Last September I bought a new M1A "loaded" rifle, serial # 170,xxx. After all the stories I'd read about "declining quality" at Springfield, I was prepared to treat the rifle as a project, more than as a finished work.
The rifle has now fired over 1000 rounds of wildly-varied handloaded ammunition, NO factory loads, and I should hasten to tell y'all that I am a cast-bullet devotee of the worst sort. The first few hundred rounds were handloaded full-power Sierra 168 Matchkings in LC 88 brass, and the rifle worked perfectly right from the first round. After about 500 rounds of Matchkings to break it in a bit, I started some serious work with cast bullets.
Just today, I put 170 rounds through it, using three different cast-bullet designs and two powders in stair-stepped charges. Again, the rifle functioned perfectly with ammo down as slow as 1600 fps, and the best group, fired from rest with iron sights at fifty yards, was TEN rounds in 0.80".
I dunno about you fellers, but I have to really believe that I have a RIFLE, not a "project", and I could not be happier.