Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles How good are the Springfield Standard M1As ?

I have been wanting to purchase an affordable and decent M1A. Something that is reliable, reasonably accurate(At least 2MOA out of the box) . It will be used for casual target shooting hunting and a general purpose .308 rifle. Will the Springfield Standard M1A qualify. Will it feed hunting ammo reliably ? Will it last ? How good is the quality ?
I have been hearing mixed reviews about the Springfield. I read a book Boston's Gun Bible in which the Author vehemently advises against the Springfields and any M1As that do not have forged receivers.

But then again I am not looking for a competition grade rifle neither do I want to be saddled with something that is worthless and unreliable. Please advise.

Many Thanks

I bought wood stocked for my wifes first service rifle in the late 80s.

Of course we reloaded for it to find sweet spot. And had a smith bed and snug it up some.

For that work it was a solid MOA gun or just over. Out to 600 yards.

Rounds, the first SA tube lasted probably 3000 or so rounds, and swapped it for a Krieger. Gun is still with us.

As is another non forged one built on a reciever.

Both probably have close to 15K rounds in them. Think I broke a gas lock on the SA after 2nd barrel. And a pin fell out of the other one on the gas knob. Think I still have paneling nail in there...

I can't comment on the new ones.

But the forged comments... probably if I was going into combat it might be a nice thing to have... but since none of us are or will, and if we had to, there are guns all over the place and ammo for the taking... it won't matter.

Data point of One: Bought an M-1A Springfield in the mid-late 90s in the baseline model with the black crinkle stock.

The rifle functioned fine, accuracy was ho-hum at 1-2 inches, or my shooting sucked...could have easily been the later. I was trying to use one of the Springfiled 56mm scopes at the time.

The rifle was 99% surplus parts and refinished. When I pulled it apart to clean it, I found the backside of the op-rod was deeply pitted allong the entire length and refinished. I called Springfield and complained, they asked for pictures. I sent them as requested, their response was "it's functional, and safe. Enjoy". While I expected surplus parts, the condition for a "new rifle" was quite a bit less than I expected.

When you say hunting ammo, are you reloading for it? Or buying off of shelf? Seems like every year in my area we see an M-1 or the like broken from shooting factory ammo not designed for a semi-auto military rifle. Just a thought.

I love mine, it is the Mossy Oak version. It shoots great.

I had one in the 90's with a NM GI barrel, it shot M118 slightly over an inch. As all non-bedded Garand type rifles, it would throw flyers and would not consistently hold a zero. Bedding one makes it a SOB to dissasemble. Dissasembly also can tear up the bedding. Double lugged recievers eliminate this, if anyone is still making them. I sold it to buy an FAL.

Supposedly today's parts don't have the quality of the TRW forged stuff. I don't know for sure.

BEdding makes it a SOB to take apart?

Damn I must be way better at taking em apart than the average guy.

Though we rare did find any need to take ours apart.

Double or triple lugged is the way I would have gone after the fact, but the AR was able to equal/beat the M1A on the match courses by that time.

The AMU method of bedding the M-21 required a prybar to pop the trigger guard loose and a rawhide mallet to get the action out. That was how Dave Zavitz said they needed to be bedded to shoot, and before he was a SOTIC instructor, he was CAG plank owner, and before that he shot on the Army's service rifle team.

Oh yeah, we needed a tool to pop the trigger out and you had to tap the action out.

Thats FAR from being an SOB.

SOB is taking the front sight base off an M16 after its been put on with 640 loctite....

If the action is bedded on a M1A why are you taking it out? You can clean and maintain it in the stock. Only reason to remove the action would be to re-bed or to re-barrel it.

I don't recall removing for anything other than trigger adjustments typically. Or to skim bed.

These days I think there are many .308 options out there.