M1A1 Are they any good?

[Cecil]

Try old school it works very well. This is an M82 with an original M14 Griffin & Howe bracket and M1C mount from late 50's early 60's.

The photo went away in the original post.

[John HOLBROOK]

Here is an earlier post of my early M1A Sn 028248. The scope is a Leupold 4X LER Pistol.

http://www.jouster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=576

[John Sukey]

Often wondered if we would have had the M14 or the M1A if the FN had not been "Studlered"
Col. Studler rigged the tests so the M14 came out ahead. Not invented here.

Then there was the reasoning that the M14 dould be made on the same machinery that made the M1. It couldn't!

[hagar in SC]

The R1 was my service rifle in the SADF, and I still have a definite affinity for them. I shoot AR's in competitions more than anything else, and I have learned to respect them. I also have 2 M1A's, one a 85XXX serial # with TRW bolt, HRA oprod, rear sight and HR 11 62 barrel, and the other a Springfield loaded model, and to be honest, while nice rifles, I am not that impressed with them. Mostly because of jams and rear sights working loose. I just ordered some CMI mags as one of my buddies told me my BRW mags were fake. Maybe a mag issue, maybe not.

We shoot a steel plate match every quarter at the Charlotte range, and out of the 15 or so events we have had, it was only won by an M1A ONCE, and by a Fal of some variation at least 10 times. It was won by a Yugo .223 AK once, a Sig 556 once, and by AR's the rest of the time. And if you look up and down the line, the M1A's outnumber all the other rifles at least 3 to 1.

When I lived in AZ, we had a battle rifle competition, prone at 500 yards on the Running Russian half silhoette target. You could shoot anything bigger than .223. There were people shooting Swedish mausers, K31's, M1A's, and me and one other guy were shooting FAL's, his was a DSA with a Elcan or similar optic shot from a bipod, I shot my remanufactured Azex STG/Imbel prone with a (rather loose) sling. Most of the M1A shooters shot prone with slings, and used match ammo. I did it just for the heck of it, never expected the Fal could shoot that well at long range, and just used some FNM surplus. Well I suprised the heck out of myself, that Fal was absolutely hammering, and I trashed some pretty good M1A shooters, and the guy with the DSA actually won the match.

Not saying the Fal will overtake Camp Perry, but do not underestimate them. They are not built for target shooting, but in real life type shooting will account for themselves pretty well.

[Bill D]

I just ordered some CMI mags as one of my buddies told me my BRW mags were fake. Maybe a mag issue, maybe not.

I shot an M14NM on a military rifle team for about 8 years and I can assure you that "one of your buddies" is telling you trash. BRW mags are USGI! I guarantee it and they are some of the very best. I have a bunch of them in my gun room right now.

[hagar in SC]

I did not say BRW is fake, I said these are fake BRW's.. They are blued and have the stamp in the wrong spot.

[Bill D]

I did not say BRW is fake, I said these are fake BRW's.. They are blued and have the stamp in the wrong spot.

Well, actualy you DID say "my BRW mags were fake" but since you explained what you really meant, I understand.

[kurtflys]

I have a friend that has an original ART 2. Would that work on the M1A?

[Bill D]

I have a friend that has an original ART 2. Would that work on the M1A?

It is my understanding that some of the Semi-auto M14's and possibly some M1A's had some external receiver dimension differences from the USGI M14. I don't know which ones, tho. Guess you could try it and see.

[bd1]

It should, if you have the M14 base for it. What kind of shape is the scope in? Mediocre durability was the only knock on the optical machinery. Unertl and Leupold put that issue to rest w/ their current scopes in service.