Tag Archives: barrel

In 1959, the United States military retired its service rifle, the M1 Garand, in favor of a new design chambered in a new intermediate caliber. That new rifle was the M-14, chambered in 7.62×51 NATO. Built more for fighting an open country war on the plains of Europe against Soviet forces, it ran into trouble when fielded for the Vietnam War. Troops complained that the rifle was too heavy, they couldn’t carry much ammunition, and that the rifle was completely uncontrollable when firing on full-auto.

With the M-16 soon arriving as the replacement service rifle in 1966, the M-14 was gradually rotated out of service with the final front-line units giving up their rifles in 1970.

Several manufacturers have produced civilian versions of the M-14, but arguably the most common would be Springfield Armory, Inc’s M1A. Today, the company produces eight different versions of the  M1A – including CQB, ranch carbines, full size rifles, and precision rifles. The street price of these rifles varies from $1,200 to well over $3,000.

Walk into a gun store. You will likely see several M1A’s on the rack for sale. A casual browser might look at one, but they cost quite a fair amount of money. Perhaps enough to make one take a pass in favor of a FAL or AR-10. Is this rifle worth the money? Read on, and find out.

General Impressions

The rifle I’m reviewing today is the “Loaded” M1A. This model comes with a match barrel, a standard G.I. fiberglass or match walnut stock, match 2-stage trigger group, Match front sight, and Match flash suppressor (unless you purchase the California -compliant model, which comes with a muzzle brake). A cursory inspection of the rifle reveals a good build quality, solid construction, and even parkerizing and finishing. My rifle came standard with a repainted G.I. fiberglass stock, gun lock, 10 round magazine, original USGI M-14 maintenance manual (Thanks, SA! The manual is one of the best I have ever read for any gun), and a form that gives you a discount for additional SA accessories.

Accessories

Aftermarket manufacturers have noticeably increased the amount of accessories available for this rifle in recent years. Most of it has to do with the fact that US Armed Forces have re-fielded the M-14 for use in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, where it is used as a DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle). In addition to the 1960′s era accessories, parts like rail systems, stocks, scope mounts, bipods, and optics are readily available. I chose to make my rifle look as close to a M21 (accurized sniper version of the M-14) as possible. I purchased a McMillian fiberglass stock (these must be bedded to the action by a gunsmith), an A.R.M.S. #18 scope mount, GG&G 30mm medium height scope rings, an adjustable cheek piece, and a Springfield Armory 4-14x56mm Gen III scope (sadly, these aren’t made anymore – I purchased mine years ago and was impressed with what I got for the money. At the time, you couldn’t beat SA for a entry level tactical scope for $675).  I also replaced the butt pad with a USGI butt plate with the shoulder rest (gasp! a shoulder thing that goes up!). I have one comment about accessorizing; be careful. The M1A is a heavy gun – stock, they weigh around 10 pounds (4.5 kg) and anything you bolt onto this gun will rapidly increase the weight. So, before you spend your money on a bunch of accessories, pay attention to the weight of each of them and think if you  really want or need this accessory on the rifle. My rifle weighs 18 pounds (8.2 kg) – and that is a lot of gun to carry around with a few basic options. If you intend to mount optics other than parallax free units, the ergonomics of the M1A preclude a good cheek weld to the stock. In some cases, the shooter might actually be able to rest their chin on the comb of the stock while looking through the scope! This  must be remedied if any degree of consistency in shooting is to be attained. Fortunately, this is a well known problem, and there are many options available for fixing it, from new stocks with adjustable cheek pieces built into them (make sure the stock has enough travel on the cheek piece to fit your scope/ring setup), or slip on ones that require holes drilled in the stock, and even fabric pads that cinch down over the stock to help hold risers in place. Or you could employ the “field expedient” method like our fighting men use; get a roll of duct tape and an old foam bed roll, then go to town.

Shooting Impressions

With a match grade barrel, my rifle likes heavier bullets. I use 168 grain BTHP Sierra Matchkings in my handloads. Recoil is smooth, but a bit sharp; a dynamic not assisted in any way by my choice of a metal butt plate – I tend to have a very tender shoulder by the end of a shooting session. My particular rifle  hates surplus 147 grain 7.62 NATO ammunition; I simply cannot get any accuracy out of the rifle with this stuff (5″ – 6″ groups at 100 yards). However, that poor accuracy is due to the twist rate of the barrel, My friend’s SOCOM II absolutely loves this surplus ammo. If I try, I can almost get sub-minute groups with the rifle, but I have to pay the most careful attention in everything from the preparation  of the handloads, to the eventual shooting technique. Under normal conditions, my rifle is a 1.5 – 2 MOA rifle as can be seen in the picture. I have had the opportunity to fire this rifle at extended distances, and this is where the rifle with this setup really shines. We set a 10″ gong at 400 meters, loaded up the magazines, deployed the bipod, and gave the rifle a try. Hitting it was easy… No, like zipping up your fly easy. We hit that thing each and  every time. Even my girlfriend, who has not ever fired a rifle in her life was able to make accurate hits at this range with minor instruction, and someone watching the trace. At extended ranges, the M1A stops being a good rifle, and starts being a  supurb rifle. I must also point out that although the rifle was zeroed at 100 yards, I had never shot it out this far, so I had no dope to fall back on. I poked around on the internet and found a a free ballistic calculator that I was able to enter various settings to work up a basic dope sheet for the rifle – when fired for the first time, we were within one foot of the target. I guess Sir Isaac Newton knew what he was talking about.

Final Thoughts

The M1A is a fantastic rifle that will last a long time. At first, when I thought I had spent $2,700 for a 2 MOA gun, I was a bit irritated. All of those feelings went away when I shoot this rifle at steel plates at further ranges. This is a rifle that can engage targets at those ranges all day long, and whose bullet will still have more energy at 300 yards than the AR-15 has at the muzzle. Springfield Armory’s customer service is very good, I have had to use them in the past. My rifle could be described as a “lemon” if there is such a thing in the gun world. When I first shot it, it had nothing but FTF and FTE malfunctions all day long. I tried different ammunition, different magazines, different lubricants, detail cleaning…nothing fixed it so I sent it back to the factory. They had it back in 6 weeks, and reported that the heat treating of the receiver was out of spec, so I got a new receiver free of charge. Took it to the range, and…FTF, FTE malfunctions again. Then, in the middle of a string of malfunctions, the recoil felt “different”. Woah, stop, that’s a big red flag. I removed the magazine and cleared the chamber, to discover that the left locking lug on the bolt had sheared off. Back to the factory it went, to be returned 4 weeks later with a new bolt, a new receiver, and a personal note from the SA armorer that he was sorry I had so many problems and that he shot 20 rounds through the rifle with no problems whatsoever. After that last fix, whatever he did, the problems went away and the only malfunction has been one FTF because of a bad round. I would recommend the M1A, but only because Springfield Armory’s customer service is so good; This really shouldn’t be necessary on a design like the M1A. Everyone else I have talked to about this issue has had no problems like mine with their rifles, I guess mine was built on a Friday before Labor Day weekend.

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