Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting M1A

I can hold a 4" to 6" group with a rack grade milspec bbl designed to shoot 147gr ball. im thinking they were 1/12 4 or 6 groovers.... standard weight, nam issue chrome lined, blued surface, no bull design. heck even milspec NM match bbls are fine. they were made for 173gr early on, since the MATCH round then was 173gr. later in life the 168gr (NOT FOR COMBAT USE) became the new NM round. and thats when NWS Crane In, began contracting for douglas bbls for the teams. shooters use to fight to shoot one and many started making their own to equal the new standard in accuracy.
im hoping the old timers will back me up or correct me here, but I believe the SS BBL was to keep down corrosion and to give less bbl whip. seems I remember someone telling me SS doesn't vibrate as much. cant recall. help me out guys. or in this case, help out larry!

if you look at the pic of my squad, the back row, second from left is holding my personal armory issue M14 win.11632 from the seal teams. I trained my newest shooter (corpsman) on it for 10 months every friday to get good dope and it would have been wrong to swap guns out for a crane NM (M21) on match day, so he shot the rack grade fiberglass non bedded combat gun, with a very good trigger job and a once over from the crane truck. they polished the gas assy. they filed and slicked up his mags, gave him new HRT leather, and I tossed in 2 rolls of quarters in his stock. knowing he was going to be shooting 168gr issue ammo, the gun did really well. he placed in the 400's.
so, there isn't really a wrong choice. you just have to get to know your M1A. you learn it with time. you learn what to feed it and you know in time what it likes and hates.
target distance is key to allowing your M1A to do what it does best.
no sense in buying a vette if all you do is drive it in grid traffic. it needs an interstate.an M1A with the right round needs long distance to shine.

You bet LD, i had an M1 Garand first, chronoed and went with a load using 4064 powder over the 168gr Sierra BTHP Match bullets, a kid i know lit up like i used to a Christmas time when i was a pup when he saw the rifle, i remember that look, i went ahead and sold him the rifle and the 550 rounds i had loaded up, had a lot of new 308 brass doing nothing, called and old Buddy, he sold me the new M1A, either would have been a fun rifle, my Garand was a 1944 year model Springfield receiver with a 1967 year model Winchester barrel.

What I am currently thinking of the Springfield M1A loaded model. That specs out with an 11 twist and four and a half to 5 lb trigger so their website says. To me that's a heavy trigger but I'm used to Jewel triggers and match rifles. Different kind of beast. If the accuracy does not meet my expectations I could have rebarreled with a better quality barrel. Maybe even send the gun itself to a M1A specialist for accusation that's something I've never dealt with in anything but a bolt gun.
Should I expect one to outshoot or at least shoot as good as my Colt m4?
This project keeps getting sidetracked keep mine too many shotguns and pistols not to mention shotgun loaders shot lead primers and such he shotgun guys have been a bad influence on me😁

again I steer you to my list. I cant answer you unless I know the goal you demand out of the gun, in the order I listed for you larry.

I could live with an inch and a half gun for my purpose prefer it to be some moa but... If I shoot open sides I hate to say it but my personal eyesight is probably the limit.

and again, changing just bbls isn't the main way you improve performance.
its the bbl with a whole list of things that must be done on practically every part on the gun that accompanies it.
for this reason true accuracy shooters just hand a receiver to a bonified expert and tell them what you want to do with it....and then they make it.
we don't know your distance, projectile choice, condition itll be shot in, what the accessories you have that support it, 1 or 2 lugs, type stock, or type sights.
I would venture to say that S.A. makes a rifle to appeal to a broad audience. but for those that want to break out of the (norm) and demand MOA level perfection....its a whole different game.
my 1000yd gun took 3 years from start to finish...and it sold for 4 grand when I let it go. it was built to M23 standards. some smiths are better than others. assembly line smiths are assembly line smiths. sure they can get it close, but a MASTERS built gun cant be beat.
so take it from the top and ill help you thru the answers.

