Anyone? M1A

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plasticman

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Anyone reload the .308 Winchester for there M1A?

I have the Springfield M1A Standard and Im seeing that it says in the manual it only shoots 7.62 NATO and it states NOT to shoot reloads.....

Seeing that the .308 is similar if not identical, would it be safe to fire?

Anyone have any experience with this??

Thank you. :rolleyes:
 
I have the Springfield M1A Standard and Im seeing that it says in the manual it only shoots 7.62 NATO and it states NOT to shoot reloads.....
Click to expand...

That's CYA legaleese from the manufacturer's lawyers. The outside dimensions of both 7.62x51 and .308 ammo are identical. .308Win can be loaded to slightly higher pressure according to SAAMI spec's, but most manufacturer's don't push the envelope. Reloading using any of the 4895 burn rate powders with 147gr to 175gr bullets will not damage your rifle in any way, and is done by many M1A shooters.

Don
 
Yea, I have a lot of experience with it.

Read the instruction manuals on ANY new firearm and they'll probably say not to use reloads. They are trying to cover their glutei maximus, medius and minimus (yes, you do have at least 3 butt muscles) legally.

The 7.62 NATO cartridge is identical dimensionally to the 308 Winchester so both can be shot in your rifle. There is no problem shooting 308 Winchester cartridges in the M1A.

There are a couple of precautions on reloads. First of all, too slow a powder can damage the operating rod. The Hornady manual lists M1A specific loads and if you stick with those powders you'll be OK. Also, consider using military spec primers in it since regular primers, being softer, can result in slam fires.

I have shot bunches of reloads in mine with Federal 210M match primers with no slam fire but, I do think slam fires happen at times so be warned.
 
Isn't military brass also THICKER in areas as opposed to commercial brass....?

Also isn't full length sizing needed as well and PROPER case length...primer seating depth etc.....

Might want to fill in all these blanks that are critical for proper gas system operation....

There is a PF around i do no have the link handy...search...reloading the m14 or something to that effect....
 
Plasticman: For all intent and purpose the 7.62x51 and the 308 Win are the same cartrigde. true the brass is slightly thicker in the mititary case but the OD are exactly the same. I too, have and shoot a M1A, mine is a Springfield Armory NM model with a tight NM chamber and I shoot and reload both LC Match cases and commericial cases and have yet had a problem chambering, firing or ejecting fired cases, either GI or commercial. As others have pointed out the disclaimer is "lawyerspeak" to CYA. Shoot whatever you want. :)
 
I have reloaded and fired thousands of rounds in an M1A.
I use 41 grains of 4064 (or sometimes 4895) with a 168 Sierra match bullet and Winchester primers.

This shoots better than any commercial round that I ever tried.

If you want to get the best from your M1A, shoot your own loads.
 
Great post to ask this question. I don't know if any of you have heard of "mexican match" ammo, but a gentleman at the range told me that the reason I was getting crappy groups with my M1A standard with ARMS #18 mount and Nikon 6X42 scope was that I was shooting M80 ball ammo. He suggested I buy good sierra 150gr. boat tail bullets and swap out the 147gr. m80 bullets with the sierra ones and that my groups will improve drastically.
He actually did swap out 20 of my m80 bullets with some of his sierra bullets and my groups did improve significantly. So now I have about 1,000 150gr. spbt sierra bullets on order to change out. Any of you have this experience or take this route?
I didn't realize there was an issue with the m80 ball surplus ammo when I bought a bunch of it, he told me they were slightly undersized contributing to the lack of accuracy.
 
Yeah, m80 will only do 2-3 MOA at best out of my M1A. Sierra boat tailed hollow points and other match-type bullets will generally give me 1.5 MOA groups.
 
I may be dense here, but are you saying you are keeping the military powder, case and primer intact and just replacing the bullet?
 
Yep, that's what we did, it was called "mexican match" for whatever reason.
 
e Glen Zediker has two excellent articles on reloading for the M1A, as far as I'm concerned, a MUST read for anyone reloading for this specific firearm ! Read the first two articles ( actually save a copy to your computer and print out a copy you won't be sorry !)...http://www.zediker.com/downloads/m14.html

CRAP, I just checked to make sure the link worked and his page is fubar'ed !!

Continue to try the page later this week, I hope it comes back !
 
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