Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles M1A Scout Squad

I want one pretty bad. Why, I don't know. Anyone care to talk me into or out of it? Or just give your M1A opinions.

Well, I can't say anything about the s/s but I do have the Realtree model. I like it. Plenty accurate, little or no recoil.

Have a SA SOCOM 16. Accurate, low recoil for a 7.62x51. It's heavier than the 5.56 ARs but handy and a good choice for a rifle firing this cartridge. No complaints.

Do you run any optics in the forward rail? If so, how do you like it?

They run best with aimpoints ( from what I have seen)

Bmt

The Big AR's don't do anything for you? I have the ruger Sr762, same barrel length, piston gun and chromed barrel. Not too bad in accuracy Dept. 1.5 for 5 or so.

I have kicked that around, but I like the form factor of the M1A. I also am a sucker for a mini 14, but I have never gotten one to shoot very well (accuracy wise) and am a bit afraid the M1A will lead me down the same road. I can grab the scout squad for $1,410 which seems like a decent price. If I went AR it would be the Ruger. I just don't shoot my AR's in 5.56 as much as I do my crappy Mini 14.

A mini doesn't even come close. So don't worry about that.

https://www.jamesriverarmory.com/products/product/50-rockola-m14f-carbine.html

James River builds a good weapon, uses mostly USGI parts.
The M1A is a solid platform.

The Stoner AR10 is GTG also with some benefits not realized by earlier weapon designs.

Grab one while you can.

No comparison between Ruger mini and M1A. The Ruger mini does not have a screw in barrel, its pressed in, most all the mini 14 rifles I seen were poor accuracy. There is a gunsmith in WI that does custom work on the mini 14 such as install threads in receiver and uses threaded barrels. I've seen his work and looks nice, perhaps some research will find him. Personally for me I stay away from Ruger.

M1A scout are good to go, once you have one, you'll be saving up for another. Use only good mags, such as checkmate industries, they make the Springfield mag that comes with the M1A from factory, just use a different logo on floorplate.

There are many other good choices, FN scar 17, Armalite AR-10, Fal, ect.

The AR-10 gets bashed alot, They work very well if put together with some finesse and knowledge. Where the problem starts many times is when people try to use AR-15 parts on there 762, it just don't work well. Armalite owns patents on there AR-10, so other manufactures cant copy, so they either use ar-15 parts in the mix, or create propriety parts/designs, to compete and make a sale.

I have a Leupold 1.5x33mm VX-R Scout mounted on the forward rail. It works well for me for shots out to 300 yds which is the longest distance I use this rifle.


Jimmy, I had an Armalite AR-10 in 7.62x51 about 10 years ago. It was a reliable rifle but I didn't like the AR platform in the 7.62 cartridge. I shoot that cartridge much better in a more conventional rifle, therefore the SA SOCOM.

I have a SA Socom16 with the SEI gas block, Vortex and NM sights. Added a Fulton mini rail/ swivel.
Currently having a walnut stock fitted and the IER rail removed.
I have no intentions of using optics.
Is it heavy? Yes. But I can clean, shear a doorknob off without bending a buffer tube or splitting a plastic folding stock.
It's a fighting rifle. I have others for hunting ect.

I had a M1A Scout but got rid of it and bought a SCAR 17. The SCAR is pretty much perfect. I'm happy to be done trying to make a rifle be something that it's not.

I went in to buy a FNAR and ended up walking out with the Scout. I would buy the FNAR or AR10 if I had to do it again. But I am extremely happy I ended up with the SCAR.

What about the scout did you dislike?

I bought one last spring. Put a 1.5-4X33 Leupold VX2 Scout Scope on it.
Even with iron sights, it was not only very easy to zero, but held 2-3.5 MOA depending on what loads I run in it.
With the scope, it shoots 1.3-1.8 MOA, for four rounds, with most of the loads I've tried. Both the Sierra 150 gr. GameKing, and the 150 gr. Barsnes TTSX, have shot lots of groups at 1.3-1.5 MOA for 4 rds.
The 130 gr. Hornady and the 130 gr. TTSX do slightly better.
Heck, I haven't really tried anything other than Ramshot TAC in powders. Simply no need to.
The rifle is the only one I own that has not had it's trigger reworked.
Most of all, shooting from field positions, it gets back on target faster than anything else I've used. That includes the Remington 760, the Savage 99, the Winchester 64, the Marlin 336, the Remington 740 and the Browning BAR.
The scope is another pleasant surprise. At 4X, it shows me slightly more detail than my Leupold VX-R Patrol at 4X. E

Mine had minor issues out the box. Would've been covered by the warranty and the customer service was pretty good about it all but not wanting issues is why I paid $1700 in the first place. Everything else was about trying to put lipstick on a boar.

It's a beast of a rifle but it's far from refined when compared to a AR10 or SCAR. Mounting a scope is what finally did it for me. After figuring out that I didn't like the scout option I really didn't want to spend my money on a bulky looking mount and rings that sat way too high on a already bulky rifle. So I sold it at a loss and couldn't be happier with that I got the SCAR. But I believe I could've been happier with a AR10 or FNAR than I was with the M1A.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/10815324#Post10815324

Montana Marine pretty much covered it with his pictures. Just magine his AR15 is a AR10.

Even finding magazines for it is going to be a more pleasant and less expensive experience.

Not true. The Mini-14 barrel and action are threaded.

Something that should be mentioned is that most M1A Scout Squad's aren't tac drivers out of the box either. Both platforms can be made accurate. Neither is a cheap project.

Can you clean the barrel from the breach on an M1A?

Tried:
M1A National Match
Springfield FAL can't remember the model #
MP10
DPMS gen2
Ruger SR-762

Get something you can mount a scope on, cleans from breach, and I prefer a barrel treatment instead of bare steel. The SOCOM wins in the looks and feels good area that is for sure.

No, you can't clean the barrel from the breach. But you can clean both the barrel and the chamber, with simple, cheap accessories w/o damaging the barrel crown.
I've read and been told an M1A can go alot of rounds w/o failure and w/o cleaning. Has a better record for running w/o problems than most of the AR-10's do. All I can say is that mine still shoots 1.3-1.6 MOA for 4 rds. with any of several of my handloads after over 500 rds. Some of which was very cheap, old Mil Surp stuff. The only failure was an over size case that hadn't been properly full lenth sized. E