.308,,, do you prefer the M1A, or the AR platform

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Muley

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Hey fellas, I'm deciding on my next birthday present. It's going to be an M1-A, or an AR platform .308. Just looking for opinions or educated evaluations.
I want a damn tough rifle that has been or still is in milspec use. I am not concerned about budget, but I'm not an idiot that will spend thousands on a gun "I will use" either. So don't ask " how much do you want to spend".


"ALL FIREARMS ARE CHEAP IF YOU LIKE TO SHOOT AND FEED THEM WELL"
 
At this point the AR platform. The M1A is a great gun, but I hear that the balance is not right, and the price is definitely not right, now. The AR10 is hard to get new from Armalite, But at the gunshops I see several M1A's on the rack. Why would that be if not preference. Bottom line, get what YOU prefer, the only person that you have to satisfy is YOU. Do not buy one and then every time you see the other say,"I really should of gotten the other one." I did that with a car and finished buying, the other, six months later. Lets not talk about the money I lost in the second transaction!!
 
i dont own either in 308.

i do have 5.56 ar's and 30-06 garands so i can kinda decide from my experience with these.

if i were to buy one it would be the m1a, but i honestly cant say why.

the ar's we have now have never had a single hiccup between them with appx 15k rounds combined. they are amazingly accurate and fun to shoot.

its just something about the feel of the garand/m1a type action (if they even feel similar, which i would guess they at least feel similar) you fire it and it just feels so solid. no buffer rattle maybe?

i am, for some reason, just smitten with the m1/m1a action.

as far as accuracy i think it can go 6 one way, and a half dozen the other. both are superbly accurate.

i would love to own either, or better yet both, but if i had to pick one, it would say springfield right behind the rear sight on the heel of the receiver.
 
PMROY said:
The M1A is a great gun, but I hear that the balance is not right,
Click to expand...

FlyinBryan said:
if i were to buy one it would be the m1a, but i honestly cant say why.
Click to expand...

And while I agree with FlyinBryan, both statements above reflect both hearsay and an opinion that while surely founded in something, does not rest on any provided history. Personally if I was to own only one of the two aforementioned rifles, it would be the one that I chose when faced with the same decision myself, an M1A.

A few of the reasons I went with this rifle over the AR variant platform:
- The M1A/M14, while having seen lapses in service since its first issue, has truly never been retired; a testament to its solid design, durability and niche only it can fill on the battlefield.
- The rifle stock is made of wood, not plastic, and comes from a time when you might have to smash someone in the face with the butt of the gun and not have it break off.
- In spite of the poorly executed test from not too long ago, which I'm sure someone will post video to, the rifle truly can be dragged through the mud and still function reliably.*

The M1A is a medium to long range rifle with heavy hitting power. I felt that an AR variant while designed for short to medium range combat, even chambered in .308, would be like a Honda Civic with a V8 Hemi. But that's just my 2 cents :)
 
M1A. From everything I've read, .308 in the AR isn't a good combination for reliability, while it's generally more accurate than an M1A. So I guess it boils down to what your priority is....accuracy or reliability, although a plain jane M1A will prbably still get you 2-3 MOA and with work (or an accurized mode) can get you sub MOA.
 
As does FlyinBryan I have a 5.56 AR and a Garand. I also own a M1A. I would not trade it for an AR10. I really do like the AR platform in 5.56 but I love the Garand platform and believe it was one of the sturdiest and best built rifle platforms ever built. There is just something about standing at the offhand and cranking out a three round one inch group with open sights. :p The rifle fires better than I can shoot and it is a standard model, not a national match. It has a heavier recoil but once you get past that you can spend your shooting time trying to outshoot the rifle.

As far as magazines, buy the quality magazines from Checkmate. I prefer twenty's and to load from the top with stripper clips. Recently there is a lot of clipped ammo coming in if you can afford to buy in bulk. Otherwise check out Old Sarge's Drop Zone for used or DS Arms for new and then buy the milspec ammo made new that is around the same price as the clipped in smaller quantities.
 
the M14 feels more natural cause I carried one 39 years ago, got a few in AR10, the Aramalite AR10A2 feels best but I am looking for a RRA LAR8 again and they are as scare as democratic elected officials at town hall meetings. I do believe the SIGHTF soon. by the way yall tune in to Fox on Sunday nite and see what SeanHannity has a program to put a hurt on Osama Hussein Obama that will rile some feathers
 
Not trying to hijack the thread, but i know that when the AR-10 was first brought to market, there were a lot of questions about long term safety/reliability in a receiver that was never meant to handle the heavy recoil of .308. I haven't followed it since then, so I don't know... has anyone had any issues with these?

As to the OP, I have a M1A match rifle, and I LOVE it! It's comfortable, extremely well built, and stupidly reliable... But as the poster above mentioned, I will never be able to shoot as well as this rifle can.
 
