A couple things appeal to me about this rifle. The Kalifornia versions come with the muzzle brake used on the Squad Scout model. With it, the rifle stays almost dead on target when in recoil.
The rifle is on the heavy side. Where I seriously hunt the big bucks, running shots are the rule. I have a bad habit of not following through when doing such shots. Additional weight should help me with this.
Last of all, the rifle has a reputation for running well even when dirty from dust and lack of oil. This is a problem where I go.
I would appreciate hearing about any experiences or thoughts on this. E

they look cool I guess, I have the Ruger SR-762 but even that one I use in a tripod when shooting, I don't lug it far either. It sucks living in Calaphasia.

I've used one, shot a couple of deer and hogs with it. The hogs were just sitting in a blind.
It maybe a little on the heavy side. If you carried it a long way.

Not my choice for any kind of mountain hunting. I have five light weight, bolt guns for that. E

The Scout Model is not bad.

in 1990 outside of Two Rivers, Alaska, I was WAY back on a power-line cut when an old codger came out with a Garand. Said he'd shot a moose "every year since 19 and 54, except 19 and 62" when he was sick for some reason.

Can it work? Sure. Is the best? Not for big game hunting.

Love M14-type rifles, but way too heavy and bulky to hunt with for me.

Consider getting a Ruger Gunsite Scout rifle. It's not a light rifle, but it'd be a lot more manageable than an M1A Scout. If you want, you can change out the factory muzzle device that comes on the GSR for a Smith Enterprise muzzle brake to aid in recoil suppression. Voila, a bolt-action version of the M1A Scout...

Have shot 4 or 5 deer with my scoped loaded model m1a, no complaints at all. Have shot thousands of rounds through it, and know what I'm capable of with it. Tree stand, box blind, pit blind and walking.

Have a 1970's vintage M1A that was accurized for me at the AMTU at Ft. Benning. It shoots little bitty holes and I've culled hundreds of deer (legally) with it...she's a nasty rifle with deer!

Interesting note: I bought it from a local Sheriff's department after it was used in a murder/suicide. Afterwards, I had it worked on. It had a Winchester barrel on it from the factory initially.

I used one for a couple of years on blacktails, mule deer, and feral hog.

I was a resident of California at the time. I bought it a few years prior to their stupid "assault rifle ban" and it was on the banned list, briefly. Not knowing that AG's Office would change it's mind, I sold mine to a gun dealer friend who had enough of California's stupid gun laws and moved shop to Arizona.

The day after I sold it, I found out that it had been removed from the banned list.

I used 5 round magazines in mine when deer hunting. Semi-auto firepower wasn't much of an advantage to me in my deer hunting, but it sometimes was in pig hunting, were the quick second shot sometimes let me get two hairy bags of pork on the ground, rather than just one.

I wish I had never sold it. It was a delightful thing to shoot.

Was rare to have jams in matches with them.

Have shot a few deer over the yeras with them. A few more with Garands.

Heavy. Especially our NM versions. have gone through a number of barrels on each of ours.

For giggles the load work at the time was seat a 165 ballistic tip on top of our 168 smk loads, standard around 41 of 4895 generally and never had an issue. BTs were slow enough they were not overly destructive.

Personally there are better options for what you are doing, IMHO, than an open topped M1A. BUt it wouldn't keep me from using one.

Thanks for your comments everybody. E