M1A's require you to:

determine the target
how far away is it.
how accurate must the shot be
what round will be used
what bbl will send it down range?
what sights will be used and how precise must they be
everything else is just tacked on to achieve it.
trigger job
bedding
lugging
gas system tweek
op rod fitting
clothing

my trigger was 4 to 4.5lbs. any less and you may get a slam fire. semi auto usgi rifles are a different animal.

Okay I'm starting to understand you now. First I'll make a list of what goals I want to reach after seeing disliked with what bullet weights. Then we'll go from. I'm not familiar enough with that platform to know exactly how to get there. Bolt guns are different story

anyone here got a list of old time M1A smiths that can take a bag of parts and build an moa gun for larry?

I'm not sure I'm get lost I don't know a better way to start building a good M1A other than buying a new one and go from there. I'll start making a list of what I would like to see. I'm in no hurry and I'm sure you can advise me probably in person in April. We can keep chatting here I enjoyed it. I guess off the top of my head 4 lb trigger so works would rather have it lighter but I understand the mechanic same way with an AR. Bullets 168 the 208s I'll take measurements and know the length after all length is more important to twist than wait then we can start in

what distance will you be engaging?

If you want the best M-1A trigger, these are the guys to contact - https://shootingsight.com/product-category/m1m14/

They are a little late to the game (M-1As are no longer competitive in HP), but I could have only wished for such triggers back in the '80s.

200-600 yard

ok...id go with a 7.62 nato 168gr bthp, load with 4064 powder. obermyer 11/1 5R SS bbl. I don't know if boots is still alive but that's the bbl id build my gun around.
go with a milled, not cast, receiver.
NM 1/4 click sights with click aperature
if youre shooting standard 600yd nra targets keep the combat front site. the blade is the same width as the bull at 600yds. its easier to line it up.
get a McMillan stock. bed the receiver into it and double lug it.
float the bbl and glue in the hand guard. get an enlarged NM flash suppressor.
polish the gas piston. get a usgi NM op rod & NM bolt.
pay for a great a trigger job.
get usgi mags and hand file them to the receiver mag well.
and of course....get new leather, a dope book, and sight protectors.

see how much of that comes on a SA loaded M1a already done for you. if its a good product, most of it should be done for you. key of course is to get it all put on the bbl of your choice. they may not offer custom non SA bbls.
fyi, 1/2 the parts i gave my smith, he didn't use. giving him parts just refills his drawers. he decides if what he has in inventory is better. the parts that I gave him may have been a better MATCH on another project. THAT is what separates a smith from a MASTER.
if you order a gun from SA, you get what you get and hope its perfect.

heres my old 1000yd obermyer. that's one I hated to let go.

Good stuff, and not to butt in, but what new leather sling do you recommend and where may it be ordered bobski?

usgi HRT leather double hole. happy hunting!

Fun thread to read and reminisce. I still have a soft spot for the old Steel and Walnut. Earned my first legs with one. But one thing is inherent in this discussion; M14's were definitely not equal on the line. The military teams were definitely more "equaler". The epitome of the competitive M14 was a double lugged 14 (the Army disagreed, but that's a discussion for another day). ...and the only way for a civilian to get a double lugged 14 back then was Clint Fowler, Dayton and maybe Parker and that says nothing about the extra maintenance they required checking weld integrity and rebeds.

I have a funny story for you Bobski. One year at Perry, the folk were still telling the story of a sailor who wasn't planning to shoot the Long Range matches at Perry, but decided to shoot in the 11th hour. He grabbed a rifle out of the Navy van (basically a leftover after all the other team shooters had taken dibs). Ended up winning the Farr Trophy at 1000 yards.

Who would I have build an M14 today? I'd look for a military team armorer with a chest full of parts. Gone are the days of running through a drawer of gas pistons to find the one that fits and functions just right. Same for op rods. Fowler's long retired as I've heard Sam Dayton and Chicken Mac are as well. Al Ewing, Hook and McCoy are gone. I hear Ted Brown (NG Armorer) is still taking work. There's a guy on the M14 forum that is coming up the curve pretty well.

BTW, I think you're thinking of an "MRT" sling. They're not what I'd recommend for serious competition. See if you can get a sling from Les Tam. They are the best service rifle competition sling by far.

copied , off line also