M1a all the way.

Springfield Armory has been making M1a's since the 70's. They have figured how to build a quality product.

The 308 AR's, the first ones that came out on the market from Armalite were jammatics. It takes time to develop a product into a reliable mechanism. The Army did it with the M14 action, it is a battle proven design: the 308 AR actions have not had the same development time and are being debugged through customer service.

As a design, I prefer the M14. Open top action, you can see what is going on and clear problems without needle nose pliers. You can positively move the bolt forward and backwards with the operating rod. Fouling is not directed into the mechanism.


Selectorswitchsidefulllength.jpg
 
Between those two, based on actually owning and using an M1A, I'd get the M1A. It just feels terrific in the hands and is a pleasure to shoot.

If you go with an AR-10 style I'd go with an Armalite based on their quality and features. Or a POF .308 if price is truly no object ($3000+).

I would also seriously consider a FN-FAL from DS Arms. Really great design, really nice quality. The M1A and FAL are, IMHO, about equal and both terrific.
 
Having played a lot with each, I'd go for the AR in .308. A buddy's LR308 has seen mag after mag without misfire; I'd trust it as much as my M1A.

I'd shy away from the modern Aramalite version as it doesn't use original AR-10 magazines. The DPMS variants, including the Remington R-25, do (same mags for the SR-25 as well, and POF .308 ARs). While the SR-25 is pricey as .308 ARs go, it seems to be entering military service, and the original AR-10 was used by a military force (albeit, the Sudanese army).

Somebody correct me if this is wrong, but a National Match M1A shouldn't be taken apart too much, while an equivalent accuracy AR type can readily be taken apart to clean.

AR's having the barrel in line with the stock helps keep it on target more so than the M1A. This point is explained nicely at about 2:45 in this video

A flat-top AR is way easier (and cheaper) to put a scope on. AR types change magazines much faster/easier for me. You've got to watch fingers around the op-rod on an M-14, no worries on an AR.

As a "rifleman's rifle" though, I like the M1A better, it's not as front heavy as the AR types seem to be and shooting with the irons is a joy. Still, I like the new R-25 a lot.

In any AR configuration, I probably would insist on an ejection port cover and a forward assist. There's at least one model of LR308 that has neither.
 
Preference.

I prefer the M1A. It might be because I was raised on "traditional" rifle ergonomics, being a hunter since I was old enough to shoot. I never touched an AR until I was an adult. When I did, it just didn't feel right. I don't know how to explain it, but I just didn't like it. I shot it well, but it felt toyish and soulless. The M1A felt natural to me and I took to it the instant I picked it up. I shot it equally as well, so the choice was easy for me.

That being said, you may be just the opposite, and that's fine, but you need to get the one that "speaks" to you. ;)


Jason
 
Love my SA M1-A. Love my AR (.223). Never shot an AR in .308. Don't think I'd prefer it over the SA. To each his own.
 
SFilpansick said:
Not trying to hijack the thread, but i know that when the AR-10 was first brought to market, there were a lot of questions about long term safety/reliability in a receiver that was never meant to handle the heavy recoil of .308. I haven't followed it since then, so I don't know... has anyone had any issues with these?

As to the OP, I have a M1A match rifle, and I LOVE it! It's comfortable, extremely well built, and stupidly reliable... But as the poster above mentioned, I will never be able to shoot as well as this rifle can.
Click to expand...
Didnt Eugene Stoener develop the AR10 before the AR15/M16...... think its been around a while
 
This is an old tired discussion with more heat than light. In true modern day spirit, it's one man's opinion against another, and everyone has an opinion like they have an a__h_le.

1) Mine is a great weapon because I bought it!
2) It is a classic!
3) If it was good enough for .....
4) Its ergonomics are superior!
5) It's still in use so it must be a superior design!
6) I sold my __ and kept my ___!
7) It's more reliable!
8) Ad nauseum

Same old arguments committing the same old fallacies! Enough already!

Buy what you want and live with the result. Don't be lazy do some damn research and forget about everybody's opinion on the infernal_net which is, in the final analysis, worthless! (Because there is no real analysis just anecdotal "evidence").
 
Didnt Eugene Stoener develop the AR10 before the AR15/M16...... think its been around a while
Click to expand...
The AR-10 came first, and I am not a AR person, so I may be wrong here, but I don't think Stoner's AR-10 is the same rifle as the commercial AR-10 of today. I think the commercial AR-10 is basically an AR-15 design that was scaled up to accommodate the 7.62x51 by using some SR-25 technology for the upper, and was born in the '90s. Like I said though, I'm not an AR guy, so that might not be totally correct.

Jason
 
I don't have either. I do have a .308 Saiga, it is tough as nails. After you get your AR or M1A get a Saiga for your working gun, so you can keep the fancy gun purty...
 
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