good, but the problems continued to occur.

Basically it was a really frustrating problem that no amount of troubleshooting seemed to solve. As soon as I thought I'd fixed by changing to a new type of magazine, ammo, or replacing a part, it'd come right back and start misfeeding again. This thread chronicles the problems of the rifle http://m14forum.com/modern-m14/71171-m1a-scout-fails-cyle-once-every-75-100-rounds-2.html

It was really frustrating, the problems happened with 10 different kinds of ammo, both springfield and CMI (USGI) brand magazines, and I kept the rifle clean and well lubricated.

In the end I just sold the M1A. Luckily, even with full disclosure of it's problems, I still got $1000 for it.


Then I got an LRB M14sa tanker to replace it and haven't looked back. It has worked perfectly!

I use the bassett low railed mount, Leupold PRW rings.

Henchman, why do you have your sling mounted on the side like that, if you don't mind me asking?

Jason

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That is so the rifle sits flat against my body for front-side carry. If I tried to carry it like that with the sling hooked on bottom side swivels, it would want to hang the rifle upside-down. I prefer front-side carry over shoulder carry for the field because it gives better retention, because it is quicker to bring the rifle up to take a snap shot if needed, and because if you need to go hands-free for whatever reason (like climbing or drawing a handgun), you can just release the rifle and let it hang.

This is the type of carry I'm talking about: